Postcolonial Homiletics?
Exploring Consciousness, Centers, and Identity for Preaching
Foreword by Cas Wepener
Imprint: Pickwick Publications
This book pursues the question of consciousness and thought through the art of preaching in a postcolonial era. Indeed, the past has bestowed upon the present the legacy of colonization and, in the South African context, apartheid. However, the endeavor of postcolonizing theology and homiletics is a contentious space that has not been settled. This book promotes a counterargument to the prevalent directions of decolonization by focusing on three themes of importance--consciousness, perspective, and identity--through the insights of primary postcolonial sources.
Wessel Wessels is a postdoctoral research fellow in homiletics at the University of the Free State. This book is a revised edition of his PhD thesis and first monograph.
“The legacy of colonialism is still discernible all over the world. In addition, preachers are often powerful role players who can challenge or perpetuate persistent oppressive systems. Employing the practice of postcolonial preaching, the possibility of interruption becomes possible. Dominant narratives are challenged, and alternatives are imagined. Wessel Wessels’ Postcolonial Homiletics? is an important and valuable addition in the field of homiletics to help charter a way for preaching to be a life-giving practice amid the challenges posed by colonialism and coloniality.”
—Cas Wepener, professor of homiletics and liturgy, Stellenbosch University
“In this book, Wessel Wessels accompanies the reader on a journey that opens up new, enriching vistas. The author introduces the reader page-by-page to the relief and contours of the postcolonial landscape. This exploration results in aesthetically charted route markers coming from homiletic theory to the imaginative embodiment thereof in concrete perspectives for postcolonial liturgy and (prophetic) preaching. Join this exciting journey and discover new landscapes with promises of milk and honey.”
—Jan-Albert van den Berg, professor of practical theology, University of the Free State
“This book of Wessel Wessels does more than advocating a type of decolonial tool; it rather expresses the postcolonial possibility to create new, ‘third spaces,’ within which seemingly insoluble tensions can be held together. His understanding of postcolonialism resonates with the challenge to view reality differently, to reframe in such a manner that reality is in fact interrupted and disrupted—to create alternatives. In this sense, Wessels’ book excels in creating an innovative ‘prophetical re-imagination.’”
—Johan Cilliers, professor emeritus of theology, Stellenbosch University
“This is an excellent debut by someone who knows a lot of what it means to bear postcolonial words in our fragmented world. It might be wise to listen to Wessels before asking or responding again to the all too familiar question, ‘Where have all the prophets gone?’ He knows what it means to (c)enter this timely quest. In short: imaginative work—so promising—highly recommended (re)search!”
—Martin Laubscher, senior lecturer in homiletics and liturgy, University of the Free State
“Wessel Wessels is a young and promising practical theologian born and bred in the heart of postcolonial South Africa. For him, homiletics is the ongoing endeavor to struggle with contemporary challenges preachers are facing in our African context. In his text he starts by locating himself in culture and wrestles with Black Theology of Liberation. He enriches our postcolonial understanding of homiletics through reimagining, reframing, and reconfiguring preaching in exploring consciousness and the preacher’s identity.”
—Ian Nell, professor of practical theology, Stellenbosch University
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