Identity, Ethics, and Nonviolence in Postcolonial Theory: A Rahnerian Theological Assessment

254 Pages·2007·0.94 MB·English

by  Susan Abraham (auth.)

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dentity, thics, and
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onviolence in
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ostcolonial heory
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ahnerian heological
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ssessment
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Susan Abraham
IDENTITY,ETHICS,ANDNONVIOLENCEINPOSTCOLONIALTHEORY
© Susan Abraham,2007.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-7070-1
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
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ISBN 978-1-349-53240-7 ISBN 978-0-230-60413-1 (eBook)
DOI10.1057/9780230604131
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abraham,Susan.
Identity,ethics,and nonviolence in postcolonial theory :a Rahnerian
theological assessment / Susan Abraham.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Postcolonialism.2.Christianity and politics.3.Rahner,Karl,
1904–1984.I.Title.
BR115.P7A247 2007
261.7—dc22 2006051516
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd.,Chennai,India.
First edition:May 2007
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ontents
C
Preface vii
1 Doing Theology in the Postcolonial Context:
Issues and Problems 1
Why Rahner? 10
Political and Liberation Theologies 30
Postcolonial, Anticolonial, and
Decolonizing Theory 38
Disarticulating Theology and Theory: Faith and
Power in the Postcolonial Context 45
2 Negotiating Cultural and Religious Identity in
the Postcolony 51
Cultural and Religious Identity at the Boundary 59
The “Supernatural Existential”: Grace
as Intrinsic to Religious Identity 70
Porous Cultural Boundaries 79
Porous Religious Boundaries 86
Hybrid Cultural and Theological Strategies:
Intercultural and Interreligious Proposals 93
3 Embodied Ethics in the Postcolony 101
Ethics in the Postcolony 109
Existential Ethics: Rahner’s “Fundamental Option” 120
Embodied Interventions: The Interruptive Caress 129
Incarnating the “Fundamental Option” 135
Love as the Singular Caress of the Gendered Subaltern 141
4 Spirituality and Nonviolent Polity in
the Postcolony 149
Decolonizing the Mind and the Spirit 153
Indiferençiaas the “Mysticism of Everyday” 164
vi Contents
Embracing Many Worlds: The Practice of Spirituality 175
Practical Mysticism 184
Mysticism of Identity and Mysticism of Love 192
5 Theology in the Postcolonial Context 195
Notes 207
Bibliography 221
Index 241
reface
P
Postcolonial theory provides an (im)possible space to imagine
theologically. On the one hand, it incisively articulates the effects of a
long and continuing history of economic, political, and cultural
dominance of the West in many parts of the world and, on the other, it
is mired in a Western secularized framework that is unsure how to make
political use of theological and religious commitments. Consequently,
the central problem of this book is a constructive expansion of the
political commitments of postcolonial theorists for Catholic theology
and spirituality. Its objective is to engender a postcolonial theological
imagination that both challenges postcolonial theory for its lack of
religious and theological vision and provides a constructive framework
for a mutually enriching dialogue. Postcolonial theology inherently
assumes a political context in which questions of cultural identity,
racial and gender ethics, and democratic polity frame religious and
spiritual commitments. It is therefore an example of intercultural
theology.
One therefore cannot simply “bring” postcolonial theory to theol-
ogy or theology to postcolonial theory. Marshalling the one simply to
empty the other of insight and validity simply reinforces a reactionary
mode of disjunctive thinking. Far more difficult and far more urgently
needed is the task of conversation and mutually enriching dialogue
between the voices by interpellating (interrupting) the one with the
other. Postcolonial academic theory however, presents a unique chal-
lenge to theology by highlighting political analyses of the material
conditions in which to imagine human activity and hope. Conversely,
theology presents a unique challenge to postcolonial theory in its
attempts to take religious subjectivity seriously in human history. A
transdisciplinary conversation is as vital as it is perilous. Hence the
(im)possiblity of the task at hand as asserted previously.
As a third-world woman whose access to theological thought was
strictly controlled by social, academic, and ecclesiastical policing author-
ities in India, my arrival at the metropole of academic work in the
United States carried with it the promise of the opportunity that
viii Preface
would allow for the space needed to articulate theological convictions
that were political. This was not the case. Rather, the project to imag-
ine theology in a political space was impelled by the rueful realization
that the metropole was saturated with its own logics of race, class,
gender, cultural exclusions, and token inclusions. Addressing the par-
ticulars of systemic exclusion and token inclusions ran the risk of con-
