Decolonial Love

<p>Bringing together theologies of liberation and decolonial thought <i>Decolonial Love </i>interrogates colonial frameworks that shape Christian thought and legitimize structures of oppression and violence within Western modernity. In response to the historical situation of colonial modernity the book offers a decolonial mode of theological reflection and names a historical instance of salvation that stands in conflict with Western modernity. Seeking a new starting point for theological reflection and praxis Joseph Drexler-Dreis turns to the work of Frantz Fanon and James Baldwin. Rejecting a politics of inclusion into the modern world-system Fanon and Baldwin engage reality from commitments that Drexler-Dreis describes as orientations of decolonial love. These orientations expose the idolatry of Western modernity situate the human person in relation to a reality that exceeds modern/colonial significations and catalyze and authenticate historical movement in conflict with the modern world-system. The orientations of decolonial love in the work of Fanon and Baldwin-whose work is often perceived as violent from the perspective of Western modernity-inform theological commitments and reflection and particularly the theological image of salvation.</p><p><i>Decolonial Love</i> offers to theologians a foothold within the modern/colonial context from which to commit to the sacred and from a historical encounter with the divine mystery face up to and take responsibility for the legacies of colonial domination and violence within a struggle to transform reality.</p>