Abstract

The thesis of this paper encapsulates the deep suspicion postcolonial theory has of privileged identity claims while ignoring the manner in which identity is negotiated in a postcolonial context. The limits of identity claims with regard to theology and ethics is analyzed through Rahner’s presentation of “Indifferent Freedom” and its impact on gendered subalterns. A feminist postcolonial theological anthropology rejects the dehumanizing consequences of Rahner’s move to condone violence in the face of force in the world. What is needed rather, is a non-violent and embodied response in the face of violence, initiated by the gendered subaltern, which simultaneously captures Rahner’s original intention of linking spirituality to ethics. Gayatri C. Spivak’s notion of the caress to interrupt the dehumanized discourses of exploitation and unequal power is forwarded as the way to being human in the postcolonial context, in order to make Rahner’s theology and spirituality more concrete for postcolonial societies.