Contemplating the Lived Theology of the Devadāsīs as Decolonial Epistemology in World Christianity

Abstract

This paper will contribute to decolonial efforts that seek to address the role of power and colonialism in knowledge production in Christian theology, with particular focus on the devadāsīs of South India. It will look to the context of the devadāsīs, otherwise referred to as sacred sex workers, in South India, and argue that the hybrid religiosity and silenced epistemology of the subaltern women has the potential to challenge dominant ways of contemplating Christ in World Christianity. It suggests that such religiosity interrupts normalised notions of Christianity that have further marginalised the oppressed women, as the lived religiosity of the devadāsīs acts as a challenge to Eurocentric theology and mission that has systematised ‘the poor’ into deserving and undeserving based upon dichotomous notions of decency. Inspired by the indecent theology of Marcella Althaus-Reid, the paper suggests that an indecent epistemology shaped by the sexual narratives of the oppressed brings to the forefront intersectional narratives of struggle in Christianity that offer prophetic ways of contemplating Christ.