Vulnerability and Resilience: Body and Liberating Theologies

by Jione Havea (Editor), Stephen Burns (Contribution by), Cláudio Carvalhaes Associate Professor of Worship, Union Theological Seminary - New York City (Contribution by), Wanda Deifelt (Contribution by), Masiiwa Ragies Gunda (Contribution by)

Overview

In Vulnerability and Resilience, vulnerability is not the final word. Rather, resilience provides the cutting edge and living breath in the stories of subjects who are vulnerable. And they have many stories: stories of being trapped in bodies, teachings, and/or situations that make them (and others like them) vulnerable to discrimination, hatred, and rejection; stories of being trapped because of their bodies, theologies, and/or cultures; and stories of being trapped for no-good reason. For subjects who are vulnerable, life is like a maze of traps, and stories of resilience keep them going.

The contributors to Vulnerability and Resilience refuse to be trapped. At the intersection of body and liberation theologies, they tell their stories in the hope that they will expose cultures that make individuals and communities vulnerable, and that those stories will encourage vulnerable subjects to be resilient and bring change to theological institutions that conserve vulnerability. Because of the location of the contributors—the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, Caribbean, and Oceania—this book is a testimony that vulnerability is present all over the world, and that resilience is a liberating alternative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781978703636
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	01/28/2020
Series:	Theology in the Age of Empire
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.28(w) x 9.17(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Jione Havea is a native Methodist pastor from Tonga and research fellow with Trinity Theological College (Aotearoa, New Zealand) and the Public and Contextual Theology (PaCT) research center of Charles Sturt University (Australia).

Table of Contents

Foreword

Collin I. Cowan



1.Tell us

Jione Havea



Part One: Dare to (Re)story



2.Stories Telling Bodies: A Self-Disclosing Queer Theology of Sexuality and Vulnerability

Adriaan van Klinken



3.Jesus’ Colonized Masculinity in Luke

Karl Hand



4.“I am my Body”: Toward a Body-Affirming Faith

Masiiwa Ragies Gunda



5.Utopian Couplings: When Bem Viver Meets Mary

Nienke Pruiksima



6.Eve’s Serpent (Gen 3:1–9) Meets Sina’s Tuna at Fāgogo

Brian F. Kolia



7.Rape Matters: Dinah (Genesis 34) Meets Asifa Bano

Monica J. Melanchthon



Part Two: Dare to (Re)Imagine



8.Bodies, Identities, and Empire

Wanda Deifelt



9.In the Face of Empire: Black Liberation Theology, M.L. King, Jr., and the Jesus Story

Dwight N. Hopkins



10.In the Face of Empire: Postcolonial Theology from the Caribbean

Luis N. Rivera-Pagán



11.Theological Shifts: From Multiculturalisms to Multinaturalisms

Cláudio Carvalhaes



12.Liturgy After the Abuse

Stephen Burns



13.Embodied Epistemologies: Queering the Academic Empire

Sarojini Nadar and Sarasvathie Reddy



14.Esse Quam Videri … to Be and Not to Seem

Jenny Te Paa Daniel

Editorial Reviews

Through a transnational lens, Vulnerability and Resilience brilliantly interweaves the stories from those whose bodies have been categorized as vulnerable and, thus, not fully human. However, these stories create a courageous space to challenge the traditional understandings of vulnerability, oppression, and liberation by unfolding the theological meanings of the embodiment of resilience. This book plainly shows how the vulnerable and despised bodies, in fact, produce the critically transnational and deeply theological knowledge of resilience, resistance, and liberation. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to meditate on the deeper meaning of the vulnerable body of Jesus in various transnational contexts. Readers will appreciate the critical voices filled with love, hope, resilience, and resistance from the vulnerable who have never lost the power of agency.

Keun-Joo Christine Pae

How long, one rightly asks, how long can we remain vulnerable? How long can we wait and hope? How long can the subaltern hope to be listened to? How long will our voices just echo in the wilderness and not penetrate the smugness of the powerful? The contributors to this extraordinarily evocative volume refuse to take refuge in pious platitudes or shallow sentimentalism but offer a disturbingly direct and robustly resilient reading of issues and themes that is a bellwether leading us in our complex and messy present. No one who reads this book will come away comfortable; but they may come away determined to be part of a movement that challenges persistent injustice and rapacious power with the tools refined in the forge of vulnerability and the anvil of resilience.

Rev. J. Jayakiran Sebastian

If the first part is a confronting, visceral, poetic, embodied and liberating vulnerability (with some humor thrown in for good measure), the second is a challenging, theoretically, pastorally and theologically embedded program for transformation. Together the two parts of this book provide a glorious, erotic powerhouse for the metamorphosis of contemporary Christian theology and praxis.

