Postcolonial Theologies: Divinity and Empire

by Catherine Keller

A theology in tune with postcolonial theory has the potential to creatively inform and transform ecclesial practice. Focusing on the relation of theology to postcolonial theory, Postcolonial Theologies brings together a wide diversity of authors, many of them fresh and exciting theological voices, in essays that are stunningly creative and prophetically lucid. All essays are theologically constructive, not merely deconstructive or critical, in their visions for Christianity. Forming a sort of doctrinal landscape, they emerge under the themes of theological anthropology shaped by ethnicity, class, and privilege; a Christology that intersects the claims of Christ and empire; and a Cosmology that imagines a postcolonial world. Essays and contributors Alien/nation, Liberation, and the Postcolonial Underground Complacencies and Christian Theologies and Colonialism, R.S. Sugirtharajah Spirit and Achieving Postcolonial Theology in the United States, Mark Lewis Taylor Who Is Americana/o? Theological Anthropology, Postcoloniality, and the Spanish-Speaking Americas, Michelle Gonzalez Monstrosities, Miracles, and Religion and the Politics of Disablement, Sharon Betcher Who/What Is Asian? A Postcolonial Theological Reading of Orientalism and Neo-orientalism, Nam-Soon Kang Homeland as On the Territories of Christian Subjectivity, Michael Nausner Mark and Zealot and Postcolonial Readings, Stephen D. Moore The Transgressive Power of A Postcolonial Hybridization of Christology, Wonhee Joh Divine Christology for Times of Neo-colonial Empire, Marion Grau God at the A Postcolonial Reading of Sophia, Mayra Rivera Liberating Postcolonialism and the Challenge of the Margins, Joerg Rieger The Love of Theology in the Interstices of Empire, Catherine Keller

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Religion

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Catherine Kelle is a contemporary Christian theologian and Professor of Constructive Theology at Drew University's Graduate Division of Religion. As a constructive theologian, Keller's work is oriented around social and ecological justice, poststructuralist theory, and feminist readings of scripture and theology. Both her early and her late work brings relational thinking into theology, focusing on the relational nature of the concept of the divine, and the forms of ecological interdependence within the framework of relational theology. Her work in process theology draws on the relational ontology of Alfred North Whitehead, fielding it in a postmodern, deconstructive framework.

Reviews

[Yi Shen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written with few theoretical jargons, this collection of essays is a good entry point for anyone interested in the intersection of postcolonial theory and theology. I especially enjoyed the essay by Myra Rivera.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a few of these articles (betcher, grau, rieger). Postcolonial theology can be a jargon nightmare....but some of it (like Betcher and rieger!) are absolutely fabulous.

[Paul Cato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique method of subverting the problems brought on by Western modernity and colonialism. Great use of hybridity