Empires rise and expand by taking lands and resources and by enslaving the bodies and minds of people. Even in this modern era, the territories, geographies, and peoples of a number of lands continue to be divided, occupied, harvested, and marketed. The legacy of slavery and the scapegoating of people persists in many lands, and religious institutions have been co-opted to own land, to gather people, to define proper behavior, to mete out salvation, and to be silent. The contributors to People and Land, writing from under the shadows of various empires—from and in between Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Oceania—refuse to be silent. They give voice to multiple causes: to assess and transform the usual business of theology and hermeneutics; to expose and challenge the logics and delusions of coloniality; to tally and demand restitution of stolen, commodified and capitalized lands; to account for the capitalizing (touristy) and forced movements of people; and to scripturalize the undeniable ecological crises and our responsibilities to the whole life system (watershed). This book is a protest against the claims of political and religious empires over land, people, earth, minds, and the future.

Resistance to Empire and Militarization gathers critically reflective articles by 25 leading and emerging scholars/practitioners from religious and non-religious backgrounds, representing three generations of survivors of imperial invasions and genocidal massacres across the globe. The authors interrogate and expose the oppressive religious and secular ideologies and mechanisms of the modern empire and its allies that cause desecration of lives and the earth through various means, ranging from psychological operations to the brute force of advanced technological warfare. Offering perspectives from the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific and the Caribbean Islands, the authors address topics such as mass killings, starvation, rape, militarized prostitution, torture, forced disappearances, land grab, displacement and the destruction of nature, while articulating people's inherent collective aspiration for liberation that is expressed in multiple languages of faith as well as in secular humanist strands. They help evoke and sharpen the alternate consciousness among peoples in furthering resistance, and in envisioning and building a non-imperialist future for us, for our children, and for our planet. These are testimonies of truth and liberation, written with a prophetic urgency.

Empires rise and expand by taking lands and resources and by enslaving the bodies and minds of people. Even in this modern era, the territories, geographies, and peoples of a number of lands continue to be divided, occupied, harvested, and marketed. The legacy of slavery and the scapegoating of people persists in many lands, and religious institutions have been co-opted to own land, to gather people, to define proper behavior, to mete out salvation, and to be silent. The contributors to People and Land, writing from under the shadows of various empires-from and in between Africa, Asia, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Oceania-refuse to be silent. They give voice to multiple causes: to assess and transform the usual business of theology and hermeneutics; to expose and challenge the logics and delusions of coloniality; to tally and demand restitution of stolen, commodified and capitalized lands; to account for the capitalizing (touristy) and forced movements of people; and to scripturalize the undeniable ecological crises and our responsibilities to the whole life system (watershed). This book is a protest against the claims of political and religious empires over land, people, earth, minds, and the future.