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Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World
"A thought-provoking look at the intertwining of religion and social control."--
Publishers Weekly
● Explains what "empire" is in our modern day
● Gives practical spiritual guidance for resisting empire's daily influence
● Explores how early Christians navigated imperial pressures
● Unpacks how empire influences how we see ourselves and others
Everyone wants to belong.
What does true belonging look like when the society you live in is not something you want to "belong" to?
In Liturgies for Resisting Empire, Cuban American theologian and writer Kat Armas provides a roadmap for Christians seeking a countercultural way of living that prioritizes community and humanity over dominance and power.
Armas combines spiritual practices and biblical theology to help us create authentic belonging to God, ourselves, each other, and creation. She begins by examining how empire affects us daily through its pervasive ideologies and systems of control. Drawing from decolonial and postcolonial biblical interpretation, she explores how the New Testament church resisted Roman imperial power while building communities centered on God's kingdom values rather than worldly dominance.
This book offers hope for Christians struggling to live faithfully within systems of exploitation and oppression. Armas provides practical spiritual disciplines, community-building strategies, and theological frameworks that empower readers to resist empire's dehumanizing effects while cultivating spaces of authentic belonging and liberation.
Discover a spiritual way of life that you actually want to belong to--one liturgy at a time.
● Explains what "empire" is in our modern day
● Gives practical spiritual guidance for resisting empire's daily influence
● Explores how early Christians navigated imperial pressures
● Unpacks how empire influences how we see ourselves and others
Everyone wants to belong.
What does true belonging look like when the society you live in is not something you want to "belong" to?
In Liturgies for Resisting Empire, Cuban American theologian and writer Kat Armas provides a roadmap for Christians seeking a countercultural way of living that prioritizes community and humanity over dominance and power.
Armas combines spiritual practices and biblical theology to help us create authentic belonging to God, ourselves, each other, and creation. She begins by examining how empire affects us daily through its pervasive ideologies and systems of control. Drawing from decolonial and postcolonial biblical interpretation, she explores how the New Testament church resisted Roman imperial power while building communities centered on God's kingdom values rather than worldly dominance.
This book offers hope for Christians struggling to live faithfully within systems of exploitation and oppression. Armas provides practical spiritual disciplines, community-building strategies, and theological frameworks that empower readers to resist empire's dehumanizing effects while cultivating spaces of authentic belonging and liberation.
Discover a spiritual way of life that you actually want to belong to--one liturgy at a time.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 4, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
September 27, 2025
I'm not sure this is the best way to start a review for a book centered on faith, however, I can't help but start with a basic acknowledgement - if you know the theological world of Kat Armas, you know that Kat Armas doesn't fu** around.
"Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World" isn't your grandma's book of liturgies (Well, unless you have a truly bada** grandma. They do exist. I didn't have one.).
In fact, you'll likely have to really understand the definition of liturgy to really understand just how dynamic a book of liturgies "Liturgies for Resisting Empire" really is from beginning to end.
It's almost cliche' to say that a writer dives deep, however, Armas casts a spell (I think Christians are allowed to do that) with this thoughtful and precise glimpse inside a world empire likes to cosplay as Christianity and captivates us with charismatic tomfoolery.
Armas really starts the discussion in common ground - we want to belong. It's who we are as humans. It's who we are as Christians. We want to belong. What does that really mean? What does that really mean when we're surrounded by a society that isn't exactly compelling?
I mean, c'mon. Who would really want to belong to all of this ?
With "Liturgies for Resisting Empire," Armas guides us away from dominance and power and toward community and humanity and into a place where we genuinely want to belong.
I struggled, at least initially, to get into Armas's rhythm. "Liturgies for Resisting Empire" isn't some Cliff's Notes book of liturgies. It's grounded in wisdom that Armas helps us practically apply and actually makes us want to apply. For those used to warm and fuzzy liturgies, Armas instead constructs theologically immersive and profoundly impactful liturgies combatting systems of control and colonial biblical interpretation. She brings forth the New Testament church that shunned Roman imperial power in favor of countercultural communities more concerned with kingdome values than oppressive dominance.
"Liturgies for Resisting Empire" is intellectually resonant, emotionally accessible, and remarkably human amidst it all. Hopeful and empowering, "Liturgies for Resisting Empire" is the type of theological empowerment and challenge we've come to expect from Kat Armas and I couldn't possibly be more thankful for it.
"Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World" isn't your grandma's book of liturgies (Well, unless you have a truly bada** grandma. They do exist. I didn't have one.).
In fact, you'll likely have to really understand the definition of liturgy to really understand just how dynamic a book of liturgies "Liturgies for Resisting Empire" really is from beginning to end.
It's almost cliche' to say that a writer dives deep, however, Armas casts a spell (I think Christians are allowed to do that) with this thoughtful and precise glimpse inside a world empire likes to cosplay as Christianity and captivates us with charismatic tomfoolery.
Armas really starts the discussion in common ground - we want to belong. It's who we are as humans. It's who we are as Christians. We want to belong. What does that really mean? What does that really mean when we're surrounded by a society that isn't exactly compelling?
I mean, c'mon. Who would really want to belong to all of this ?
With "Liturgies for Resisting Empire," Armas guides us away from dominance and power and toward community and humanity and into a place where we genuinely want to belong.
I struggled, at least initially, to get into Armas's rhythm. "Liturgies for Resisting Empire" isn't some Cliff's Notes book of liturgies. It's grounded in wisdom that Armas helps us practically apply and actually makes us want to apply. For those used to warm and fuzzy liturgies, Armas instead constructs theologically immersive and profoundly impactful liturgies combatting systems of control and colonial biblical interpretation. She brings forth the New Testament church that shunned Roman imperial power in favor of countercultural communities more concerned with kingdome values than oppressive dominance.
