Summary
Pasifika theologies arise from and engage with concerns from the sea of islands designated by European colonists as ‘Pacific Islands’. Use of the term ‘Pasifika’ is itself a push back towards self-designation, self-naming, self-determination.
Terms are shifting. Sometimes ‘moana theology’ is preferred, emphasising the ocean rather than the islands. Other times, ‘Oceanic theology’ is used, and can indicate an intentional encircling of the larger islands of the region, Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, and so attention to Maōri and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theologies.
Search Terms
- Pasifika
- moana
- Oceanic
- colonialism
- decolonial
Call Numbers
Introductions
- Vanua: A Fijian Theology of Place(opens in new tab), by I. Sevati Tuwere (Suva: PTC Press, 2nd edition 2023). Seveti Tuwere (d. 2022) was a Methodist theologian who served as principal of Pacific Theological College, a powerhouse of regional theologising.
- Waves of God’s Embrace: Sacred Perspectives from the Ocean (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2008). Winston Halapua is a Tongan theologian living in Fiji who served as Anglican archbishop of Polynesia.
Reference Texts
- Christianity in Oceania(opens in new tab), ed. by Kenneth Ross, Katalina Tahaafe-Williams and Todd Johnson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2022)
- Restoring Identities: The Contextualizing Story of Christianity in Oceania(opens in new tab), ed. by Upolu Lumā Vaai and Mark A. Lamport (Eugene: Cascade, 2023)
- South Pacific Theology(opens in new tab), ed. by Sione ’Amanaki Havea (Oxford: Regnum Books, 1987). A collection of conference papers that is widely regarded as marking the beginnings of intentionally regional theology.
- Theologies from the Pacific(opens in new tab), ed. by Jione Havea (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) is the closest thing to a Pasifika ‘systematics’. Note in this very important contribution the chapter on a ‘Pacific Theology of Celebration’ discussing the ‘coconut theology’ of Sione ’Amanaki Havea.
Other Important Texts
- Losing Ground: Reading Ruth in the Pacific(opens in new tab), by Jione Havea (London: SCM Press, 2020). As well as being a commentary on the short biblical book of Ruth, this book proposes strategies for the ‘Pasifikation’ of biblical and Christian traditions in the region.
- Relational Hermeneutics: Decolonising the Mindset of the Pacific Itulagi(opens in new tab), ed. by Upolu Lumā Vaai and Aisake Casimira (Suva: PTC Press, 2016)
- The Relational Self: Decolonising Personhood in the Pacific, ed. by Upolu Lumā Vaai and Unaisi Nabobo-Baba (Suva: PTC Press, 2017)
- Sea of Readings: The Bible in the South Pacific(opens in new tab), ed. by Jione Havea (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2018)
- Talanoa Rhythms, ed. by Nasili Vaka’utu (Wellington: Massey, 2011)
- Talanoa Ripples, ed. by Jione Havea (Wellington: Massey UP, 2010)
- Unsettling Theology: Memory, Identity, Place, ed. by Brian Fiu Kolia and Michael Mawson (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)
- Weaving Theology in Oceania: Culture, Context, and Practice(opens in new tab), ed. by Beatrice Green and Keiti Ann Kanongata’a (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2022)