500 Years of Christianity and the Global Filipino/a

The year 2021 marked the five-hundredth anniversary of Christianity in the Philippines. With over 90% of the Filipin@s (Filipino/as) in the country and more than eight million around the world identifying as Christian, they are a significant force reshaping global Christianity. The fifth centenary called for celebration, reflection, and critique. This book represents the voices of theologians in the Philippines, the United States, Australia, and around the world examining Christianity in the Philippines through a postcolonial theological lens that suggests the desire to go beyond the colonial in all its contemporary manifestations. Part 1, “Rethinking the Encounters,” focuses on introducing the context of Christianity’s arrival in the archipelago and its effect on its peoples. Part 2, “Reappropriation, Resistance, and Decolonization,” grapples with the enduring presence of coloniality in Filipin@ religious practices. It also celebrates the ways Christianity has been critically and creatively reimagined.

"This groundbreaking volume interrogates the past, analyzes the present, and envisions decolonial Christianity for the Philippines. It discusses cultural hybridity, indigenous traditions, resistance movements, migration and diaspora, and environmental justice from postcolonial and feminist perspectives. It makes a critical contribution to the study of Asian and postcolonial Christianity."—Kwok Pui-lan, Dean’s Professor of Systematic Theology, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Author of “Postcolonialism, Feminism, and Religious Discourse”

"In this illuminating volume, discover a celebrative commemoration of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines. The different contributors offer a postcolonial and feminist critique, and a global perspective, especially within the Filipino diaspora. Uncover the extraordinary influence of the Philippine Catholic Church on national history, from independence struggles, survival under MartialLaw to environmental preservation.  However, this collection does not shy away from revealing the shadows behind the light, highlighting cultural erasure, the rise of alternative faiths, and interreligious challenges. This comprehensive exploration of Philippine Christianity offers a rich understanding of its complex history."

—Mary John Mananzan OSB, Activist, Theologian, and Superior of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters in Manila, Author of “Shadows of Light: Philippine Church History Under Spain, A People’s Perspective”

"Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines failed to fully celebrate the significance and meaning of the 500^th year anniversary of the arrival of in 2021. Fortunately, there are ongoing attempts to revisit and rethink our ancestors’ encounters with the colonizers as well as to determine how we can pursue the tasks of decolonization and resistance. This book – a collection of 16 essays written from aFilipino-centric point of view while adopting postcolonial and feminist perspectives – provides the reader with a detailed assessment of what I have labelled as the chauvinist Christianity handed down to the present generations. Bravo to this book’s writers and editors for this must-read book which will certainly hold a pride of place in Filipiniana collections."

—Karl Gaspar CSsR, Anthropologist, Theologian, Artist, and Professor of Philippine Studies, Ateneo De Davao University, Author of “Handuman (Remembrance): Digging for the Indigenous Wellspring”

"500 Years of Christianity and the Global Filipino/a: Postcolonial Perspectives challenges a great deal of what many of us have learned and taught in church history about Christianity in the Philippines.  It also affirms a great deal of what we have learned and taught.  The book does this by consistently engaging both colonizing and decolonizing historical experiences and forms of knowledge over the past five centuries in the Philippines, in all of their complexity.  Along the way it provides us with access to multiple and competing colonial and indigenous narratives, experiences, epistemologies, and people.  The compelling goal of the effort is decolonizing the Philippine nation and Filipino peoples globally, a moral imperative that guides the entire project.  I consider it one of the most important books on Christianity in the Philippines to have been published in the last half-century."

—Dale T. Irvin, Professor of World Christianity, New School of Biblical Theology, Co-Editor, Journal of World Christianity

Cristina Lledo Gomez is the Presentation Sisters Lecturer at BBI-The Australian Institute of Theological Education (BBI-TAITE) and a Research Fellow for the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Charles Sturt University, Australia. Her role at BBI-TAITE is directed toward promoting women’s spiritualities, feminist theologies, and ecotheologies.  

Agnes M. Brazal is a Full Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Education at De La Salle University Manila, The Philippines, former President of DaKaTeo (Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines), and author/editor of eleven books that include A Theology of Southeast Asia: Liberation-Postcolonial Ethics in the Philippines (2019). 

Ma. Marilou S. Ibita is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Education at De La Salle University, The Philippines, and a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Her research centers around biblical literature and Jewish-Christian dialogue.