"Liturgies for Resisting Empire" is intellectually resonant, emotionally accessible, and remarkably human amidst it all. Hopeful and empowering, "Liturgies for Resisting Empire" is the type of theological empowerment and challenge we've come to expect from Kat Armas and I couldn't possibly be more thankful for it.
March 10, 2026
If you, like me, often feel despair when looking at this broken world, this book will be a soothing balm. It’s full of prayers and reflections for resisting the encroaching power of empire and reclaiming humanity and community. The prayers are beautifully written and the reflections are informative and inspiring. This book is a call for Christians to turn away from power-seeking and reclaim the peaceful resistance modelled by Jesus.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me access to an early digital copy of this book.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me access to an early digital copy of this book.
May 16, 2026
Each of the nine chapters that make up this book begin with an "Invocation" and a "Reflection," and each chapter ends with a "Benediction." In that regard this book contains liturgies as indicated by the book's title. However, the majority of the book's narrative addresses issues of empire in its multiple meanings and issues of "seeking community, belonging, and peace in a dehumanizing world" as stated in the book's subtitle.
The short liturgies help put the reader into an introspective and contemplative state of mind for considering the rest of the book's contents. The author uses the term "empire" in a metaphorical expanded sense that addresses many aspects of modern life, both religious and secular. Beginning with the traditional historical and political meanings of empire, the author expands her narrative to address lies, ideology, hierarchy, dualism, hustle, sameness, dominance, and violence (the previous series of words are taken from the chapter titles). The author also frequently uses the term "decolonize" to describe the act of removal or healing from the effects of empire.
The author shares bits of her spiritual journey by mentioning her experiences first with an evangelical megachurch and later attending seminary. She finds aspects of empire in both of those environments. (She refers to seminary as "belly of empire.")
This book's narrative seeks the powerless, in-between places, areas of ambiguity, and paradox. One of the comments by a Goodreads.com friend attached to this review says, "It sounds like she's holding on to the baby while throwing away the bathwater." I found that an apt description.
The rest of this review is made up of many quotations excerpted from the book. In the following I have made the chapter titles and section titles in bold font to distinguish them from the quotes.
1. Rejecting Empire, Embracing Joy
Because when the earth groans so must we. Because speaking of peace and justice in a fractured world requires that we acknowledge the brokenness and the violence that continue to spread unchecked
Confronting the Theology of Empire
As Palestinian scholar Edward Said notes, empire isn't just soldiers and weapons; it's ideas, attitudes, practices, and stories.—It's a way of imagining the world
To interpret our own stories is to reclaim something sacred, to perform an act of resistance. The interpreter becomes the storyteller, the one who shapes their own history. But to be colonized is to be stripped of that power; it is to be erased from one's own story. This is part of empire's violence: seizing control of interpretation, rewriting the past to impose its own narrative on people's lives, land, and ancestors.
What Do We Mean by Empire, Anyway?
For many, empire is the villain—the tyrant, the oppressor, the force of destruction. But for those who've benefited from its rule, empire hasn't always been seen this way.
At its core, empire is about the relationship between a dominant, ruling state and a less powerful one.
Imperialism differs from empire in that it's less about the physical empire itself and more about the spirit of conquest behind it.
Untangling from Empire's Narratives
But that's the cunning of empire: It creates the very vulnerability it later claims to rescue you from.
This kingdom does not arrive with spectacle or force; it moves in unseen, quiet abundance through the ordinary. It breaks apart the illusions of power. It shatters our expectations.
I invite you to join me in this exploration, to examine our past and reclaim our present so that we can build a more just future. ... But this is the work of decolonizing. This is what healing looks like: Doing what we can, with what we have, in the capacity we're given.
2. Rejecting Lies, Embracing Reality
I was beginning to realize the problem was not just an individual church or institution but the whole system. The weight of an empire in disguise was bearing down on everything, on all of us.
I was contorting myself into something I'm not in order to chase a hollow version of belonging. And I was doing so under the shadow of the modern evangelical empire—a culture that in many ways mirrors the way political empires at large have functioned: as a force so powerful it swallows many of us whole.
The Modern Evangelical Empire
In modern megachurches, pastors embody this kind of unchecked power, positioned as proxies for God—often without true accountability.
"How did we get here?" The answer, as you might suspect, lies in empire. ... As we'll explore throughout this book, much of the Bible—especially the New Testament—shows us what it means to follow Jesus and seek true belonging under the shadow of empire.
Skilled at the Facade
American culture has glorified conquest, downplaying the brutality of the European invasion of North America.
To confront this truth is not to discard the sacred but to reclaim it, to unravel the imperial threads woven into our faith and Christian identity and ask what remains. This is the first step toward liberation, toward a vision of God and community unbound by dominion.
An Imperial Imagination
The book of Revelation shows how deeply empire is etched into the imagination of the biblical authors.
Can we replace one dualistic empire with another and call it freedom? This paradox challenges us to reflect not just on the structures of past empires but on the spaces we attempt to create in response. Are they truly liberating, or do they quietly replicate the same dynamics of exclusion and hierarchy we claim to resist?
This way of thinking often reinforces the same binary structures inherent in empire. The oppressed are exalted, the oppressors disgraced. The hierarchy shifts, but it remains unbroken.
A Sanitized Incarnation
Empire's greatest strength is the illusion that it alone can save us, bring us peace, and offer us belonging, as long as we pledge allegiance to its ways.
Because the Bible is a book written by men, it shouldn't surprise us that the story of Christ's birth is told in ways that overlook the reality of childbirth.
Empire—both American and Christian—has mastered the art of selling us a facade. ... But when we take a close look at the birth of Jesus stripped of the filters, we're confronted with a truth that calls us to reject these false narratives. The holy angst we carry is not something to ignore but a sacred stirring. It must be named, lifted like a cry in the wilderness, so that we might unearth what is real...
