Beyond Man reimagines the meaning and potential of a
philosophy of religion that better attends to the inextricable links
among religion, racism, and colonialism. An Yountae, Eleanor Craig,
and the contributors reckon with the colonial and racial implications
of the field's history by staging a conversation with Black,
Indigenous, and decolonial studies. In their introduction, An and
Craig point out that European-descended Christianity has historically
defined itself by its relation to the other while paradoxically
claiming to represent and speak to humanity in its totality. The
topics include secularism, the Eucharist's relation to Blackness, and
sixteenth-century Brazilian cannibalism rituals as well as an
analysis of how Mircea Eliade's conception of the sacred underwrites
settler colonial projects and imaginaries. Throughout, the
contributors also highlight the theorizing of Afro-Caribbean thinkers
such as Sylvia Wynter, C. L. R. James, Frantz Fanon, and Aimé
Césaire whose work disrupts the normative Western categories of
religion and philosophy.
Contributors. An
Yountae, Ellen Armour, J. Kameron Carter, Eleanor Craig, Amy
Hollywood, Vincent Lloyd, Filipe Maia, Mayra Rivera, Devin Singh,
Joseph R. Winters