Overview

In Untouchable Bodies, Resistance, and Liberation, Joshua Samuel constructs an embodied comparative theology of liberation by comparing divine possessions among Hindu and Christian Dalits in South India. Critiquing the problems inherent in prioritizing texts when studying religious traditions, Samuel calls for the need to engage in body and people centered interreligious learning. This comparative theological reading of ecstatic experiences of the divine in Dalit bodies in Hinduism and Christianity brings out the powerful liberative potential inherent in the bodies of the oppressed, enabling us to identify alternative modes of resistance and new avenues of liberation among those who are dehumanized and discriminated, and to find deeper and meaningful ways of speaking about God in the context of oppression.

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This book is an example of Comparative Theology at its best. Through a careful, particularized, and personal (he is himself a Dalit) analysis and comparison, Samuel illustrates how the oppressed bodies of both Hindu and Christian untouchable Dalits of South India have become sacraments of liberation that, in their diversity, reflect and enhance each other. For both students and scholars -- illuminating and inspiring. - Paul F. Knitter, Paul Tillich Emeritus Professor of World Religions and Theology, Union Theological Seminary, NY I love this book. It is refreshing and honest, a painstakingly argued inquiry into the possibility of a comparative Hindu and Christian theology centered on the Dalit experience of the untouchable, outcaste body. Based on extensive surveys of prior literature, as well as his own ethnographic work in Tamil Nadu, Samuel proposes that the embodied experience of divine possession is a kairos moment, a means of Dalit hope and liberation, not only for Christians but also for Hindus. The generosity of such theological inclusivity is explosive. As a scholar of Hindu goddesses I must take this seriously. - Rachel Fell McDermott, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard College Untouchable Bodies, Resistance, Liberation is a weighty and absorbing book that carefully observes and creatively interprets Spirit-possessed Dalit bodies as they re-signify power relations though rituals of defiance, catharsis, subversion, and empowerment. Dr. Samuel discerningly and imaginatively draws from an eclectic crowd of theorists to exegete the manner in which subjugated bodies express everyday emancipatory truths through divine possession in Christian and Hindu Dalit communities. The fruition of Dr. Samuel's labor is a sensitively embedded and ingeniously construed comparative theology of liberation. - Sathianathan Clarke, Bishop Sundo Kim Chair of World Christianity, Wesley Theological Seminary

Samuel's book is provocative, insightful, and generative. With its bridge-building methodology, it enriches Dalit theology and comparative theology, honors the subtly powerful resistance of India's outcastes, and provides glimmers of hope for further liberation. Andrew Ronnevik, Ph.D. Student, Baylor University, in: Reading Religion, June 2021. This comparative theological reading of ecstatic experiences of the divine in Dalit bodies in Hinduismand Christianity brings out the powerful liberative potential inherent in the bodies of the oppressed, enabling us to identify alternative modes of resistance and new avenues of liberation among those who are dehumanized and discriminated, and to find deeper and meaningful ways of speaking about God in the context of oppression. in: Salzburger Theologische Zeitschrift, Volume 24.2 (2020). Samuel's work, in the end, is a most refreshing theological treatise. This book is a must-read. Sunder John Boopalan, Assistant Professor Biblical and Theological Studies, Canadian Mennonite Universrity, in: The Ecumenical Review, Volume 72.5 (2020). This book is an example of Comparative Theology at its best. Through a careful, particularized, and personal (he is himself a Dalit) analysis and comparison, Samuel illustrates how the oppressed bodies of both Hindu and Christian untouchable Dalits of South India have become sacraments of liberation that, in their diversity, reflect and enhance each other. For both students and scholars -- illuminating and inspiring. - Paul F. Knitter, Paul Tillich Emeritus Professor of World Religions and Theology, Union Theological Seminary, NY I love this book. It is refreshing and honest, a painstakingly argued inquiry into the possibility of a comparative Hindu and Christian theology centered on the Dalit experience of the untouchable, outcaste body. Based on extensive surveys of prior literature, as well as his own ethnographic work in Tamil Nadu, Samuel proposes that the embodied experience of divine possession is a kairos moment, a means of Dalit hope and liberation, not only for Christians but also for Hindus. The generosity of such theological inclusivity is explosive. As a scholar of Hindu goddesses I must take this seriously. - Rachel Fell McDermott, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard College Untouchable Bodies, Resistance, Liberation is a weighty and absorbing book that carefully observes and creatively interprets Spirit-possessed Dalit bodies as they re-signify power relations though rituals of defiance, catharsis, subversion, and empowerment. Dr. Samuel discerningly and imaginatively draws from an eclectic crowd of theorists to exegete the manner in which subjugated bodies express everyday emancipatory truths through divine possession in Christian and Hindu Dalit communities. The fruition of Dr. Samuel's labor is a sensitively embedded and ingeniously construed comparative theology of liberation. - Sathianathan Clarke, Bishop Sundo Kim Chair of World Christianity, Wesley Theological Seminary

This book is an example of Comparative Theology at its best. Through a careful, particularized, and personal (he is himself a Dalit) analysis and comparison, Samuel illustrates how the oppressed bodies of both Hindu and Christian untouchable Dalits of South India have become sacraments of liberation that, in their diversity, reflect and enhance each other. For both students and scholars -- illuminating and inspiring. - Paul F. Knitter, Paul Tillich Emeritus Professor of World Religions and Theology, Union Theological Seminary, NY I love this book. It is refreshing and honest, a painstakingly argued inquiry into the possibility of a comparative Hindu and Christian theology centered on the Dalit experience of the untouchable, outcaste body. Based on extensive surveys of prior literature, as well as his own ethnographic work in Tamil Nadu, Samuel proposes that the embodied experience of divine possession is a kairos moment, a means of Dalit hope and liberation, not only for Christians but also for Hindus. The generosity of such theological inclusivity is explosive. As a scholar of Hindu goddesses I must take this seriously. - Rachel Fell McDermott, Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, Barnard College Untouchable Bodies, Resistance, Liberation is a weighty and absorbing book that carefully observes and creatively interprets Spirit-possessed Dalit bodies as they re-signify power relations though rituals of defiance, catharsis, subversion, and empowerment. Dr. Samuel discerningly and imaginatively draws from an eclectic crowd of theorists to exegete the manner in which subjugated bodies express everyday emancipatory truths through divine possession in Christian and Hindu Dalit communities. The fruition of Dr. Samuel's labor is a sensitively embedded and ingeniously construed comparative theology of liberation. - Sathianathan Clarke, Bishop Sundo Kim Chair of World Christianity, Wesley Theological Seminary

Author Information

Joshua Samuel, Ph.D. is Visiting Lecturer for Theology, Global Christianity, and Mission at Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary, New York. Previously Samuel taught in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Marymount Manhattan College, New York.

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