You can't deconstruct something—you can't truly critique it—if you haven't lived it, if you haven't breathed it and felt it in all its com-plexity. I needed to immerse myself in all its glory to then be able to turn it on its head, to be able to see past the illusion.
3. Rejecting Ideology, Embracing Wisdom
What Decolonizing Isn't
I left the megachurch that year, though in my heart I had left long before. I thought seminary would be the antidote.
Stepping into the world of scholars and theologians with their "robust" and "legitimate" faith, I, as a Latina woman from a family who spoke broken English, discovered that I'd bought into the illusion.
Much of my coursework engaged post-colonial and decolonial thinkers who were disentangling academia from colonial ideology.
Decolonizing inherently includes hearing from a diversity of people, but the two are not synonymous. Decolonization is rooted in centuries of lived experiences, teachings, and perspectives that go beyond building a more diverse bookshelf.
The Journey of Unlearning
I consider it a grace and somewhat paradoxical that this journey began for me while in seminary, right in the belly of empire.
Because we've never known a world outside the grip of colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalism, we're going to spend our entire lives holding the tension between them and the world we hope for.
This is part of what I mean when I use the term decolonize: disconnecting from the status quo, from a theology that has been molded by empire, from a colonial Christ. And this journey isn't about "arriving" somewhere or "conquering" some ideal, for these very goals are remnants of colonial
thinking, aren't they?
As you can see, decolonization is a deeply personal process with many pathways to explore, the term itself carrying a wide range of definitions and approaches.
Academia, where Western thought has been passed down, taught, and protected, has been a primary vessel for empire's ideologies.
Making Room for Other Ways of Knowing
In many non-Western traditions, knowledge is as fluid as it is sacred. Here, knowing is not a concept but a way of moving and being in a world that insists wisdom lives as much in the soil and the wind as it does in human thoughts.
This embodied knowing is a call for the oppressed to voice their reality in their own language, without translation or dilution. It's a truth-telling that transcends divisions between Western science and Indigenous wisdom: two currents that, if allowed, can thrive together, honoring the distinct ways each understands life and creation. Only when these wisdoms move in harmony can we hope to build a world in the image of those who have been silenced, a world transformed by voices that carry truth from bone to breath.
Where Knowledge Becomes a Weapon
Through stories, empires controlled social narratives, solidifying their power to define and shape the way civilizations understood themselves.
What About the Bible?
... the Bible has long been entangled with empire's ambitions. Some even suggest that its very structure-the way it was gathered, ordered, and bound-bears the imprint of imperial influence.
Decolonizing the Bible isn't about replacing one interpretation with another or simply inverting the power dynamics we've inherited. It's about holding space for a mosaic of perspectives to coexist in tension, resisting the urge to tidy them into resolution. It's a refusal to demand that Scripture make us comfortable or certain.
Consider the contrast beween Ezra-Nehemiah and Ruth.
It is in these tensions and this nuance where the richness of wisdom emerges, not by erasing contradictions but by dwelling in them, by allowing new knowledge and understanding to take root.
Life Flourishes on the Edges
Life on the edge is more adaptive because it has to be. Species that learn to survive in environments that are ever-changing become the most creative.
Nature, our own experiences, and even Scripture confirm this truth: When we nurture these sacred in-between places—both spiritual and physical—we create opportunities for flourishing.
4. Rejecting Hierarchy, Embracing Kinship
American Family Hierarchy?
These small humans are discovering who they are—separate from us. And in that discovery, they're learning to trust, to explore, and to belong. Yet for those entrenched in theologies that prioritize control, this time of discovery can be seen as something to crush.
This is the kind of authority Jesus modeled, one rooted in tenderness, connection, and service. It's a vision that many evangelical leaders have missed in their pursuit of power, mistaking submission to human authority for faithfulness to God.
Not Your Father's Hierarchy
When Jesus speaks of greatness in the kingdom of God, he doesn't point to emperors or generals; he points to children. If our parenting and our relationships were built on that vision of power, then our
households would more clearly reflect the kingdom of God instead of the ways of empire.
... part of being fully human involves reckoning with the wounds inflicted by patriarchy, colonialism, and the rigid hierarchies that have shaped our families.
Few communities on Turtle Island carry the scars of colonization like Native populations, particularly the children who were torn from their families and cultures.
And in this history, we must reckon with the ways the church failed to protect the most vulnerable. This reckoning, however painful, is necessary if we are to seek any meaningful healing or reconciliation.
Racial Systems of Hierarchy
What makes racism so insidious is that it's so deeply embedded in the story of the West that it can feel impossible to imagine life without it.
The letter to Philemon is a reminder that interpretation is never free from bias. Whether it is seen as a story of reconciliation or a quiet endorsement of bondage depends entirely on what the reader brings to it.
A Kin-dom of Belonging
This kin-dom is God's liberation unfolding among us; it offers a table where all are welcomed and everyone belongs.
This is the way hierarchy works. Those with power think they get to delegitimize everyone else's ex-periences. And that's why part of my decolonizing work as a mother starts with the commitment to believe my daughter.
This is how we build a society rooted in kinship, a society where truth is honored and voices are believed.
5. Rejecting Dualism, Embracing Paradox
How Did We Get Here?
The split between mind and body, good and evil, and beauty and shame is a way of seeing the world that makes life feel neater, less uncertain. But in this ease, we sacrifice the vast spectrum that exists between extremes, and the richness of life's in-between.
But this wasn't just a theological shift; it was a political one that aligned religious authority and salvation with emerging ideas of individualism, nationhood, and power. Colonizers and revolutionaries saw themselves as defenders of liberty, believing it was their Christian duty to fight for the birth of a new nation. But their concept of liberty prioritized individual rights over collective responsibiliy.
