Preaching Jesus: Postcolonial Approaches

“Postcolonial approaches to preaching Jesus make it possible to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the 21st-century postcolonial world in a theologically responsible, homiletically constructive, and culturally relevant way. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Eunjoo Mary Kim Iliff School of Theology Contact Me

About this sabbatical grant for researchers

We live in an unprecedented world of diversity in race, ethnicity, culture, and religion, and experience conflicts and tensions between colonizers and the colonized in the past and present in every sector of society. Given these globalized postcolonial conditions, my sabbatical project is concerned with how postcolonial approaches make a difference when we preach Jesus following the liturgical seasons. It will invite Christian churches to engage in conversation around this concern by critically evaluating their preaching ministries from a postcolonial perspective and exploring new and expanded understandings of Christological themes through postcolonial imagination. It will also provide homiletical insights and strategies to make the moment of preaching a “Third Space,” in which the congregation may renew their Christian identity and be challenged to live as postcolonial agents, transforming our society locally and globally. The five chapters will focus on Christological themes emerging from Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost through the reflective practical theological method. Each chapter will contribute to decolonizing the pulpit and refurbish it with postcolonial images, metaphors, and stories of “the hybrid Jesus” and with strategies for communicating postcolonial messages to contemporary listeners who still have a colonial mindset in a theologically responsible and homiletically constructive way.