Decolonizing religion and the practice of peace

Two case studies from the postcolonial world

Bibliographic Data

ID3867952
AuthorsA Omer (0000-0001-8994-825X, The University of Notre Dame, USA, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume8
Issue3
Pages273-296
Publication date2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Research on Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2050-3032 • E-ISSN: 2050-3040
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2050303220924111
OpenAlexW3021145412
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited43

Based on extensive field work focused on interreligious peacebuilding practices in Kenya and the Philippines, this article argues that decolonial accounts of peacebuilding, in line with decolonial interventions in the study of religion, remain captive to the task of epistemological undoing and thus insufficiently relevant to the precarious lives of many invisibalized people in the global South. The question is whether decolonial thinking in the study of religion and theology should concern itself with such pertinence. I first examine the colonial legacy of "peace" and key features of decolonial interventions in the modernist, civilizational, and developmentalist discourses within which "peace" is embedded. Next, I analyze how interreligious peacebuilding practices both entrench coloniality while improving the lives of people who engage in such practices and how such practices rely on thin or "sticky notes" religiosity, deeply inconsistent with decolonial theologies and religiosity. Finally, I show how, on the ground, mere existence and overcoming hate reside along a spectrum of decolonial politics

Colonialism · Environmental ethics · Missiology · Peacebuilding · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Religiosity · Sociology · Undoing · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion, Society, and Development

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