Rethinking Gender, Reimagining Healing in Minjung Theology: An Indonesian Feminist Theological Rupture

This article rethinks gender and its impact on a reimagination of healing in Minjung theology. I argue that rethinking gender in Minjung theology by reconnecting its three features of collectivity, art, and event from a feminist trauma perspective ruptures the dominant masculine, heterosexual, and liberation grammar in Minjung theology and creates a new imagination of Minjung theology as a discourse of healing. I call this oscillation between rethinking gender and reimagining healing a feminist theological rupture embedded in a grammar of trauma and resilience. This grammar is a theological addition to Minjung theology’s core emphasis on resistance and liberation. I intend to extend and complexify Minjung theology’s masculine and heterosexual grammar and make it more accessible to feminist, queer, and broader contemporary theological praxes for healing. Methodologically, I use a self-reflexive approach by weaving the feminist and queer voices of South Korea and Indonesia with my own voice as rupturing voices to examine the complex tapestry and relevance of Minjung theology. As a result, this article unveils the plausibility of Minjung theology as a grammar of healing that resonates with the rich and complex stories of trauma, witnessing, healing, and liberation in Asia.