Decolonial Settler Theology: An (Initial) Bibliography

The following bibliography lists works written largely by settler theologians and Christians doing theology on stolen land and seeking reconciliation between settlers and natives in settler colonial societies (indigenous theologians writing about settler colonialism have not been included here). Am I missing something? – put comments in the chat.

Andraos, Michel, ed. The Church and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas: In Between Reconciliation and Decolonization. La Vergne: Cascade Books, 2019. https://wipfandstock.com/9781532631115/the-church-and-indigenous-peoplesin-the-americas/.

Augustine, Sarah. The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2021. https://www.mennomedia.org/9781513808291/the-land-is-not-empty/.

Augustine, Sarah, and Sheri Hostetler. So We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2023. https://heraldpress.com/9781513812946/so-we-and-our-children-may-live/.

Barter, Jane. ‘God Keep Our Land? Unsettling Christian Theology’. Toronto Journal of Theology 38, no. 2 (2022): 167–77. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/50/article/875066.

Budden, Chris. Following Christ in Invaded Space: Doing Theology on Aboriginal Land. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2009. https://wipfandstock.com/9781606086087/following-jesus-in-invaded-space/.

Cassidy, Laurie. ‘Starting with the Land Under Our Feet’. In What Is Constructive Theology?: Histories, Methodologies, and Perspectives, edited by Marion Grau and Jason Wyman, 167–89. London: T&T Clark, 2020. https://doi.org/10.5040/9780567695178.ch-008.

Clarke, Daniel. ‘Living Justly: Seeking Shalom in a Stolen Land’. The Christian Teachers Journal 28, no. 2 (May 2020): 4–7. https://issuu.com/onlinectj/docs/ctj080_may20_no_crops_lr.

Davis, Richard A. ‘Settler Colonialism’. Political Theology Network, 19 July 2022. https://politicaltheology.com/settler-colonialism/.

Deverell, Garry. ‘How the Churches Can Reckon with Their Colonial Legacy’. ABC Religion & Ethics, 23 October 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/religion/churches-and-their-colonial-legacy-garry-deverell/14091754.

Enns, Elaine, and Ched Myers. Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2021. https://wipfandstock.com/9781725255357/healing-haunted-histories/.

Fontaine, Darcie. Decolonizing Christianity: Religion and the End of Empire in France and Algeria. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/religion/church-history/decolonizing-christianity-religion-and-end-empire-france-and-algeria?format=HB.

Grassow, Peter S. ‘1820 Settlers, Open Spaces, and Theology: A Reflection on How the 1820 Settlers’ Theological Views Shape Our Understanding of Uninhabited Land’. Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 38, no. 2 (December 2012): 163–71. http://hdl.handle.net/10500/8119.

Griffin, Laura. ‘Dispersal, Defense, and Dispossession: Rereading Genesis 11:1-9 from Stolen Land’. In Bible Blindspots: Dispersion and Othering, edited by Jione Havea and Monica J. Melanchthon, 17–36. Intersectionality and Theology Series. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2021. https://wipfandstock.com/9781725276765/bible-blindspots/.

Habel, Norman C. Acknowledgement of the Land and Faith of Aboriginal Custodians: After Following the Abraham Trail. Reservoir, Vic: Morning Star Publishing, 2018.

Healy, Susan, ed. Listening to the People of the Land: Christianity, Colonisation and the Path to Redemption. Auckland: Pax Christi Aotearoa New Zealand, 2019. https://paxchristiaotearoa.nz/listening-to-the-people-of-the-land/.

Heinrichs, Steve, ed. Buffalo Shout, Salmon Cry: Conversations on Creation, Land Justice, and Life Together. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2013. https://www.mennomedia.org/9780836198744/buffalo-shout-salmon-cry/.

———, ed. Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2019. https://orbisbooks.com/products/unsettling-the-word.

Jacobs, Jim Bear. ‘Righting Some Wrongs by Returning Stolen Land’. In Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition, edited by Mark Elsdon. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2024. https://www.eerdmans.com/9780802883247/gone-for-good/.

Judd, Andrew. ‘The Bible Story That Explains Australia: Jezebel and Ahab’s Violent Vineyard’. ChristianityToday.com, 12 July 2023. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/july-web-only/australia-indigenous-naboth-acknowledgement-country.html.

Kliewer, Victor, and Sean Byrne. ‘A Changing Relationship: Mennonite “Settlers” and the Indigenous People in Manitoba’. Journal for Peace and Justice Studies 31, no. 2 (1 October 2022): 21–43. https://doi.org/10.5840/peacejustice202231214.

Mawson, Michael. ‘Unsettling Jesus Christ: Indigenous and Settler Christologies in the Aftermath of Colonisation’. In Unsettling Theologies, edited by Brian Fiu Kolia and Michael Mawson, 37–55. Postcolonialism and Religions. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46121-7_4.

Morgan Bell. ‘Seeking Justice, Praying Judgment: A Public Reckoning with Settler Racism and Colonialism in Canada’. Substack newsletter. God Here & Now (blog), 17 November 2023. https://barthcenter.substack.com/p/seeking-justice-praying-judgment.