Letting Our Light Shine?
I was captivated by this image of Jesus—the Word, the light—piercing through the dark.
I have always loved language, the way a single word can hold something so vast. But looking back, I see how these words in all their poetic beauty might have contributed to a way of seeing the world I am now trying to dismantle.
This binary mindset was weaponized to rationalize colonial and missionary efforts to bring
the "light of the gospel" to the so-called "heathen" in the non-Western world. 11 The darkness wasn't just metaphorical anymore—it represented a people, a geography, a skin. The Word became flesh, but in the hands of empire, the message became something that fractured us instead of knitting us together.
Ambivalence Sets Us Free
The illusion of certainty masquerades as spirituality, but the real stuff is found in the messy middle-in the ambiguity, the doubt, the ambivalence.
The Case for Harmony
The meeting ground between the self and the other need not be a battlefield, though that's how empires throughout history have framed it, often invoking the divine to justify their atrocities.
Here's where a profound paradox lies: The closer we get to Divine Light, the more clearly we see our own shadows, and this too is grace.
We are liberated when we're able to notice the stirrings of life happening inside us and out, and in the spaces in-between where we don't know to look.
6. Rejecting Hustle, Embracing Slowness
Empire has always been in the business of assigning value to differences, constructing systems around what it deems "ideal." But that ideal? It's always shifting in order to fit the needs of power.
The Colonized Body
Historically, white American policymakers have ignored the health of marginalized communities while using the resulting high rates of illness and death to justify dis-crimination, like segregation or immigration restrictions.
Blessed Are the Disabled
Large crowds followed him, the text says, and when he saw them, he went up a mountain and began to teach. This is the context behind Jesus's teaching, this crowd—the sick, disabled, and spiritually oppressed.
Ableism, like racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and all the other structures of violence that fracture our world, is a system that disadvantages groups of people with disabilities.
Ableism has been used as a tool for maintaining other forms of inequality, a way to strip dignity and worth from those who have always belonged. This is because at its core ableism is about more than disability. It's about who gets to be seen as fully human.
The Commodified Body
Empire tells us that the exploited bear the blame for their own suffering. Corporations insist that capitalism thrives because it's righteous, that inequality and devastation aren't failures but necessary costs. It's a comforting lie. But if we're honest, we know that every ounce of wealth in one hand is weighed by the loss in another. This is the truth we're called to face.
The Paradox of Wage Labor
Wage labor presents a paradox. There is, on the surface, freedom—the freedom to choose whom to work for, to step in and out of employment as one pleases. But beneath that thin veil of choice, capitalism makes it nearly impossible to survive without laboring for a paycheck.
I want to stop treating time like it's something slipping away and instead let it hold me. Freedom is learning how to dwell in the slowness, to breathe without the weight of scarcity pressing on my chest.
Time as Liberator
And maybe that's what decolonizing time looks like-freeing ourselves from the rush, the race, and learning to live in rhythm with the sacred cycles that have always been there, waiting for us to remember.
A Holy Pause
When Jesus invites the weary to come to him for rest, he's offering more than spiritual solace; he's also addressing the oppressive demands placed on their lives.
Reclaiming the Sacredness of the Body
Rest, then, is an act of trust. Trusting that we don't have to earn our place here. Trusting that we are enough, even when we are still.
If we are to reckon with our complicity in oppressive systems, we must turn inward and examine the quiet, unspoken ways we have learned to shrink, to resent, to war against our own flesh.
This is not just about individual transformation but also a commitment to fostering collective change.
(out of space)
(Review continues in the comments section)
The short liturgies help put the reader into an introspective and contemplative state of mind for considering the rest of the book's contents. The author uses the term "empire" in a metaphorical expanded sense that addresses many aspects of modern life, both religious and secular. Beginning with the traditional historical and political meanings of empire, the author expands her narrative to address lies, ideology, hierarchy, dualism, hustle, sameness, dominance, and violence (the previous series of words are taken from the chapter titles). The author also frequently uses the term "decolonize" to describe the act of removal or healing from the effects of empire.
The author shares bits of her spiritual journey by mentioning her experiences first with an evangelical megachurch and later attending seminary. She finds aspects of empire in both of those environments. (She refers to seminary as "belly of empire.")
This book's narrative seeks the powerless, in-between places, areas of ambiguity, and paradox. One of the comments by a Goodreads.com friend attached to this review says, "It sounds like she's holding on to the baby while throwing away the bathwater." I found that an apt description.
The rest of this review is made up of many quotations excerpted from the book. In the following I have made the chapter titles and section titles in bold font to distinguish them from the quotes.
1. Rejecting Empire, Embracing Joy
Because when the earth groans so must we. Because speaking of peace and justice in a fractured world requires that we acknowledge the brokenness and the violence that continue to spread unchecked
Confronting the Theology of Empire
As Palestinian scholar Edward Said notes, empire isn't just soldiers and weapons; it's ideas, attitudes, practices, and stories.—It's a way of imagining the world
To interpret our own stories is to reclaim something sacred, to perform an act of resistance. The interpreter becomes the storyteller, the one who shapes their own history. But to be colonized is to be stripped of that power; it is to be erased from one's own story. This is part of empire's violence: seizing control of interpretation, rewriting the past to impose its own narrative on people's lives, land, and ancestors.
What Do We Mean by Empire, Anyway?
For many, empire is the villain—the tyrant, the oppressor, the force of destruction. But for those who've benefited from its rule, empire hasn't always been seen this way.
At its core, empire is about the relationship between a dominant, ruling state and a less powerful one.
Imperialism differs from empire in that it's less about the physical empire itself and more about the spirit of conquest behind it.
