Decolonizing Preaching: Decolonizing Preaching The Pulpit as Postcolonial Space

Sarah Travis

Nov 2014 · Lloyd John Ogilvie Institute of Preaching Series Book 6 · Wipf and Stock Publishers

About this ebook

Colonialism and imperialism continue to impact the personal and social identities of North American preachers and listeners. In Decolonizing Preaching, Sarah Travis argues that sermons have a role in shaping the identity and ethics of listeners by helping them formulate responses to empire and colonization. Travis employs postcolonial theories to provide important insights for the practice of preaching today. She also turns to the social doctrine of the Trinity to offer a vision of the divine/human community that effectively deconstructs colonizing discourse. This book offers preachers and other practical theologians a gentle introduction to colonial history, postcolonial theories, and Social Trinitarian theology, while equipping them with tools to decolonize preaching and strategies for preventing, resisting, and responding to colonizing discourse. Travis effectively casts a vision of a "perichoretic space" in which preacher and listener encounter the living God-in-Trinity and are transformed, reconciled, and sent out to others in the church and beyond.

About the author

Sarah Travis is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. She teaches worship and preaching at Knox College, University of Toronto.