Postcolonial Literature and Ecotheology

Dear Colleagues,

Secular criticism, as Edward Said defined it, has been central to the study of postcolonial literature (understood to include the literatures of the global south and the developing world, including Asian, African, Middle Eastern, Pacific Islands, Caribbean and Latin American literatures). It is also clear, however, that traditionally secularist readings of postcolonial literature have not given full account of the ways in which both religious and spiritual connections to the natural world (including monotheistic, polytheistic, and idiosyncratic conceptions of metaphysics and the supernatural) in various postcolonial contexts have been suppressed by colonial structures and remain sources of potent resistance to them. Given the significant advancements in ecotheology in recent years across world religions and the call of many religious and civic leaders for religion to join the cause of sustainability, the time is ripe for an investigation into the areas of potential collaboration and synergy between postcolonial literature and ecotheology. Though postcolonial literature and ecotheology are two distinct areas of critical inquiry, their mutual imbrication might offer a unique frame to explore profound ways about how literary, cultural, spiritual and ecological narratives converge. While postcolonial literature is primarily concerned with exposing how the history of colonial violence and erasures are embedded in the earth, ecotheology attempts to integrate ecological and theological perspective toward a better stewardship of the planet. This raises the questions: Can postcolonial literature be a source of ecotheological wisdom? Can ecotheology provide a unique lens to read postcolonial literature?

This Special Issue seeks papers that explore the following questions in any postcolonial context:

• What does it mean and what does it yield to bring postcolonial literature and ecotheology into dialogue? What are the tensions?
• What synergies and syntheses are possible between secularism and spirituality in postcolonial literature?
• What are the various and even competing roles of secular science, religious mythology, and individual encounters with immanence and transcendence in the natural world in postcolonial texts?
• When and how does land become seen as sacred space and when and how is the sacred a source of resistance to colonialism?
• How does postcolonial literature reflect on the power and fate of indigenous cosmologies and spiritualities in the Anthropocene?
• What kind of environmental hope can monotheistic traditions offer in postcolonial contexts?
• How has the Anthropocene changed the way we read postcolonial literature, particularly with regard to the story of religion?
• What are the ethical and moral underpinnings of environmental care in postcolonial literature?
• How is environmental justice imagined in postcolonial literature theologically?
• In what ways might postcolonial literature be read ecotheologically?

Abstracts of no more than 300 words and a CV should be received by January 24, 2024. The editors will make their selection of contributors by February 24, 2024. Final papers of no fewer than 5000 words are due on June 24, 2024. Final revisions and publication will be completed by August 24, 2024.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor, or to the Assistant Editor of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. George Handley
Dr. Animesh Roy
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• ecotheology
• postcolonialism
• secular literature
• climate change
• indigeneity
• cosmology
• secularism
• sacred literature
• creation
• immanence
• environmentalism