Postcolonial and Decolonial Perspectives on Hymnody

Postcolonial and Decolonial Perspectives on Hymnody Introduction The recent adoption of the language of ‘postcolonial’ and ‘decolonization’ in the fields of hymnology and church music is part of a growing trend to address issues in ecclesial settings with post- and decolonial theoretical and theological lenses. Other academic disciplines are also widely adopting these theoretical approaches. For the purposes of this essay, postcolonial theory refers to intellectual analysis of the dynamic between the colonizer and the colonized particularly in the realm of the cultural, and predominantly in Asian contexts; and decolonial thinking refers to the work of a group of scholars from Latin...