Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: Divining Prophetic Voices
- Part I The Crucible of Experience and the Life of Dialogue
- Part II Legacies of Colonialism and Resistance
- 6 Theology and Conquest: Bartolomé de las Casas and Indigenous Death in Mexico
- 7 Postcolonial Studies and Decolonizing Spiritualities: Reading Haitian Vodou with Rosemary Ruether and Frantz Fanon
- 8 The Poor, the Marginalized, the Colonized: Losing Paradise for Ruether's Suffering Christ
- 9 Torture and Empire: Sustaining a Theological Critique of US Interrogation and Detention Policies in the Obama Era
- 10 Redemption, Latinas, and the Contribution of Rosemary Radford Ruether
- Part III Angles on Ecofeminism
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Contributors
- Index
7 - Postcolonial Studies and Decolonizing Spiritualities: Reading Haitian Vodou with Rosemary Ruether and Frantz Fanon
from Part II - Legacies of Colonialism and Resistance
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: Divining Prophetic Voices
- Part I The Crucible of Experience and the Life of Dialogue
- Part II Legacies of Colonialism and Resistance
- 6 Theology and Conquest: Bartolomé de las Casas and Indigenous Death in Mexico
- 7 Postcolonial Studies and Decolonizing Spiritualities: Reading Haitian Vodou with Rosemary Ruether and Frantz Fanon
- 8 The Poor, the Marginalized, the Colonized: Losing Paradise for Ruether's Suffering Christ
- 9 Torture and Empire: Sustaining a Theological Critique of US Interrogation and Detention Policies in the Obama Era
- 10 Redemption, Latinas, and the Contribution of Rosemary Radford Ruether
- Part III Angles on Ecofeminism
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Contributors
- Index
Summary
“Se le koulev mouri, ou konn longe li.”
Only when the serpent dies do you know its length.
Haitian ProverbI still remember the first time I sat with a Haitian man and heard him use the word “colon” in reference to the French colonizers in Haiti's history. At that moment, a philosophical, epistemological, spiritual, and pedagogical shift happened within me. I discovered that it is one thing to study the brutal history of colonization and be disturbed by it and its implications, both historically and today; it is quite another thing to sit with someone who lives with its devastating consequences on a daily basis, and yet who remains full of joy. In this case, the joy I saw grew directly from a spirituality that was born in the context of slavery. Out of that encounter grew my understanding that Haitian Vodou, both historically and in its contemporary expression, is a decolonizing religion, a spirituality that denounced the colonizers, or colons, and continues to provide a sustaining worldview of survival.
To represent Haitian Vodou in this way, I will explore issues that have been raised in postcolonial thinking around worldviews of domination and oppression, and I will set those in conversation with liberation elements in religion. The intersection of liberation perspectives in religious studies and postcolonial critique will provide a heuristic device for understanding Haitian Vodou as a decolonizing spirituality.
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- Information
- Voices of Feminist Liberation , pp. 99 - 114Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2012