Anita Monro

This volume of collected essays is a “daring” project that disturbs and unsettles the biblical text and traditional theological understandings. Almost all of the essays deal with subject matter— “body” and “liberation”— that is seldom interrogated in a sustained way in theological seminaries and churches around the globe. Of note is the diverse range of authors that bring together the experiences of marginalized groups across continents, ensuring that notions of vulnerability and resilience are interrogated as they intersect with transnational locations.

Beverley Haddad

A sobering but hopeful read! The essays in this wide-ranging volume tackle an immensely important and yet peculiarly controversial topic: bodies in which we live. These thoughtful and provocative analyses will enable us to see various precious bodies that are being denigrated or violated bodies in our world today. They will further embolden us to embody our theological thinking and emend our theological practice.

Tat-siong Benny Liew

Highly commendable. A moving, challenging, and liberating collection of essays that explore the subversive nature of resilience. In this book the meaning of vulnerability as powerlessness is challenged to demonstrate that the vulnerable have agency with the power to speak. Resilience comes with the courage to talk back to the powers that bind.

Seforosa Carroll

How long, one rightly asks, how long can we remain vulnerable? How long can we wait and hope? How long can the subaltern hope to be listened to? How long will our voices just echo in the wilderness and not penetrate the smugness of the powerful? The contributors to this extraordinarily evocative volume refuse to take refuge in pious platitudes or shallow sentimentalism but offer a disturbingly direct and robustly resilient reading of issues and themes that is a bellwether leading us in our complex and messy present. No one who reads this book will come away comfortable; but they may come away determined to be part of a movement that challenges persistent injustice and rapacious power with the tools refined in the forge of vulnerability and the anvil of resilience.

J. Jayakiran Sebastian

A sobering but hopeful read! The essays in this wide-ranging volume tackle an immensely important and yet peculiarly controversial topic: bodies in which we live. These thoughtful and provocative analyses will enable us to see various precious bodies that are being denigrated or violated bodies in our world today. They will further embolden us to embody our theological thinking and emend our theological practice.--Tat-siong Benny Liew, College of the Holy Cross

Highly commendable. A moving, challenging, and liberating collection of essays that explore the subversive nature of resilience. In this book the meaning of vulnerability as powerlessness is challenged to demonstrate that the vulnerable have agency with the power to speak. Resilience comes with the courage to talk back to the powers that bind.--Seforosa Carroll, World Council of Churches

How long, one rightly asks, how long can we remain vulnerable? How long can we wait and hope? How long can the subaltern hope to be listened to? How long will our voices just echo in the wilderness and not penetrate the smugness of the powerful? The contributors to this extraordinarily evocative volume refuse to take refuge in pious platitudes or shallow sentimentalism but offer a disturbingly direct and robustly resilient reading of issues and themes that is a bellwether leading us in our complex and messy present. No one who reads this book will come away comfortable; but they may come away determined to be part of a movement that challenges persistent injustice and rapacious power with the tools refined in the forge of vulnerability and the anvil of resilience.--J. Jayakiran Sebastian, United Lutheran Seminary

If the first part is a confronting, visceral, poetic, embodied and liberating vulnerability (with some humor thrown in for good measure), the second is a challenging, theoretically, pastorally and theologically embedded program for transformation. Together the two parts of this book provide a glorious, erotic powerhouse for the metamorphosis of contemporary Christian theology and praxis.--Anita Monro, Grace College, University of Queensland

This volume of collected essays is a "daring" project that disturbs and unsettles the biblical text and traditional theological understandings. Almost all of the essays deal with subject matter-- "body" and "liberation"-- that is seldom interrogated in a sustained way in theological seminaries and churches around the globe. Of note is the diverse range of authors that bring together the experiences of marginalized groups across continents, ensuring that notions of vulnerability and resilience are interrogated as they intersect with transnational locations.--Beverley Haddad, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Through a transnational lens, Vulnerability and Resilience brilliantly interweaves the stories from those whose bodies have been categorized as vulnerable and, thus, not fully human. However, these stories create a courageous space to challenge the traditional understandings of vulnerability, oppression, and liberation by unfolding the theological meanings of the embodiment of resilience. This book plainly shows how the vulnerable and despised bodies, in fact, produce the critically transnational and deeply theological knowledge of resilience, resistance, and liberation. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to meditate on the deeper meaning of the vulnerable body of Jesus in various transnational contexts. Readers will appreciate the critical voices filled with love, hope, resilience, and resistance from the vulnerable who have never lost the power of agency.--Keun-Joo Christine Pae, Denison University

From the Publisher