Biography
Namsoon Kang, Professor of Theology and Religion, joined Brite faculty in 2006, having taught previously at the Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge University in Cambridge, United Kingdom and Methodist Theological University in Seoul, South Korea. Writing both in English and Korean, her most recent books include On Forgiveness, For Justice, Cosmopolitan Theology, Diasporic Feminist Theology, and Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity (co-edited). Teaching, researching, and writing from transdisciplinary spaces, her particular theoretical interests are in discourses of cosmopolitanism, apophatic theology/philosophy, postmodernism, postcolonialism, feminism, and diaspora. Her writing on cosmopolitan theology engages recent theories of cosmopolitan rights, justice, and hospitality, especially those of Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, and Jacques Derrida.
An acclaimed speaker who lectures throughout the world, she has given lectures and speeches in Brazil, Canada, Fiji, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Jamaica, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippine, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, and the USA. She has been actively involved in various international ecumenical organizations and programs, was a plenary speaker at the WCC 9th Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2006, and served on the Programme Guideline Committee of the World Council of Churches at the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, South Korea in 2013. She served as the president of WOCATI (World Conference of Associations of Theological Institutions) in 2008-2015.
She received the Louise Clark Britten Endowed Faculty Excellence Award twice by vote of the Class of 2009 and of 2012, Catherine Saylor Hill Award of Faculty Excellence by vote of faculty in 2013, and Award for Distinguished Achievement as a Creative Teacher and Scholar in 2014, 2016, and 2019 at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University.
Degrees:
Ph.D., Drew University, Madison NJ, USA
M.Phil., Drew University, Madison NJ, USA
Th.M., Methodist Theological Seminary, Seoul, KOREA
B.Th., Methodist Theological Seminary, Seoul, KOREA
Courses Taught:
Derrida and Theopolitical Issues
Cosmopolitan Theology
Love: Philosophical-Theological Issues
Postmodernism and Theology
Postcolonial Theologies
Feminism and Theology
World Religions and Gender
Christian Theology of Religions
Professional Affiliations:
American Academy of Religion
The Westar Institute
Robinson College, University of Cambridge, UK
Divinity School of Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
Select Publications:
Religion and Gender. Revised Edition. Seoul: Dongnoek Publisher, 2018.
Feminist Theology in the 21st Century. Revised Edition. Seoul: Dongnoek Publisher, 2018.
The Man with Manicure: Philosophical Essays. Seoul: Hangil Press, 2018.
Feminism and Christianity. Revised Edition. Seoul: Dongnoek Publisher, 2017.
On Learning: Critical Reflection. Seoul: Dongnoek Publisher, 2017.
On Forgiveness: The Impossibility and Possibility of Forgiveness. Seoul: Dongnoek Publisher, 2017.
For Justice: Humanities as Critical Resistance. Seoul: Dongnoek Publisher, 2016.
Cosmopolitanism and Religion: In Search of Perpetual Peace in the 21st Century. Seoul: New Wave Plus Press, 2015.
Diasporic Feminist Theology: Asia and Theopolitical Imagination. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2014.
Cosmopolitan Theology: Reconstituting Neighbor-Love, Hospitality, and Solidarity in an Uneven World. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2013.
Postcolonial Mission: Power and Partnership in World Christianity. Sopher Press, 2011. Co-edited.
Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity, Oxford, UK: Regnum Books, 2010. Co-edited.