Summary
Postcolonial (sometimes decolonial) theology may concern theology now arising in geographical locations—mainly in the so-called ‘third world’—formerly colonized by western nations. Alternatively, and more often, postcolonial theology emphasizes scrutiny of any context to expose dynamics of ‘othering’ and belittling human persons and their cultures, seeking to retrieve and revalue what has been suppressed.
Postcolonial theologies are advocacy theologies, often closely allied to liberation, black and Asian, feminist, queer, and other intersectional theologies lifting up minoritized experience.
Postcolonial approaches entered theological studies via methods of biblical interpretation but have spread to Christian doctrine and various strands of practical theology.
Search Terms
- Postcolonial
- Decolonizing
- Othering
- Empire
- Subaltern
- Hybridity
- Intersectionality
Call Numbers
Introductions
- Postcolonial Politics and Theology: Unravelling Empire for a Global World, by Kwok Pui-lan (Louisville: WJKP, 2022) is a collection of essays by a pioneering postcolonial theologian.
- Postcolonial Reconfigurations: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and Doing Theology(opens in new tab), by Rasaiah Sugirtharajah (London: SCM Press, 2003) is a watershed in the postcolonial shift from biblical studies to a wider range of theologising.
Reference Texts
Regional Contributions
- Postcolonial Voices Down Under(opens in new tab), ed. by Jione Havea (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2017) collects Australian contributions in a postcolonial mode of theology, as does:
- Theological and Hermeneutical Explorations from Australia: Horizons of Contextuality(opens in new tab), ed. by Jione Havea (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2020).
Other Important Texts
- Christian Worship: Postcolonial Perspectives(opens in new tab), by Michael N. Jagessar and Stephen Burns (Sheffield: Equinox, 2011), the first book with these optics in liturgical studies.
- Interdependence: Postcolonial Feminist Practical Theology(opens in new tab), by HyeRan Kim-Cragg (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2018), an intersectional approach to pastoral care.
- People and Land: Decolonizing Theologies(opens in new tab), ed. by Jione Havea (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2019), one of an important series edited by Havea (‘Theology in the Age of Empire’) which does not always use nomenclature of post- or decolonial but foregrounds such perspectives.
- Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible(opens in new tab), by Musa Dube (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2000), a pioneering intersectional work.
- Postcolonial Practice of Ministry: Leadership, Liturgy, Interfaith Engagement(opens in new tab), ed. by Kwok Pui-lan and Stephen Burns (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2016), the first collection of postcolonial lenses across practical theological disciplines.
- Colonial Contexts and Postcolonial Theologies: Story-weaving in the Asia Pacific(opens in new tab), ed. by Mark Brett and Jione Havea (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) is an important regional contribution.
- Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire(opens in new tab), by Mark Brett (Sheffield: Sheffield Pheonix, 2009).