Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care
Challenges of Care in a Neoliberal Age
Edited by Emmanuel Y. Lartey and Hellena Moon
Foreword by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im
Epilogue by Bonnie Miller-McLemore
Imprint: Pickwick Publications
This anthology is about caring for all persons as a part of the revolutionary struggle against colonialism in its many forms. In recognition of the varied ways in which different forms of oppression, injustice, and violence in the world today are traceable to the legacy and continuing effects of colonialism, various authors have contributed to the volume from diverse backgrounds including differing ethnic identities, religious and cultural traditions, gender and sexual orientations, as well as communal and personal realities.
As a postcolonial critique of spiritual care, it highlights the plurality of voices and concerns that have been overlooked or obscured because of the politics of race, religion, sexuality, nationalism, and other structures of power that have shaped what discursive spiritual care entails today. Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care presents voices of practical and pastoral theologians, academics, spiritual care providers, religious leaders, students, and activists working to provide greater intercultural spiritual care and awareness in the areas of healthcare, community work, and education. The volume, as such, expands the discourse of spiritual care and participates in the ongoing paradigm shifts in the field of pastoral and practical theology.
Emmanuel Y. Lartey is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spiritual Care at the Candler School of Theology and the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University. He is the author of In Living Color: An Intercultural Approach to Pastoral Care and Counseling.
Hellena Moon is part-time Assistant Professor at Kennesaw State University in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department.
“Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care is a volume sorely needed. Spiritual care in the last twenty years has more often than not been commodified as part of the capitalist project. As such, the liberation of humans from systemic suffering has been, at best, peripheral. Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care redefines the practice of spiritual care by exposing the legacy of colonial aims and offering images of spiritual care wherein person, systems, and communities are inextricably linked and, therefore, the heart of postcolonial care.”
—Phillis Isabella Sheppard, Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, Vanderbilt Divinity School and Graduate Department of Religion
“A pastoral caregiver symbolizes the presence of a concerned and passionate God in times of celebration and crisis. If God, however, is viewed as a colonizer who victimizes and forces people into submission in the name of salvation, then the living soul is distorted by a victimizing God. Postcolonial Images of Spiritual Care encourages the symbolic Divine presence to be transformed from malevolence into liberating compassion by post-colonizing the Divine-human relationship.”
—Lee H. Butler Jr., Vice-President of Academic Affairs, Academic Dean, and William Tabbernee Professor of the History of Religions and Africana Pastoral Theology, Phillips Theological Seminary
“The field of spiritual care has turned a significant corner from its origins, and this volume will help chart a more inclusive, appreciative course for educators, practitioners, and students. Beginning in Africa—the source of human origins—and concluding with connections to our global climate, the authors decenter rationalist hegemony, providing a variety of lenses through which the reader can imagine spiritual care as practices of mutuality, reverence, and hope.”
—Trace Haythorn, Executive Director/CEO, ACPE
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