Theological Thinking and Eurocentric Epistemologies: A Challenge to Theologians from within Africana Religious Studies
Motivated by the work of scholars of Africana religions, this essay questions whether theology as a mode of critical reflection that depends on Christian-centric understandings of revelation can contribute toward a liberation from colonial relations of power. Actualizing liberation in a meaningful w...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
The Pennsylvania State University Press
2018
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In: |
Journal of Africana religions
Year: 2018, Volume: 6, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-49 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Africa
/ Theology
/ Revelation
/ Liberation
/ Colonialism
/ Eurocentrism
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RelBib Classification: | CH Christianity and Society FD Contextual theology KBA Western Europe KBN Sub-Saharan Africa NBB Doctrine of Revelation NBE Anthropology |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
Summary: | Motivated by the work of scholars of Africana religions, this essay questions whether theology as a mode of critical reflection that depends on Christian-centric understandings of revelation can contribute toward a liberation from colonial relations of power. Actualizing liberation in a meaningful way requires a liberation from Eurocentric loci of rationality, yet theologians' movement toward liberation often proceeds precisely from such a sitenamely, a reception of revelation dominated by the Mediterranean world and Europe. To explain this tension, I first consider how work within Africana religious studies challenges Christian theological ways of thinking. Second, I focus on uses of revelation in theology and consider how even nuanced understandings of revelation often remain mired epistemologically in colonial relations of power. I conclude by concretizing a question, prompted by scholars of Africana religions, that theologians must address within projects responding to colonial relations of power. |
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ISSN: | 2165-5413 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Africana religions
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