Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations: Global Awakenings in Theology and Praxis

by Kay Higuera Smith (Editor), Jayachitra Lalitha (Editor), L. Daniel Hawk (Editor)

Overview

Colonialism involves more than just territorial domination. It also creates cultural space that silences and disenfranchises those who do not hold power. This process of subjugation continues today in various forms of neocolonialism, such as globalization. Postcolonialism arose in the latter half of the twentieth century to challenge the problem of coloniality at the level of our language and our actions (praxis). Postcolonialism seeks to disrupt forms of domination and empower the marginalized to be agents of transformation. In 2010, the Postcolonial Roundtable gathered at Gordon College to initiate a new conversation regarding the significance of postcolonial discourse for evangelicalism. The present volume is the fruit of that discussion. Addressing themes like nationalism, mission, Christology, catholicity and shalom, these groundbreaking essays explore new possibilities for evangelical thought, identity and practice. The contributors demonstrate the resources for postcolonial criticism within the evangelical tradition, as well as the need to subject evangelical thought to an ever-new critique to prevent the formation of new centers of domination. Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations models the kind of open dialogue that the church needs in order to respond appropriately to the pressing concerns of the world today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780830840533
Publisher:	InterVarsity Press
Publication date:	06/05/2014
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Kay Higuera Smith (Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University) is professor of religion and chair of the department of biblical studies at Azusa Pacific University. Her specialization is in the New Testament and early Judaism.

Jayachitra Lalitha (D.Th., Serampore University) is associate professor of New Testament at Tamilnadu Theological Seminary in Madurai, South India, where she is dean of the women's studies department and coordinator of the Tamilnadu Theological Seminary Church Women Centre. She is also co-chair of the World Christianity Group of the American Academy of Religion and coeditor of Teaching All Nations: Interrogating the Great Commission (Fortress, 2013).

L. Daniel Hawk (PhD, Emory University) is professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio and an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. His work on narrative and identity formation includes Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations (as co-editor and contributor), Joshua in Berit Olam and Joshua in 3-D.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Why Postcolonial Conversations Matter

Reflection on Postcolonial Friendship
Brian D. McLaren

The Importance of Postcolonial Evangelical Conversations
Steve Hu

A Response to the Postcolonial Roundtable: Promises, Problems and Prospects
Gene L. Green

The Postcolonial Challenge to Evangelicals
Editors

Prospects and Problems for Evangelical Postcolonialisms
Robert S. Heaney

Part 1 Mission and Metanarrative: Origins and Articulations
Introduction to Part 1- L. Daniel Hawk

1. From Good: "The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian"; to Better: "Kill the Indian and Save the Man"; to Best: "Old Things Pass Away and All Things Become White!" An American Hermeneutic of Colonization
L. Daniel Hawk and Richard L. Twiss

2. North American Mission and Motive: Following the Markers
Gregory L. Cuéllar and Randy S. Woodley

3. Postcolonial Feminism, the Bible and the Native Indian Women
Jayachitra Lalitha

4. Converting a Colonialist Christ: Toward an African Postcolonial Christology
Victor Ifeanyi Ezigbo and Reggie L. Williams

Part 2 The Stories behind the Colonial Stories
Introduction to Part 2 - Kay Higuera Smith

5. Tracing the Metanarrative of Colonialism and Its Legacy
Teri R. Merrick

6. American Exceptionalism as Prophetic Nationalism
Kurt Anders Richardson

Part 3 Revisioning Evangelical Theology
Introduction to Part 3 - Jayachitra Lalitha

7. The Apocalypse of Colonialism: Notes Toward a Postcolonial Eschatology
Christian T. Collins Winn and Amos Yong

8. Jesus/Christ the Hybrid: Toward a Postcolonial Evangelical Christology
Joya Colon-Berezin and Peter Goodwin Heltzel

9. Recovering the Spirit of Pentecost: Canon and Catholicity in Postcolonial Perspective
Megan K. DeFranza and John R. Franke

Part 4 Transforming the Evangelical Legacy
Introduction to Part 4 - Kay Higuera Smith

10. The Problem and Promise of Praxis in Postcolonial Criticism
Federico A. Roth and Gilberto Lozano

11. Embracing the Other: A Vision for Evangelical Identity
Kay Higuera Smith

12. Healthy Leadership and Power Differences in the Postcolonial Community: Two Reflections
Nicholas Rowe and Ray Aldred

13. Christian Disciplines as Ways of Instilling God's Shalom for Postcolonial Communities: Two Reflections
Nicholas Rowe and Safwat A. Marzouk

Part 5 Closing the Circle
Introduction to Part 5: The Evolution of the Postcolonial Roundtable
Joseph F. Duggan

14. Hosting a True Roundtable: Dialogue Across Theological and Postcolonial Divides
Judith Oleson

Benediction
Gregory W. Carmer

Dr. Richard Twiss: A Remembrance
Randy S. Woodley


Contributors' Biographies
Name and Subject Index
Scripture Index

What People are Saying About This

Fernando Segovia

"This collection is a solid, sharp contribution to the juncture of Christian studies and postcolonial studies. I have noted with delight how in recent years evangelical theology has addressed the major crises and issues of our times. This has certainly been the case with regard to migration and economics. This venture into the discourse of imperial-colonial formations and relations is thus much needed and much welcomed. I look forward to dialogue and recommend the volume highly. A job well done!"

