A Palestinian Christian theologian shows how the reality of empire shapes the context of the biblical story, and the ongoing experience of Middle East conflict.

This book challenges the argument that the United States is a Christian nation, and that the American founding and the American Constitution can be linked to a Christian understanding of the state and society. Vincent Rougeau argues that the United States has become an economic empire of consumer citizens, led by elites who seek to secure American political and economic dominance around the world. Freedom and democracy for the oppressed are the public themes put forward to justify this dominance, but the driving force behind American hegemony is the need to sustain economic growth and maintain social peace in the United States. --from publisher description.

The Spanish cleric Bartolomé de Las Casas is a key figure in the history of Spain’s conquest of the Americas. Las Casas condemned the torture and murder of natives by the conquistadores in reports to the Spanish royal court and in tracts such as A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1552). For his unrelenting denunciation of the colonialists’ atrocities, Las Casas has been revered as a noble protector of the Indians and as a pioneering anti-imperialist. He has become a larger-than-life figure invoked by generations of anticolonialists in Europe and Latin America. Separating historical reality from myth, Daniel Castro provides a nuanced, revisionist assessment of the friar’s career, writings, and political activities. Castro argues that Las Casas was very much an imperialist. Intent on converting the Indians to Christianity, the religion of the colonizers, Las Casas simply offered the natives another face of empire: a paternalistic, ecclesiastical imperialism. Castro contends that while the friar was a skilled political manipulator, influential at what was arguably the world’s most powerful sixteenth-century imperial court, his advocacy on behalf of the natives had little impact on their lives. Analyzing Las Casas’s extensive writings, Castro points out that in his many years in the Americas, Las Casas spent very little time among the indigenous people he professed to love, and he made virtually no effort to learn their languages. He saw himself as an emissary from a superior culture with a divine mandate to impose a set of ideas and beliefs on the colonized. He differed from his compatriots primarily in his antipathy to violence as the means for achieving conversion.

In the pains and hopes of his people, Raheb reveals an emerging Palestinian Christian theology.

What does believing mean in the face of empire and militarization? These essays articulate the critical and liberating consciousness shared by oppressed peoples across the world, arising from a faith in the God of the oppressed, expressed in radically diverse ways, and resisting the imperialist deities of materialism (read: economic growth), racism, and militarization that falsely appear as the saviors of humanity. The authors confront these false gods—which form the modern empire—worshiped by the most dominant militarized states in the world and followed by their allied states even in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. Out of the eleven articles, two are written by critical political analysts with an anti-colonial lens while recognizing the importance of faith in resistance. The rest are written by theologians who critically reflect on their faith within the context of empire and militarization in their societies. Militarization is among the most brutal forms of oppression on the resisting peoples. The theologies that have emerged from critical reflections on their collective experiences are grounded on a material spirituality as opposed to materialistic, racist, and militaristic godlessness. This collection has emerged out of creative and transformative practices in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific, and the US. The essays are divided it into four sections in recognizing some of the key features of material spirituality; indigenous, feminist and interreligious voices, and horizontal solidarity. With contributions from: Michael Lujan Bevacqua Wati Longchar Nidia Arrobo Rodas Rasika Sharmen Pieris Lilian Cheelo Siwila Young-Bock Kim Dan Gonzales-Ortega Erin Shea Martin Mark Braverman Joshua Samuel Phil Miller

Why did Jesus die? And in what ways did his crucifixion offer redemption to the world? Those questions, which lie at the heart of Christian faith, remain a pressing concern for theological reflection. What sets this work apart is that the authors -- a Palestinian theologian from Bethlehem and a New Testament scholar from the United States -- explore the meaning of the cross in light of both first and twenty-first century Palestinian contexts. Together, their insights coalesce around themes that expose the divine power of the cross both for Jesus' first followers and for contemporary readers alike.

Christians have lived in Palestine since the earliest days of the Jesus movement, yet they are often unheard and ignored in the midst of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With both lament and hope, Palestinian pastor Munther Isaac offers a theology of the land and a vision for a shared land that belongs to God, where there are no second-class citizens of any kind.