In Beyond the Spirit of Empire, the authors analyze the global empire not only in its political and economic dimensions, but also in its symbolic constructions of power and in its general assumptions often taken for granted. How does empire mould human subjectivity, for instance, and how does it affect the understanding of humans within the whole of creation? What are the religious dimensions of empire, its claims to divine attributes like omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, eternity, and what about its alleged exclusiveness and pervasiveness that destroys human life and freedom, which turns politics into a banal matter?
The authors propose to look beyond empire to the possibility of politics and freedom, to the recovery of the notion of people, to the importance of ongoing concern for the oppressed and excluded, and to a messianic faith that allows us to live in anticipation, though ambiguously, of the promise of new times to come.
This rich and interdisciplinary book presents a powerful up-to-date critique of the spirit of Empire, using critical insights from post-Marxist, postmodern, and postcolonial theories. Written by authors who have engaged liberation Christianity from three different geographical locales, this text provides resources and visions for those who believe that annother world and an alternative spirit that resists Empire are possible. I highly recommend this creative theological reading of transcendence, subjectivity, and democracy in the political present.
Kwok Pui-lan, author of Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology
‘This unusual and engaging book can be properly described as “the geography of religion and the constitution of Western empires.” A Methodist from Germany, a Catholic Korean in Brazil and a Methodist from Argentina and of Italo-Spanish descent allows for an intra-religious and inter-national disciplinary dialogue. The book will be of interest to all readers interested in religion, theologians or not, Christians or not, whether or not they are located within the realm of Western Empire or in its exteriority, that is, beyond Christian theology in all its diversity. The book makes a signal contribution to understanding the double role of theology and religion. On the one hand, Christian Theology was and continues to be part of Western imperialism and, on the other, from Christian Theology emerged variegated theologies of liberation, of which this book is an excellent example.'
Walter Mignolo, Duke University