Preaching Jesus: Postcolonial Approaches

Postcolonial approaches can make a significant difference in preaching Jesus by challenging listeners to reconsider their individual and communal identities as followers of Jesus and providing them with theological and ethical guidance for living out those identities in daily life. They offer new images of Jesus rooted in his historical identity as a colonized person, which can awaken listeners and their communities to seek reconciliation between colonized and colonizers and suggest a common ground of faith and hope for the life-enhancing future of all people living in the twenty-first century.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 162 pages
Publication date: 04 June 2024
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

The many postcolonial approaches used in this book will help preachers reinterpret the stories, metaphors, and characters in the Bible and create new images of Jesus rooted in his historical identity as a colonized person. Preaching Jesus with new images that are totally different from the traditional colonial ones, not only challenges listeners to reconsider their individual and communal identities as followers of Jesus, but also provides them with theological and ethical guidance for living out those identities in daily life. Ultimately, preaching Jesus through postcolonial approaches is a prophetic ministry that awakens listeners and their communities to seek reconciliation between colonized and colonizers, and suggests a common ground of faith and hope for the life-enhancing future of all people living in the twenty-first century. The five chapters of this book employ diverse postcolonial hermeneutical and homiletical methods across a broad disciplinary spectrum. This range includes intersectional and interdisciplinary studies with historical, literary, and cultural approaches, in dialogue with phenomenological philosophy, a postcolonial practical theological method, postcolonial feminist interpretation, postcolonial biblical hermeneutics, and postcolonial intertextuality. All these approaches invite the colonized and their descendants to be conversation partners and reflect their lived experiences in the reimagining the identity of Jesus. Moreover, the theological and homiletical insights gained through such postcolonial approaches will help preachers invite their listeners into a partnership with the triune God in order to participate in Gods reconciling work. The postcolonial approaches used in this book are diverse and interdisciplinary, drawing on historical, literary, cultural, phenomenological, practical theological, feminist, biblical hermeneutical, and intertextual perspectives. These approaches invite the colonized and their descendants to be conversation partners and reflect their lived experiences in the reimagining of the identity of Jesus. They also provide theological and ethical guidance for living out those identities in daily life and suggest a common ground of faith and hope for the life-enhancing future of all people living in the twenty-first century. Through these approaches, preachers can help listeners to reconsider their individual and communal identities as followers of Jesus and to participate in Gods reconciling work.

Weight: 204g
Dimension: 215 x 138 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538192061