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This study brings salim, the Korean concept of “making live” or “enlivening,” into conversation with shakti, the Indian concept of divine power, to develop an ecofeminist thealogy of life-power. Through a comparative reading of Kali and Baridegi, it explores life-power as relational fecundity: the capacity to resist death-dealing forces, heal wounded life, and generate new possibilities for flourishing. Kali’s fierce power challenges conventional femininity and confronts mortality, while Baridegi’s journey into the realm of death reveals healing as a transformative practice of salim. Distinguishing mortality from jugim, the violence that destroys life and its generative possibilities, the study proposes “planetary care from death” as an ethical practice of sustaining, healing, and regenerating human and more-than-human life.

Dr. Jea Sophia Oh is Professor of Philosophy at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Asian and comparative philosophy, philosophical theology, religion and ecology, and feminist and decolonial theory. Her first monograph, A Postcolonial Theology of Life: Planetarity East and West (2011), pioneered Korean ecofeminist theology by bringing Alfred North Whitehead’s process thought into conversation with Donghak (東學, Eastern Learning), an indigenous Korean philosophy. Her forthcoming book, Korean Goddesses and Cultural Narratives: Salim Thealogical Hermeneutics for Planetary Care (Bloomsbury, 2027), further develops her comparative ecofeminist work through salim, Korean goddess narratives, and planetary care. She currently serves as President-Elect of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (SACP).

This event is co-organized by the Centre for Research on Culture and Gender (CRCG) and Ghent Center for South Asian Studies (GCSAS).