Repetition in the work of a Samoan Christian theologian: Or, what does it mean to speak of the Perfect Pig of God?

Abstract

The Samoan Christian theologian Ama’amalele Tofaeono draws on Repetition; Christianity; diverse intellectual sources to articulate an ecological theology theology; Samoa; American both distinctively Samoan and self-consciously Oceanic. I examine Samoa Tofaeono’s writings through the lens of recent work in linguistic anthropology on repetition and replication. By paying close attention to the ways texts and their original contexts, authorship, and intentions can be brought forward into new contexts, such anthropological work offers a useful perspective on Tofaeono’s theological arguments about creation and salvation. Tofaeono frames creation and salvation as actions that are necessarily ongoing—matters of repetition rather than rupture, a kind of continuity that depends not on fundamental durability but on repeated reengagement. An appreciation of Tofaeono’s articulation of time and repetition can in turn illuminate the anthropological study of social transformation and help develop productive interdisciplinary dialogue between anthropology and theology.

Repetition in the work of a Samoan Christian theologian: Or, what does it mean to speak of the Perfect Pig of God?