Postcolonial Politics and Theology

The past three decades have borne witness to increased interest in postcolonial methods and their deployment throughout the humanities, which in turn has led to the creation of methods and practices of decolonizing religion. Kwok Pui-lan, who authored the celebrated text Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), is certainly among the early and best-known postcolonial theologians. Since then, Kwok has continued to educate many leaders in Christian theology through her lectures to and mentoring of students, pastors, and other faith leaders, as well as through her leadership of academic societies. These experiences, along with the challenges that geopolitical changes pose to both global security and social well-being, figure into her latest book Postcolonial Politics and Theology: Unraveling Empire for a Global World. 

The year after Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology was published, the Taiwanese critical theorist Kuan-hsing Chen published his book Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization (Duke University Press, 2010), where at the beginning he bluntly states that “postcolonial cultural studies is at an impasse” (1). One reason for that impasse is rooted in how postcolonial studies has often been synonymous with critique of “the West.” There are two problems with this conflation: (1) postcolonial critique remains colonized since it operates under the parameters of the Western imagination, and (2) such a narrow postcolonial analysis fails to recognize how cultures and peoples beyond the West have been complicit in various colonizations as well. Kwok recognizes this problem and identifies a similar pattern in political theology. Even as China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, and other Asian nations have grown in geopolitical importance, and even as their respective peoples have made very important contributions to theology over the past few decades, political theology as a field seemed to be stuck in a world where the United States and Europe retain their overarching influence. Hence, her book aims not only to imagine the shape of political theology and the different concerns and questions it would address had it pivoted to Asia, but also to suggest how postcolonial methods are still relevant, not just for theologians, but for ministers and faith leaders in addressing the urgent challenges of the present.

Those concerns guide Kwok’s organization of the book into three parts. The first establishes the continued relevance of postcolonial methods in theology, even though the original contexts that gave rise to postcolonial theory no longer apply. In pressing that case, Kwok provides an accessible yet wide-ranging historical survey of postcolonial methods and theologies that covers subjects including migration, race, gender, queer studies, sexuality, and others. The second part addresses postcolonial theology as it is applied to various issues relating to Asian Pacific contexts, which leads Kwok to provide another survey, this time of the history of imperialism and anti-imperial movements in East Asia, and how Christianity interfaced (and continues to interface) with them. The final part discusses practical-theological matters arising from postcolonial theology. Here, Kwok’s practical experiences as a Christian-theological leader shines as she addresses issues of teaching theology and preaching from a postcolonial perspective, as well as how postcolonial theologies can be constructive on interreligious and planetary matters.

Many aspects of this monograph are notable and make it particularly useful, and not only for advanced seminars in theological methods or theology and politics. I particularly appreciated how the second part of the book sought to illuminate political and postcolonial theologies from an Asian perspective but does not do so at the expense of European and American thought. Instead, Kwok engages both constructively. For example, her discussion of Christianity’s ambivalent involvement in the 2019 Hong Kong Umbrella Movement becomes a springboard for tracing a similar dynamic in Carl Schmitt’s reception and deployment in the history of Chinese political thinking (128-129). Kwok also highlights that Benny Tai drew inspiration for his leadership in the Umbrella Movement from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (133). These examples, and many others throughout the book, emphasize the importance of decentering political and postcolonial theologies from Euro-American contexts and questions. It also reminds readers, however, that such decentering is not synonymous with substitution, as if Euro-American frames of reference no longer mattered. Instead, it is about pluralizing political theology so that it can offer valuable insights and wisdom to a world in which Western approaches to international relations and politics are no longer normative.

I also appreciated the third part of Postcolonial Politics and Theology, in which Kwok put her insights into practice by investigating pressing issues in religion, theology, and justice through a postcolonial lens. In doing so, she addresses a common critique of postcolonial theory, which is how its obscurity and intellectualism starkly contrasts with its aspirations to give voice to peoples marginalized by coloniality. By applying postcolonial insights to the teaching of religion, preaching and worship, interreligious peacebuilding, and environmental justice, she illustrates the many ways in which viewing the subject from a postcolonial lens can be fruitful for the practical concerns of ministry and social justice. This move enables readers to appreciate the continuing applicability of postcolonial methods beyond the academy, even as the instigators of coloniality continue to change.

Postcolonial Politics and Theology is not only relevant but timely as the world continues to witness the Empire strike back in the form of the rise of authoritarian leaders, the increased proliferation of suffering and threats of wars, and the quick erosion of democratic norms in countries that used to be bastions of liberal democracy. At the same time, the still-ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has led to severe cuts in humanities programs in the United States, with religious studies programs usually being first on the chopping-block. Seminaries and churches that were struggling before the pandemic were forced to make difficult decisions. This can generate an atmosphere of despair among scholars of religion, leading them to conclude that religious questions no longer matter. Kwok’s book, perhaps unexpectedly, presents a hopeful picture even in the midst of such bleakness. Limning her work is the conviction that religion still matters, and that the work of religious and theological scholars contains wisdom that can be critical in the coming decades.

Henry S. Kuo is assistant professor of theology and ethics and assistant director of the George Center for Honors Studies at Greensboro College (North Carolina).

Henry Kuo

Date Of Review:

January 13, 2023