On White Theology ... and other Lies: Redemptive Communal Narrative in Toni Morrison's Beloved
Toni Morrison's Beloved can be read as a decidedly theological work, particularly in its expression of redemptive communal unity through narrative re-telling. Morrison's imagined community in Beloved moves from fragmented isolation to liberative solidarity with each other, dramatically exe...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2021
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| In: |
Literature and theology
Year: 2021, Volume: 35, Issue: 3, Pages: 285-308 |
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture FD Contextual theology NBE Anthropology |
| Further subjects: | B
Toni Morrison
B Narrative Ethics B Beloved B Communal Liberation B Postcolonial Theology B Contextual Theology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Toni Morrison's Beloved can be read as a decidedly theological work, particularly in its expression of redemptive communal unity through narrative re-telling. Morrison's imagined community in Beloved moves from fragmented isolation to liberative solidarity with each other, dramatically exemplifying a postcolonial theological vision, which draws from African traditional cultures. Although often rejected by some theological interpreters as "pop-gnostic", Toni Morrison's Beloved rejects a theological worldview of coloniality and offers instead a hybridised approach to theological meaning. In dispelling the racial "othering" that frequently occurs in both literature and theology, Morrison crafts a theological narrative that retells the sinful past in the hope of transcending guilt for the sake of a harmonious future. Thus, the theological insight of Beloved is found in a syncretic cosmology that does not perpetuate colonial ontological categories but forges a communal narrative that is non-possessive and open to a future free from the shackles of the past. Morrison's Beloved equips the theologian with pertinent questions, ones that wrestle with the presence of God within a suffering and oppressed community; these are timely questions that must be posed to the Christian tradition in order to transcend the lies of white theology. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4623 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Literature and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/litthe/frab014 |