tinued marginalization since Western academic theology continues to
be somewhat tolerant of carefully managed identity politics. The
opportunity that presented itself—to engage theology and postcolo-
nial theory in constructive dialogue—required a dangerous interdisci-
plinary imagination that would challenge and transgress the barriers
endorsed by the academy.
Consequently, the first stage of the development of this project
required breaking through the barrier presented by Western academic
theology. Hence the initial conceptualization for the project, pre-
sented as a dissertation for Harvard Divinity School took the form of
a dialogue between Karl Rahner and three postcolonial theorists:
Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Ashis Nandy. Rahner
certainly presents a challenge in the manner that he constructs his the-
ological position solely in relation to Western philosophy. He needs
little introduction in the field of Catholic theology. Contemporary
interpreters of Rahner seek to advance his thought beyond its
Eurocentric provenance. It can therefore be asserted that Rahner set
in place the possibility for these multiple interpretations in his theo-
logical scheme. Hence, his theology demonstrates openness also to
new and “secular” thought that on first reading seems far removed
from his theological concerns. For example, how would his notion of
subjectivity that traces its complex lineage from Heidegger, Kant,
Scotus, Aquinas, Bonaventure, and Augustine illuminate the antisub-
jectivist but subjective notion of hybridity advanced by a cultural the-
orist such as Homi Bhabha? Or how would his notion of the
Fundamental Option, which was the basis for the development of lib-
eration theology, engage the feminist ethics of Gayatri Chakravorty
Spivak? And finally, how would his notion of Indiferençia and the
mystical journey address the concern for the neo-Gandhian mysticism
in the engaged politics of Ashis Nandy? What emerged was a dialogue.
The dialogical model mandates that claims be weighed in light of
counterclaims. What emerged then was not a postcolonial Rahnerian
theology or a Rahnerian postcolonial theology.
In the course of that dialogue, it became more and more clear to
me that the new and exciting field of postcolonial theory that held so
much promise for those of us with histories of colonization suffered a
Preface ix
serious institutionalized form of blindness. I began interrogating post-
colonial theorists for their complicity in the Western academic frame-
work that brackets religious commitments and discourse as hopelessly
provincial, incomprehensible, and inaccessible. A theological imagina-
tion in such a context is even more perilous from such a disjunctive
perspective since “dialogue” seemed thwarted from the outset. That
the dialogue was critical had been impressed upon me in the early years
of my theological training at Catholic Theological Union where the
need for a practical, faithful, and global theology was always primary.
Catholic theology in a manner of speaking is 2,000 years ahead of the
“globalization” game. It has much to say to other academic disciplines
that are attempting to grapple with the issues raised by the newer forms
of economic, political, and cultural globalization.
The three theorists presented nuanced and careful analyses of the
contemporary forms of globalization. Yet, they and others like them
who engaged in political and critical theory seemed to have jettisoned
all religious and theological talk from their analyses. Meanwhile, the
questions that so seriously impact their work—identity, ethics, and
peaceful coexistence—are all negotiated in a religiously saturated
framework. Hence, postcolonial theorists run the danger of speaking
in a parallel universe when it comes to these global questions. A
bridge needs to be built and Rahner’s theological apparatus with its
primacy of grace provides the scaffolding.
Homi Bhabha currently teaches in the English Department at
Harvard University and is an instantly recognizable name in the field
of postcolonial theory. Bhabha is committed to theory for its ability to
“break the continuity and the consensus of common sense, to break it
and break into it” (Olson and Worsham, 1999, 4). Theory helps us
grapple with “sententiousness”: as he says, “a sentence can sometimes
sentence us” (in Olson and Worsham, 1999, 4). Further, Bhabha is
thoroughly committed to thinking about cultural difference. Olson
and Worsham explain that cultural difference for Bhabha is a con-
structed discourse and is often a site of intersecting and sometimes
paradoxical and contesting claims. Cultural difference is actively pro-
duced in the negotiations between self-identified units of discrete cul-
tures. The presence of cultural difference within the homogenizing
logics of globalization, nation, and religion allows for the theorist to
intervene with a politics charting and resisting discrimination. Next,
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, who teaches at Columbia University, has
been described as the foremost feminist critic in contemporary critical
theory even though the opacity of her writing and density of argu-
ment prevents easy access to her work. Stephen Morton writes in