Introduction

Indigenous relationality serves as a spiritual and political framework for sovereignty and kinship that governs the interconnected systems of global Indigenous nations. Consequently, as co-editors of this special issue, we see Indigenous critique as a necessary intervention to challenge the colonial biases, structural racism, and restrictive definitions found within the academic study of religion. We identify our positionalities and describe how we came to this work. These provided the grounding from which we encouraged contributors to engage with critical Indigenous studies as a means of challenging the Western European and settler colonial episteme that has profoundly shaped academic fields, including religious studies

Colonialism · Episteme · Indigenous · Kinship · Politics · Sovereignty · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Karl Barth and Christian Theology · Study and Philosophy of Religion