Untangling from Empire's Narratives
But that's the cunning of empire: It creates the very vulnerability it later claims to rescue you from.
This kingdom does not arrive with spectacle or force; it moves in unseen, quiet abundance through the ordinary. It breaks apart the illusions of power. It shatters our expectations.
I invite you to join me in this exploration, to examine our past and reclaim our present so that we can build a more just future. ... But this is the work of decolonizing. This is what healing looks like: Doing what we can, with what we have, in the capacity we're given.
2. Rejecting Lies, Embracing Reality
I was beginning to realize the problem was not just an individual church or institution but the whole system. The weight of an empire in disguise was bearing down on everything, on all of us.
I was contorting myself into something I'm not in order to chase a hollow version of belonging. And I was doing so under the shadow of the modern evangelical empire—a culture that in many ways mirrors the way political empires at large have functioned: as a force so powerful it swallows many of us whole.
The Modern Evangelical Empire
In modern megachurches, pastors embody this kind of unchecked power, positioned as proxies for God—often without true accountability.
"How did we get here?" The answer, as you might suspect, lies in empire. ... As we'll explore throughout this book, much of the Bible—especially the New Testament—shows us what it means to follow Jesus and seek true belonging under the shadow of empire.
Skilled at the Facade
American culture has glorified conquest, downplaying the brutality of the European invasion of North America.
To confront this truth is not to discard the sacred but to reclaim it, to unravel the imperial threads woven into our faith and Christian identity and ask what remains. This is the first step toward liberation, toward a vision of God and community unbound by dominion.
An Imperial Imagination
The book of Revelation shows how deeply empire is etched into the imagination of the biblical authors.
Can we replace one dualistic empire with another and call it freedom? This paradox challenges us to reflect not just on the structures of past empires but on the spaces we attempt to create in response. Are they truly liberating, or do they quietly replicate the same dynamics of exclusion and hierarchy we claim to resist?
This way of thinking often reinforces the same binary structures inherent in empire. The oppressed are exalted, the oppressors disgraced. The hierarchy shifts, but it remains unbroken.
A Sanitized Incarnation
Empire's greatest strength is the illusion that it alone can save us, bring us peace, and offer us belonging, as long as we pledge allegiance to its ways.
Because the Bible is a book written by men, it shouldn't surprise us that the story of Christ's birth is told in ways that overlook the reality of childbirth.
Empire—both American and Christian—has mastered the art of selling us a facade. ... But when we take a close look at the birth of Jesus stripped of the filters, we're confronted with a truth that calls us to reject these false narratives. The holy angst we carry is not something to ignore but a sacred stirring. It must be named, lifted like a cry in the wilderness, so that we might unearth what is real...
You can't deconstruct something—you can't truly critique it—if you haven't lived it, if you haven't breathed it and felt it in all its com-plexity. I needed to immerse myself in all its glory to then be able to turn it on its head, to be able to see past the illusion.
3. Rejecting Ideology, Embracing Wisdom
What Decolonizing Isn't
I left the megachurch that year, though in my heart I had left long before. I thought seminary would be the antidote.
Stepping into the world of scholars and theologians with their "robust" and "legitimate" faith, I, as a Latina woman from a family who spoke broken English, discovered that I'd bought into the illusion.
Much of my coursework engaged post-colonial and decolonial thinkers who were disentangling academia from colonial ideology.
Decolonizing inherently includes hearing from a diversity of people, but the two are not synonymous. Decolonization is rooted in centuries of lived experiences, teachings, and perspectives that go beyond building a more diverse bookshelf.
The Journey of Unlearning
I consider it a grace and somewhat paradoxical that this journey began for me while in seminary, right in the belly of empire.
Because we've never known a world outside the grip of colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalism, we're going to spend our entire lives holding the tension between them and the world we hope for.
This is part of what I mean when I use the term decolonize: disconnecting from the status quo, from a theology that has been molded by empire, from a colonial Christ. And this journey isn't about "arriving" somewhere or "conquering" some ideal, for these very goals are remnants of colonial
thinking, aren't they?
As you can see, decolonization is a deeply personal process with many pathways to explore, the term itself carrying a wide range of definitions and approaches.
Academia, where Western thought has been passed down, taught, and protected, has been a primary vessel for empire's ideologies.
Making Room for Other Ways of Knowing
In many non-Western traditions, knowledge is as fluid as it is sacred. Here, knowing is not a concept but a way of moving and being in a world that insists wisdom lives as much in the soil and the wind as it does in human thoughts.
This embodied knowing is a call for the oppressed to voice their reality in their own language, without translation or dilution. It's a truth-telling that transcends divisions between Western science and Indigenous wisdom: two currents that, if allowed, can thrive together, honoring the distinct ways each understands life and creation. Only when these wisdoms move in harmony can we hope to build a world in the image of those who have been silenced, a world transformed by voices that carry truth from bone to breath.
Where Knowledge Becomes a Weapon
Through stories, empires controlled social narratives, solidifying their power to define and shape the way civilizations understood themselves.
What About the Bible?
... the Bible has long been entangled with empire's ambitions. Some even suggest that its very structure-the way it was gathered, ordered, and bound-bears the imprint of imperial influence.
Decolonizing the Bible isn't about replacing one interpretation with another or simply inverting the power dynamics we've inherited. It's about holding space for a mosaic of perspectives to coexist in tension, resisting the urge to tidy them into resolution. It's a refusal to demand that Scripture make us comfortable or certain.
Consider the contrast beween Ezra-Nehemiah and Ruth.
It is in these tensions and this nuance where the richness of wisdom emerges, not by erasing contradictions but by dwelling in them, by allowing new knowledge and understanding to take root.
Life Flourishes on the Edges
Life on the edge is more adaptive because it has to be. Species that learn to survive in environments that are ever-changing become the most creative.
