Week 10 – Rahab Says Hello to Judith: A Decolonizing Feminist Reading – Musa W. Dube – Sugirtharajah

This article seems to find other oppressive causes for women not only from Patriarchical system in the Israelite society but also from the slavery, concubines, and captives. This multiple oppressions become more complex in a colonial period because the feminist can also be endangered to be affected by colonialism. Therefore, I agree with Dube that it is necessary to liberate the feminism itself first out of the colonialism.

Week 10 Desiring War: Apocalypse, Commodity Fetish, and the End of History – Erin Runions – Sugirtharajah

             What struck me from this article is that the relation between the freedom of Bush’s administration and the epitome of capitalist desire. In this reasoning, I realized how the rhetoric of freedom can disguise the evil side of capitalism to look apocalyptic prophecy for the world peace. I agree with Runions that we need some kind of checks and balances to correct this apocalyptic metaphors of Bush’s administration right.

Week 10 Exodus-Toward-Egypt: Filipino-Americans’ Struggle to Realize the Promised Land in America – Eleazar S. Fernandez – Sugirtharajah

There are many parts in this article I feel sympathy for since I as an international student from Korea. Like Filipino immigrants did, many of Korean immigrants also came to America for “American Dream” and failed to achieve it with a lot of frustration and despair. However, one thing different is that ever since the Korean economy became competitive with other developed countries, Koreans who come to the States  are no more longing for the “American Dreams.” The number of people is increased, who come here for education and go back to Korea. I guess this shows that the immigrants are still more engaged with financial issues to live a better life.

Week 10 Canonization and Marginalization: Mary of Magdala – Karen L. King – Sugirtharajah

I agree with King in his saying that “[The Gospel of Mary]…argued that direct access to God was possible for all through the Spirit” (:288). God is not limited by social gender, roles, sex, and childbearing in order for his mission to be spread out, I believe. I guess I want to look up the book of the Gospel of Mary a little more carefully.

Week 9 Cutchery Tamil Versus Pure Tamil – Hephzibah Israel – Sugirtharajah

I think the most important thing to consider in the issue of translating the Tamil Bible is not the issue of “whose Tamil or whose translation” (:280) but the canonical matter that can deliver the message of God to the audience in the closest way that God wants to speak. This article reminds me to think about the power of language even in the translating the word of God into a colonial society. But I believe that using the native language because it is more helpful for the Tamil society to catch the closer meaning of God’s intention through the Scripture of their own language.

Week 9 How Local Divine Powers Were Suppressed: A Case of Mwari of the Shona – Dora R. Mbuwayesango – Sugirtharajah

 This is amazing to witness from this article how European colonialism and Christianity were interwoven with each other to make the Shona to be religiously and politically suppressed to the colonial power and religion. What makes me think deeper is that God, supposed to be kept shrine, seemed used for a wrongful purpose by the colonial mission. But then, can “the God” the natives believed at that time the same God that we believe? I doubt it.

Week 9 Sheroes and Villains: Conceptualizing Colonial and Contemporary Violence Against Women in Africa – Amina Mama – Castle

I was surprising that even the violence against women in Africa was affected by the British colonialism. These colonial gender ideologies have been intertwined with the European patriarchal imperialism and the masculine administration structure. What really struck me is that even the natives were part of the acceleration of the violence during this colonial period “primarily in the form of neocolonialist economic policies” (:251).

Week 9 – Survival and Invention: Indigeneity in the Caribbean – Peter Hulme – Castle

Definition of the indigeneity of the Caribs is I think very hard to make because there are not a lot of resources found, and if any, there are mostly by “visitors.” Therefore, I support what Hulme says that it is crucial that the Caribs open to other groups outside the island to gain wider angle to see themselves as Hulme points out.

Week 9 Representing Sati: Continuities and Discontinuities – Rajeswari Sunder Rajan – Castle

The paradox in this article makes me sad. The Indian widows in the precolonial period were sacrificed to the crucial ritual that they were to choose or forced to be burned alive. And even though widows in the British India were emancipated from the ritual, their lives were still miserable, living in death for the pressure of the tradition. Rajan tells me well to understand the paradox through the three different periods: precolonial, colonial and postcolonial working along with feminist literatures.

Week 9 Ch. 8 Mission of the Church – Fuellenbach

I think the whole point of this chapter is the kingdom of God and its mission through the church. I agree that today’s Christian churches should consider the inculturation of the Christian message and dialogue with other religions, which are addressed in this article. Above all, God loves the world and wants to fulfill His love towards every nation, race and culture; therefore, the church as His servant must follow the universal love of God.