In The Coloniality of the Secular, An Yountae investigates the collusive ties between the modern concepts of the secular, religion, race, and coloniality in the Americas. Drawing on the work of Edouard Glissant, Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, Sylvia Wynter, and Enrique Dussel, An maps the intersections of revolutionary non-Western thought with religious ideas to show how decoloniality redefines the sacred as an integral part of its liberation vision. He examines these thinkers' rejection of colonial religions and interrogates the narrow conception of religion that confines it within colonial power structures. An explores decoloniality's conception of the sacred in relation to revolutionary violence, gender, creolization, and racial phenomenology, demonstrating its potential for reshaping religious paradigms. Pointing out that the secular has been pivotal to regulating racial hierarchies under colonialism, he advocates for a broader understanding of religion that captures the fundamental ideas that drive decolonial thinking. By examining how decolonial theory incorporates the sacred into its vision of liberation, An invites readers to rethink the transformative power of decoloniality and religion to build a hopeful future.
An Yountae is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at California State University, Northridge. He is coeditor of Beyond Man: Race, Coloniality, and Philosophy of Religion, also published by Duke University Press, and author of The Decolonial Abyss: Mysticism and Cosmopolitics from the Ruins.
Acknowledgments vii Introduction. A Decolonial Theory of Religion 1 Part I. Genealogies 1. Modernity/Coloniality/Secularity: The Cartography of Struggle 25 2. Crisis and Revolutionary Praxis: Philosophy and Theology of Liberation 57 Part II. Poetics 3. Phenomenology of the Political: Fanon's Religion 97 4. Phenomenology of Race: Poetics of Blackness 113 5. Poetics of World-Making: Creolizing the Sacred, Becoming Archipelago 139 Conclusion 177 Notes 181 Bibliography 205 Index 223
"How are religious sensibilities mobilized in decolonial thought, a tradition that rebels against the legacy of Christianity in shaping colonial ideologies? Challenging the widespread assumption of decolonial thought as 'secular,' The Coloniality of the Secular offers an attentive and insightful reading of some of its most celebrated theorists, surfacing their gestures toward a notion of the sacred. This is an indispensable contribution to theorizing religion in the Americas and reconceiving decolonial thought and practice!" - Mayra Rivera, author of (Poetics of the Flesh) "The Coloniality of the Secular takes on, with critical precision and erudition, the thorny concepts of religion and secularism as both have been mediated by the colonizing and hegemonic yoke of Christianity and its mirror images. Drawing upon a rich array of Africana and decolonial scholarship to make his case, An Yountae presents a provocative decolonial analysis and theory in which creolizing the sacred shines through, transcending the colonial religion/secular divide. A valuable contribution not only to decolonial thought but also to critical modernity studies, religious studies, race studies, and global southern thought." - Lewis R. Gordon, author of (Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization)