Nature, our own experiences, and even Scripture confirm this truth: When we nurture these sacred in-between places—both spiritual and physical—we create opportunities for flourishing.
4. Rejecting Hierarchy, Embracing Kinship
American Family Hierarchy?
These small humans are discovering who they are—separate from us. And in that discovery, they're learning to trust, to explore, and to belong. Yet for those entrenched in theologies that prioritize control, this time of discovery can be seen as something to crush.
This is the kind of authority Jesus modeled, one rooted in tenderness, connection, and service. It's a vision that many evangelical leaders have missed in their pursuit of power, mistaking submission to human authority for faithfulness to God.
Not Your Father's Hierarchy
When Jesus speaks of greatness in the kingdom of God, he doesn't point to emperors or generals; he points to children. If our parenting and our relationships were built on that vision of power, then our
households would more clearly reflect the kingdom of God instead of the ways of empire.
... part of being fully human involves reckoning with the wounds inflicted by patriarchy, colonialism, and the rigid hierarchies that have shaped our families.
Few communities on Turtle Island carry the scars of colonization like Native populations, particularly the children who were torn from their families and cultures.
And in this history, we must reckon with the ways the church failed to protect the most vulnerable. This reckoning, however painful, is necessary if we are to seek any meaningful healing or reconciliation.
Racial Systems of Hierarchy
What makes racism so insidious is that it's so deeply embedded in the story of the West that it can feel impossible to imagine life without it.
The letter to Philemon is a reminder that interpretation is never free from bias. Whether it is seen as a story of reconciliation or a quiet endorsement of bondage depends entirely on what the reader brings to it.
A Kin-dom of Belonging
This kin-dom is God's liberation unfolding among us; it offers a table where all are welcomed and everyone belongs.
This is the way hierarchy works. Those with power think they get to delegitimize everyone else's ex-periences. And that's why part of my decolonizing work as a mother starts with the commitment to believe my daughter.
This is how we build a society rooted in kinship, a society where truth is honored and voices are believed.
5. Rejecting Dualism, Embracing Paradox
How Did We Get Here?
The split between mind and body, good and evil, and beauty and shame is a way of seeing the world that makes life feel neater, less uncertain. But in this ease, we sacrifice the vast spectrum that exists between extremes, and the richness of life's in-between.
But this wasn't just a theological shift; it was a political one that aligned religious authority and salvation with emerging ideas of individualism, nationhood, and power. Colonizers and revolutionaries saw themselves as defenders of liberty, believing it was their Christian duty to fight for the birth of a new nation. But their concept of liberty prioritized individual rights over collective responsibiliy.
Letting Our Light Shine?
I was captivated by this image of Jesus—the Word, the light—piercing through the dark.
I have always loved language, the way a single word can hold something so vast. But looking back, I see how these words in all their poetic beauty might have contributed to a way of seeing the world I am now trying to dismantle.
This binary mindset was weaponized to rationalize colonial and missionary efforts to bring
the "light of the gospel" to the so-called "heathen" in the non-Western world. 11 The darkness wasn't just metaphorical anymore—it represented a people, a geography, a skin. The Word became flesh, but in the hands of empire, the message became something that fractured us instead of knitting us together.
Ambivalence Sets Us Free
The illusion of certainty masquerades as spirituality, but the real stuff is found in the messy middle-in the ambiguity, the doubt, the ambivalence.
The Case for Harmony
The meeting ground between the self and the other need not be a battlefield, though that's how empires throughout history have framed it, often invoking the divine to justify their atrocities.
Here's where a profound paradox lies: The closer we get to Divine Light, the more clearly we see our own shadows, and this too is grace.
We are liberated when we're able to notice the stirrings of life happening inside us and out, and in the spaces in-between where we don't know to look.
6. Rejecting Hustle, Embracing Slowness
Empire has always been in the business of assigning value to differences, constructing systems around what it deems "ideal." But that ideal? It's always shifting in order to fit the needs of power.
The Colonized Body
Historically, white American policymakers have ignored the health of marginalized communities while using the resulting high rates of illness and death to justify dis-crimination, like segregation or immigration restrictions.
Blessed Are the Disabled
Large crowds followed him, the text says, and when he saw them, he went up a mountain and began to teach. This is the context behind Jesus's teaching, this crowd—the sick, disabled, and spiritually oppressed.
Ableism, like racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and all the other structures of violence that fracture our world, is a system that disadvantages groups of people with disabilities.
Ableism has been used as a tool for maintaining other forms of inequality, a way to strip dignity and worth from those who have always belonged. This is because at its core ableism is about more than disability. It's about who gets to be seen as fully human.
The Commodified Body
Empire tells us that the exploited bear the blame for their own suffering. Corporations insist that capitalism thrives because it's righteous, that inequality and devastation aren't failures but necessary costs. It's a comforting lie. But if we're honest, we know that every ounce of wealth in one hand is weighed by the loss in another. This is the truth we're called to face.
The Paradox of Wage Labor
Wage labor presents a paradox. There is, on the surface, freedom—the freedom to choose whom to work for, to step in and out of employment as one pleases. But beneath that thin veil of choice, capitalism makes it nearly impossible to survive without laboring for a paycheck.
I want to stop treating time like it's something slipping away and instead let it hold me. Freedom is learning how to dwell in the slowness, to breathe without the weight of scarcity pressing on my chest.
Time as Liberator
And maybe that's what decolonizing time looks like-freeing ourselves from the rush, the race, and learning to live in rhythm with the sacred cycles that have always been there, waiting for us to remember.
A Holy Pause
When Jesus invites the weary to come to him for rest, he's offering more than spiritual solace; he's also addressing the oppressive demands placed on their lives.
