Who owns Christian history? Whose ancestors are Augustine, Anselm and Aquinas? "Ancestral Feeling" asks whether a Christian religious ancestry is compatible with postcolonial thinking. By revealing how individuals from former colonies view their European religious ancestry and highlighting the religious experiences which stem from this connection, the book demonstrates that postcolonial engagement with the narrative of Western Christendom can in fact destabilize simplistic conceptions of time and space - undermining its imperializing tendencies - and instead represent a constructive cultural force. Refusing easy answers and glib responses, the book argues both for the value of European Christian history in a transnational age, and for the powerful potential of its deconstruction.