Story and Song: A Postcolonial Interplay between Christian Education and Worship by HyeRan Kim-Cragg (review)

Story and Song seeks an integration between the story, how we read and enact Scripture, and song, how hymns in worship can bring the story alive. To do this, HyeRan Kim-Cragg carefully develops her text. An initial introduction delineates her methodology: interdisciplinary, attentive to "contexts and realities of unheard voices" (6), and postcolonial, seeing how the text is influenced by the contextual, cultural, and sociopolitical location of the reader. The introduction also posits her main thesis: the artificial division between Christian education and worship needs a postcolonial critique that moves beyond theory to the practical, especially in the area of non-Western oral culture, wisdom, and heritage.

The book is divided into two main sections. Part 1 deals with the story in Christian Education, focusing on a postcolonial approach to Scripture. It explicates postcolonial criticism, critiques the lectionary-based Seasons of the Spirit Sunday school curriculum, and includes a case study of a Korean-Canadian United Church. In part 2, the focus shifts to Song: for Kim-Cragg, the link between story and song is provided by hymns which support the liturgy and provide a scriptural teaching function. The case study in section 2 focuses on the work of the Korean Association of Women Theologians (kawt), an educational network for women graduates of theological seminaries in Korea. Much of the case study focuses on the liturgical life of kawt and their creative, egalitarian approach, although Kim-Cragg points to their use of a Reformed ordo as a "Eurocentric out-dated order of service" (108).

Parts of this book would be particularly helpful for those with little background in postcolonial analysis. In chapter 2, "A Postcolonial Reading of the Story," Kim-Cragg identifies three major aspects: orientalism and otherness; language and culture; identity and concept of place, and calls us to re-evaluate our supposedly objective and neutral historical approaches. Chapter 6 is an excellent introduction to the work of Anscar Chupungco and the concept of interculturalism. And by introducing the readers to the Taiwanese musician I-to-Loh and his work with the hymnbook Sound the Bamboo, Kim-Cragg illustrates how it is possible for a collection to use original languages and melodies and Asian styles of writing. Although Kim-Cragg's critique of White Western European superiority can seem at times repetitious, she offers important insights around issues of translation, imperialistic attitudes and assumptions.

There is much good material in Story and Song, but since the author's intent is to introduce the reader to postcolonial criticism with its contextual complexities (6), it would have been helpful for the introduction to delineate her social location. The book is identified as an exploration from a Korean-Canadian postcolonial feminist perspective, but says little about the author's own experience and perspective. Since Kim-Cragg asserts that postcolonial criticism discerns influences and biases, it would have been a good opportunity to illustrate this with some personal reflection.

Kim-Cragg packs a lot of research and opinion into relatively few pages, and as a result, can appear somewhat arbitrary. A more nuanced approach might have been achieved by expanding the book at several points. Criticizing a lectionary based curriculum for failings of the lectionary itself may not be particularly helpful. Adding more material might: the addition of a Bible story based curriculum and reference to such writers as Lois Wilson whose retelling of Bible stories in Miriam, Mary and Me and Stories Seldom Told would meet Kim-Cragg's wish to highlight difficult biblical stories (46).

As well, expansion would allow acknowledgement of such material as "Children of the Dancing Sun," the United Church's aboriginal curriculum.

In part 2, she might have been able to suggest an alternate ordo for kawt liturgies.

When quoting hymn texts, she uses only first lines, and although endnotes flesh them out, they are difficult to navigate. Hymn texts (and tunes, in...