Morgan, Joëlle M. ‘Restorying Indigenous–Settler Relations in Canada: Taking a Decolonial Turn Toward a Settler Theology of Liberation’. Thesis, Université Saint-Paul / Saint Paul University, 2018. https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-21858.

Nadeau, Denise Marie. Unsettling Spirit: A Journey into Decolonization. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020. https://www.mqup.ca/unsettling-spirit-products-9780228001577.php.

Nielsen, Marianne O., and Barbara M. Heather. Finding Right Relations: Quakers, Native Americans, and Settler Colonialism. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2022. https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/finding-right-relations.

O’Sullivan, Dominic. Faith, Politics, and Reconciliation: Catholicism and the Politics of Indigeneity. Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2005. https://atfpress.com/product/faith-politics-and-reconciliation-catholicism-and-the-politics-of-indigeneity/.

Perdew, Stephanie. ‘On Native Land’. The Christian Century. Accessed 13 February 2024. https://www.christiancentury.org/article/features/native-land.

Picard, Andrew, and A D Clark-Howard. ‘The Christian Settler Imaginary: Repentant Remembrances of Christianity’s Entanglement with Settler Colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand’. Practical Theology 15, no. 1–2 (January 2022): 78–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073x.2021.2023948.

Pitkänen, Pekka. ‘Ancient Israel and Settler Colonialism’. Settler Colonial Studies 4, no. 1 (2 January 2014): 64–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2013.812944.

———. Commentary on Numbers: Narrative, Ritual, and Colonialism. Place of publication not identified: Routledge, 2020. https://www.routledge.com/A-Commentary-on-Numbers-Narrative-Ritual-and-Colonialism/Pitknen/p/book/9780367515362.

———. Joshua. Apollos Old Testament Commentary 6. Nottingham: Apollos, 2010. https://ivpbooks.com/joshua-hb.

———. ‘Pentateuch–Joshua: A Settler-Colonial Document of a Supplanting Society’. Settler Colonial Studies 4, no. 3 (3 July 2014): 245–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2013.842626.

———. ‘Reading Genesis–Joshua as a Unified Document from an Early Date: A Settler Colonial Perspective’. Biblical Theology Bulletin 45, no. 1 (1 February 2015): 3–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146107914564822.

———. ‘Settler Colonialism in Ancient Israel’. In The Routledge Handbook of the History of Settler Colonialism, edited by Edward Cavanagh and Lorenzo Veracini, 43–54. New York: Routledge, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315544816-10.

Prior, Michael. The Bible and Colonialism: A Moral Critique. The Biblical Seminar 48. Sheffield: Academic Press, 1997. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/bible-and-colonialism-9780567369222/.

———, ed. Western Scholarship and the History of Palestine. London, 1998.

———. Zionism and the State of Israel: A Moral Inquiry. London: Routledge, 1999. https://www.routledge.com/Zionism-and-the-State-of-Israel-A-Moral-Inquiry/Cm-Prior/p/book/9780415757744.

Reese, Alistair. ‘Pākehā Identity and the Treaty’. E-Tangata (blog), 25 February 2023. https://e-tangata.co.nz/reflections/pakeha-identity-and-the-treaty/.

Schweitzer, Don, and Paul L. Gareau, eds. Honouring the Declaration: Church Commitments to Reconciliation and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada: University of Regina Press, 2021. https://uofrpress.ca/Books/H/Honouring-the-Declaration.

Simpson, Ray. Brendan’s Return Voyage: A New American Dream: Indigenous, Post-Colonial, and Celtic Theology. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2021. https://wipfandstock.com/9781725292093/brendans-return-voyage-a-new-american-dream/.

Snyder, Howard A. Jesus and Pocahontas: Gospel, Mission, and National Myth. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2015. https://www.lutterworth.com/product/jesus-and-pocahontas-gospel-mission-and-national-myth/.

Travis, Sarah. Decolonizing Preaching: Decolonizing Preaching the Pulpit as Postcolonial Space. Loyd John Ogilvie Institute of Preaching Series. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014. https://wipfandstock.com/9781625645289/decolonizing-preaching/.

———. Unsettling Worship: Reforming Liturgy for Right Relations with Indigenous Communities. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023. https://wipfandstock.com/9781666746617/unsettling-worship/.

Wivell, Ruth. ‘The Unsettled Realities of Pākehā Settler Identity’. Anglican Journal of Theology in Aotearoa and Oceania 2, no. 2 (2023): 81–97. https://www.stjohnscollege.ac.nz/journal.

Woodley, Randy, and Bo C. Sanders. Decolonizing Evangelicalism: An 11:59 p.m. Conversation. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020. https://wipfandstock.com/9781498292030/decolonizing-evangelicalism/.

Yong, Amos, and Barbara Brown Zikmund, eds. Remembering Jamestown: Hard Questions About Christian Mission. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2010. https://wipfandstock.com/9781608991969/remembering-jamestown/.