Paul S. Chung

"This volume presents a groundbreaking endeavor toward evangelical postcolonial theology, articulating the intersection between evangelical and postcolonial discourse. It challenges the theological roundtable under the dominion of the Western metanarrative of Enlightenment that keeps the colonial project and its civilizing mission intact, undertaking a constructive task for evangelical-postcolonial relevance and praxis in the face of the empire driven by globalization. This is an important contribution toward postcolonial imagination, which deepens and reinterprets evangelical theological discourse and praxis."

Kwok Pui-lan

"This pioneering book charts a new direction in evangelical theology. It employs postcolonial theory to examine the evangelical legacy and offers rich insights in the reconstruction of mission and theology. Forward-looking and provocative, the book will no doubt stimulate debates in the evangelical church and beyond."

Joerg Rieger

"Christianity today is facing tremendous challenges and opportunities tied to often-overlooked flows of power in our postcolonial world. What role does faith play as suffering persists and lives are lost? The contributors to this volume join a broader theological debate, making major contributions as they reclaim the robust witness of the evangelical heritage for the common good with creativity and courage."

John Goldingay

"The various 'isms' usually start outside evangelicalism. They arrive in nonevangelical packaging and may provoke questioning and anxiety, but then they may get thought through within an evangelical framework and become fruitful within evangelical thinking and commitments in a way that can be instructive for the whole church. It can take time to navigate the sequence, even though evangelicalism is related to Protestantism, and postcolonialism (as one of the contributors notes) is a protest movement. This collection is the marvelous fruit of the work of those who have reflected deeply on postcolonialism. It's neat that so many of the chapters are cowritten. And whereas terms like empire can sound as if they apply chiefly to the empire against which the American colonies rebelled, it's encouraging for a Brit to be able to note how much attention is paid to the colonial nature of thinking and action within the Americas."

Tony Campolo

"I feel like Rip Van Winkle, who went to sleep and woke up in a changed world. The ways of doing missions have undergone a paradigm shift, and these writers helped me understand it."

Dennis Okholm

"The contributors to Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations remind us that there is no view from nowhere. More importantly, they help western evangelicals realize how often we have confused our finite and fallible human responses to God's self-disclosure with the Word of God itself—how often we have confined God's Word to our words. What I enjoyed most about this book is the way it invited me, the reader, into an ongoing conversation that itself models how self-identifying evangelicals can better listen to the voices of those in the Majority World and on the margins in a manner that engenders humility, repentance and even our ongoing conversion to something that more closely resembles God's reign on earth as it is in heaven."

Editorial Reviews

"There is so much to commend here. If contemporary evangelical missiology is to forge a path that is both liberating and consistent with its aim of authentically bearing witness to God's good news, then conversations such as this are essential. If the exchanges in this volume are any indication, the future of the evangelical-postcolonial conversation is an extraordinarily hopeful one."

Chris Flanders

"Christianity today is facing tremendous challenges and opportunities tied to often-overlooked flows of power in our postcolonial world. What role does faith play as suffering persists and lives are lost? The contributors to this volume join a broader theological debate, making major contributions as they reclaim the robust witness of the evangelical heritage for the common good with creativity and courage."

Joerg Rieger

"The contributors to Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations remind us that there is no view from nowhere. More importantly, they help western evangelicals realize how often we have confused our finite and fallible human responses to God's self-disclosure with the Word of God itself—how often we have confined God's Word to our words. What I enjoyed most about this book is the way it invited me, the reader, into an ongoing conversation that itself models how self-identifying evangelicals can better listen to the voices of those in the Majority World and on the margins in a manner that engenders humility, repentance and even our ongoing conversion to something that more closely resembles God's reign on earth as it is in heaven."

Dennis Okholm

"This volume presents a groundbreaking endeavor toward evangelical postcolonial theology, articulating the intersection between evangelical and postcolonial discourse. It challenges the theological roundtable under the dominion of the Western metanarrative of Enlightenment that keeps the colonial project and its civilizing mission intact, undertaking a constructive task for evangelical-postcolonial relevance and praxis in the face of the empire driven by globalization. This is an important contribution toward postcolonial imagination, which deepens and reinterprets evangelical theological discourse and praxis."

Paul S. Chung

"I feel like Rip Van Winkle, who went to sleep and woke up in a changed world. The ways of doing missions have undergone a paradigm shift, and these writers helped me understand it."

Tony Campolo

"A helpful reader that gives voice to postcolonial thought at a time when evangelical leaders must engage increasingly pluralistic contexts."