Reclaiming the Sacredness of the Body
Rest, then, is an act of trust. Trusting that we don't have to earn our place here. Trusting that we are enough, even when we are still.
If we are to reckon with our complicity in oppressive systems, we must turn inward and examine the quiet, unspoken ways we have learned to shrink, to resent, to war against our own flesh.
This is not just about individual transformation but also a commitment to fostering collective change.
(out of space)
(Review continues in the comments section)
May 8, 2026
What are liturgies for?
What are they capable of?
They give shape and expression to faith done with others. They are powerful and able to confront our sinfulness, our complicity with empire, to facilitate self-reflection, and provoke us to action. They are seeds capable of bearing fruit.
This collection of liturgies was just that for me and, I would assume, others like me. I am sure there are those who will read these liturgies and completely agree with everything expressed in them.
I am not one of them.
I was challenged and confronted in each of the nine chapters. I was bothered by the ways things were said or presented. But I was challenged and bothered in all of the right ways.
I do not recommend this book by Armas because I resonate with everything in its pages. I recommend it because I don’t. And I think that is why it was written. These prayers and reflections are powerful presentations of what God is [hopefully] stirring in us. May I be humble enough to listen and consider.
What are they capable of?
They give shape and expression to faith done with others. They are powerful and able to confront our sinfulness, our complicity with empire, to facilitate self-reflection, and provoke us to action. They are seeds capable of bearing fruit.
This collection of liturgies was just that for me and, I would assume, others like me. I am sure there are those who will read these liturgies and completely agree with everything expressed in them.
I am not one of them.
I was challenged and confronted in each of the nine chapters. I was bothered by the ways things were said or presented. But I was challenged and bothered in all of the right ways.
I do not recommend this book by Armas because I resonate with everything in its pages. I recommend it because I don’t. And I think that is why it was written. These prayers and reflections are powerful presentations of what God is [hopefully] stirring in us. May I be humble enough to listen and consider.
December 31, 2025
The intersection of Jesus and social justice is my sweet spot and this book nails it. If Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley and For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez were stirred into a pot, Liturgies for Resisting Empire would be the resulting soup - nourishing, a little spicy, both familiar and surprising. Kat Armas coaxes and challenges readers to examine their relationship to empire. If you haven't read it yet, there is a good chance your book club will in 2026 if you run in the same circles I do. Thank you to the author, RBmedia, and NetGalley for the audioARC.
February 1, 2026
I feel like this is the book we all need right now. Both refreshing and challenging, Armas helps us see how deeply empire has shaped our worldview and our faith. This is one I'll come back to through the years.
January 16, 2026
I can’t think of a better or more apropos book to be reading right now.
For anyone decolonizing their faith, anyone reconstructing, but especially for those who groan under the weight of empire and everything it’s ripped from our humanity, this book has great insight, very well written, on how to resist in large and small ways that very dehumanization of ourselves and our neighbors.
For anyone decolonizing their faith, anyone reconstructing, but especially for those who groan under the weight of empire and everything it’s ripped from our humanity, this book has great insight, very well written, on how to resist in large and small ways that very dehumanization of ourselves and our neighbors.
January 30, 2026
"It's easy to love a neighbor whose story doesn't challenge yours, whose existence is easily digestible. The black-and-white world keeps us from the complexity of everyday life and the tension of true faith - the kind that asks us to sit in uncertainty, to embrace contradiction, and to hold the wildness of others with grace and nuance, trusting that God dwells there too."
Kat Armas examines the intersections of empire and colonization with the Christian faith. It's very heavy on the theology and analysis side, looking closely at the time of the New Testament church and providing context on interpretation and translation of the Bible. If you are new to exploring ideas of empire or colonization on society, I don't know that this would be the place to start - it would be pretty easy to get overwhelmed with this. If you have some exposure to those ideas and are looking to dig deeper, this is excellent. It is set up as a series of liturgies with beautiful invocations, reflections, exploration of particular theme and then benediction.
"Whether you read alone or with a community, let these prayers and reflections guide you not towards easy answers but toward the sacred work of wrestling, confessing, and dreaming of something freer. There is no right way to do the work. Only the honest way. Let us begin. "
Kat Armas examines the intersections of empire and colonization with the Christian faith. It's very heavy on the theology and analysis side, looking closely at the time of the New Testament church and providing context on interpretation and translation of the Bible. If you are new to exploring ideas of empire or colonization on society, I don't know that this would be the place to start - it would be pretty easy to get overwhelmed with this. If you have some exposure to those ideas and are looking to dig deeper, this is excellent. It is set up as a series of liturgies with beautiful invocations, reflections, exploration of particular theme and then benediction.
"Whether you read alone or with a community, let these prayers and reflections guide you not towards easy answers but toward the sacred work of wrestling, confessing, and dreaming of something freer. There is no right way to do the work. Only the honest way. Let us begin. "
February 11, 2026
Turning to a book in tears and fury, looking for prayers and examples in this historical moment. The best part is the way the author brings in indigenous stories and blessings/prayers that speak to the wounds of empire.
But the explanations and discursion were just SO wide-ranging--of course empire, patriarchy, racism, homophobia, manifest destiny, capitalism, ecocide, and so on are all implicated in one another. But without the stabalizing effect of individual, personal stories (there are some, but they are brief) the chapters seem to verge into graduate school seminar territory--and I've already taken those seminars. Yes, Benedict Anderson, yes, Edward Said, yes, bell hooks, yes, Brené Brown... She really tries to cover it all, and in doing so loses the reader's engagement, in my opinion. This seems aimed at someone who might not have encountered these ideas before, but the audience of this book is not likely to be someone who has not encountered these ideas (or experienced the effect of empire firsthand) before.
