Dalits, Shame, and Salvation - by Andrew Ronnevik (Hardcover)

About the Book

Elaborates a Christian theology of shame and salvation by engaging with India's Dalits (or so-called "untouchable" people) and the contemporary study of emotions.

Book Synopsis

This book elaborates a Christian theology of shame and salvation by engaging with Dalit theology from India's so-called "untouchable" people, as well as the transdisciplinary insights of contemporary affect theory.

In doing so, Dalits, Shame, and Salvation counters the tendency in Western constructive theology to overlook both complex human feelings (or affects) and "contextual" theologies from world Christianity. Conversing with Lutheran thought and a variety of other sources, Andrew Ronnevik shows how Dalit theology and affect theory generate full-bodied accounts of shame, dignity, and communion, and he argues that these affective themes flesh out Christian understandings of sin and salvation in distinctive and crucial ways. Shame, the affective counterpart of sin, isolates and denigrates, marking the fundamental problem for oppressed Dalits and others. As Dalit Christians testify, God saves from shame through the affective gifts of dignity and communion. Dignity, given in creation and redemption, generates feelings of inestimable, inviolable worth for persons and their communities. Communion, experienced in the Lord's Supper and beyond, extends dignity across boundaries of caste and culture, producing mutual recognition and delight. Shame endures, but dignity and communion, grounded in Christian hope, empower Dalits and all of us to live with courage, faith, and joy.

Review Quotes

Dalits, Shame, and Salvation opens an unexplored trail for Dalit Studies and fills an overlooked void in Dalit theology. In this outstanding book, Ronnevik observes how shame-affected Dalits creatively utilize affective-hope to gain salvation in this life. Intercultural theologians and theorists who want to explore how world-saturated bodies (theo-pathos) can breathe life into word-confined minds (theo-logos) need to have this book in their libraries.
Sathianathan Clarke, Bishop Sundo Kim Chair and Professor of World Christianity, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., USA

About the Author

Andrew Ronnevik is lecturer in theology at Martin Luther Seminary in Lae, Papua New Guinea.