Planetary Loves: Spivak, Postcoloniality, and Theology

Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquia

by Stephen D. Moore (Editor), Mayra Rivera (Editor)

Postcolonial theology has recently emerged as a site of intense intellectual and political energy and has taken its place in the interdisciplinary field of postcolonial studies. This volume is animated by the conviction that postcolonial theology is now ready for a second, deeper phase of engagement with postcolonial theory, one that moves beyond the general to the specific. No critic has been more emblematic of the challenging and contested field of postcolonial theory than Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. In this volume, the product of a theological colloquium in which Spivak herself participated, theologians and biblical scholars engage with her thought in order to catalyze a diverse range of original theological and exegetical projects.

The volume opens with a "topography" of postcolonial theology and also includes other valuable introductory essays. At the center of the collection are transcriptions of two extended public dialogues with Spivak on theology and religion in general. A further dozen essays appropriate Spivak's work for theological and ethical reflection.

The volume is also significant for the larger field of postcolonial studies in that it is the first to focus centrally on Spivak's immensely suggestive and vital concept of "planetarity."

440 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

Professor of New Testament at the Theological School, Drew University. His many books include Literary Criticism and the Gospels: The Theoretical Challenge (Yale University Press), God’s Gym: Divine Male Bodies of the Bible (Routledge), and Empire and Apocalypse: Postcolonialism and the New Testament (Sheffield Phoenix).