Dr. Jared Looney

"This collection is a solid, sharp contribution to the juncture of Christian studies and postcolonial studies. I have noted with delight how in recent years evangelical theology has addressed the major crises and issues of our times. This has certainly been the case with regard to migration and economics. This venture into the discourse of imperial-colonial formations and relations is thus much needed and much welcomed. I look forward to dialogue and recommend the volume highly. A job well done!"

Fernando Segovia

"The various 'isms' usually start outside evangelicalism. They arrive in nonevangelical packaging and may provoke questioning and anxiety, but then they may get thought through within an evangelical framework and become fruitful within evangelical thinking and commitments in a way that can be instructive for the whole church. It can take time to navigate the sequence, even though evangelicalism is related to Protestantism, and postcolonialism (as one of the contributors notes) is a protest movement. This collection is the marvelous fruit of the work of those who have reflected deeply on postcolonialism. It's neat that so many of the chapters are cowritten. And whereas terms like empire can sound as if they apply chiefly to the empire against which the American colonies rebelled, it's encouraging for a Brit to be able to note how much attention is paid to the colonial nature of thinking and action within the Americas."

John Goldingay

"This book adds to the much-needed conversation in today's post-colonial, post-Christian, post-modern, neo-capitalist, and urbanized world. All the 'posts' and hyphens destroy what modern Evangelicalism attempted to wrap up so neatly, particularly from its designated position of power. The contribution of this volume helps many to take seriously their perceptions and seek God's overall wisdom in collaboration with the complication of hybridity in our world."

Kevin Book-Satterlee

"Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations prophetically challenges the evangelical community to examine critically how it is complicit, historically and presently, in the colonial enterprise, while also avoiding praxis-oriented suggestions for redressing oppression. This book is essential for introductory level courses at any seminary, CUME included, as it provide a wealth of knowledge for theologians and practitioners alike to re-examine their past as they progress in their vocation. . . . For practitioners and academics alike, Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations is highly recommended for moving past that illusory enchantment to work that is truly liberating."

Jorge Juan Rodriguez V

"This pioneering book charts a new direction in evangelical theology. It employs postcolonial theory to examine the evangelical legacy and offers rich insights in the reconstruction of mission and theology. Forward-looking and provocative, the book will no doubt stimulate debates in the evangelical church and beyond."

Kwok Pui-lan

"Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations prophetically challenges the evangelical community to examine critically how it is complicit, historically and presently, in the colonial enterprise, while also avoiding praxis-oriented suggestions for redressing oppression. This book is essential for introductory level courses at any seminary, CUME included, as it provide a wealth of knowledge for theologians and practitioners alike to re-examine their past as they progress in their vocation. . . . For practitioners and academics alike, Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations is highly recommended for moving past that illusory enchantment to work that is truly liberating."

--Jorge Juan Rodriguez V, Africanus Journal, 8, 2

"The various 'isms' usually start outside evangelicalism. They arrive in nonevangelical packaging and may provoke questioning and anxiety, but then they may get thought through within an evangelical framework and become fruitful within evangelical thinking and commitments in a way that can be instructive for the whole church. It can take time to navigate the sequence, even though evangelicalism is related to Protestantism, and postcolonialism (as one of the contributors notes) is a protest movement. This collection is the marvelous fruit of the work of those who have reflected deeply on postcolonialism. It's neat that so many of the chapters are cowritten. And whereas terms like empire can sound as if they apply chiefly to the empire against which the American colonies rebelled, it's encouraging for a Brit to be able to note how much attention is paid to the colonial nature of thinking and action within the Americas."

--John Goldingay, Fuller Theological Seminary

"The contributors to Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations remind us that there is no view from nowhere. More importantly, they help western evangelicals realize how often we have confused our finite and fallible human responses to God's self-disclosure with the Word of God itself--how often we have confined God's Word to our words. What I enjoyed most about this book is the way it invited me, the reader, into an ongoing conversation that itself models how self-identifying evangelicals can better listen to the voices of those in the Majority World and on the margins in a manner that engenders humility, repentance and even our ongoing conversion to something that more closely resembles God's reign on earth as it is in heaven."

--Dennis Okholm, professor of theology, Azusa Pacific University

"A helpful reader that gives voice to postcolonial thought at a time when evangelical leaders must engage increasingly pluralistic contexts."

--Dr. Jared Looney, Evangelical Missions Quarterly, July 2015

"There is so much to commend here. If contemporary evangelical missiology is to forge a path that is both liberating and consistent with its aim of authentically bearing witness to God's good news, then conversations such as this are essential. If the exchanges in this volume are any indication, the future of the evangelical-postcolonial conversation is an extraordinarily hopeful one."

--Chris Flanders, Missiology 43(4), October 2015

"This book adds to the much-needed conversation in today's post-colonial, post-Christian, post-modern, neo-capitalist, and urbanized world. All the 'posts' and hyphens destroy what modern Evangelicalism attempted to wrap up so neatly, particularly from its designated position of power. The contribution of this volume helps many to take seriously their perceptions and seek God's overall wisdom in collaboration with the complication of hybridity in our world."

--Kevin Book-Satterlee, Mission Studies, 31 (2014)

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