But the explanations and discursion were just SO wide-ranging--of course empire, patriarchy, racism, homophobia, manifest destiny, capitalism, ecocide, and so on are all implicated in one another. But without the stabalizing effect of individual, personal stories (there are some, but they are brief) the chapters seem to verge into graduate school seminar territory--and I've already taken those seminars. Yes, Benedict Anderson, yes, Edward Said, yes, bell hooks, yes, Brené Brown... She really tries to cover it all, and in doing so loses the reader's engagement, in my opinion. This seems aimed at someone who might not have encountered these ideas before, but the audience of this book is not likely to be someone who has not encountered these ideas (or experienced the effect of empire firsthand) before.
November 19, 2025
Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World (Daily Hope and Strength to Resist the Rise of Tyranny)
Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World (Daily Hope and Strength to Resist the Rise of Tyranny)
This was a good and really deep book!
What does true belonging look like?
I am a big fan of liturgies, and this book had many of them. I liked how each chapter had one, and it really made the book really compelling.
I also found this book quite technical and, obviously, theological. A lot of interesting terms and intense thoughts. Highly recommended for academic and theological studies.
I quite enjoyed it.
Check it out if this sounds up your alley!
3.5/5
Liturgies for Resisting Empire: Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World (Daily Hope and Strength to Resist the Rise of Tyranny)
This was a good and really deep book!
What does true belonging look like?
I am a big fan of liturgies, and this book had many of them. I liked how each chapter had one, and it really made the book really compelling.
I also found this book quite technical and, obviously, theological. A lot of interesting terms and intense thoughts. Highly recommended for academic and theological studies.
I quite enjoyed it.
Check it out if this sounds up your alley!
3.5/5
December 31, 2025
The perfect book to close out 2025.
November 18, 2025
Thought provoking and insightful read. I especially like her thoughts on how we live with so much urgency and should seek pause. There were some bits and pieces I didn’t connect with at all but I can appreciate that her discussions are absolutely to be chewed on! The parallels to the Roman Empire were also intriguing.
May 16, 2026
4.5 stars
I loved it more the further I got into reading it... Highly recommend! I'm glad that I bought it so I can reread as needed.
I loved it more the further I got into reading it... Highly recommend! I'm glad that I bought it so I can reread as needed.
February 1, 2026
Having read each of her books, and finishing this most recent one this morning, I feel like Kat Armas is a prophet for our times. Her words convict, inspire, and encourage belief that a better world is possible.
“I think of the day Jesus sat in a boat, teaching the crowds on the shore. When he said, "The kingdom of God is ..." they leaned in, bracing for words about men and armies, kings and dominion. They expected images of power, grandeur, and conquest. But Jesus, with gentle subversion, spoke instead of a woman. A woman who took a little yeast, hid it in dough, and watched it rise into enough bread to nourish a whole community.
“This kingdom does not arrive with spectacle or force; it moves in unseen, quiet abundance through the ordinary. It breaks apart the illusions of power. It shatters our expectations. So how do we pursue hope, joy, and liberation alongside our neighbors and the divine while living in systems designed to manufacture despair? How do we move toward justice when empire demands our exhaustion, when scarcity is woven into the fabric of our world? How do we resist oppression without becoming consumed by it? These are the sacred questions we carry on this journey—not for easy answers, but for the fullness of life itself.”
***
“There were cracks in the logic, places where my spirit felt unsettled, but I believed that if I wanted to belong not just to this community but to an eternal one--I had to think and believe rightly And right belief wasn't found in curiosity or questions; it was found in compliance. I accepted this because I was taught that the church wasn't like "the world." We were set apart and no longer vulnerable to its lusts and distractions. We were called to die to our "old selves," distancing ourselves from anyone who might tempt us to stray, who might lure us into sin.
“Before I knew it, my loyalty to the church eclipsed my relationships with family and old friends, who I now saw as lost in their worldly ways. I pushed them aside to chase the high of worship and the security of belonging to this new community. I didn't see how fragile this belonging was though, how it depended not on love but on conformity. As Brené Brown reminds us, when belonging demands that we reject, abandon, or distance ourselves from certain people, it isn't about true connection at all but about control and power.”
***
“And so, if literature helped plant the seeds of empire, then freedom's work must also start in the realm of stories. It's not enough to dismantle empires; we must also confront and unlearn the toxic ideas these stories spread. Writers, readers, and educators are called to challenge the stereotypes, myths, and Eurocentric fantasies that have long defined colonized people in these texts. Because in the end stories are about power, and we hold the choice of which ones will shape our future.”
***
“The letter to Philemon is a reminder that interpretation is never free from bias. Whether it is seen as a story of reconciliation or a quiet endorsement of bondage depends entirely on what the reader brings to it. And in the colonial era, those assumptions were deeply shaped by the institution of slavery and the needs of those in power. It's a sobering truth: Biblical interpretation has always been influenced—and at times distorted—by political and colonial forces. What we choose to see in the text often reveals more about the systems and hierarchies we're trying to preserve or dismantle than it does about the text itself.”
***
“There's something about hierarchy and power that teaches us not to believe those deemed below us. When people express their suffering, we downplay it, dismissing their pain as a misunderstanding, an exaggeration of reality, based on our limited perspective. But the truth of the experience belongs to the one who bears it.”
***
“When we believe the divine wills something absolutely, we stop wrestling with the complexity of the world. It's how dualism still thrives in religious spaces today. I've felt it in many church settings—the pressure to see my own will as something to be set aside, to understand my desires as inherently in conflict with God's. What I wanted, thought, or felt was always considered at odds with the divine. It wasn't a both/and but an either/or. Either God was at work or I was. This set up a relentless internal tension, not just with God but with myself.
“But the more l immersed myself in Scripture, the more I saw that God isn't at war with humanity. The stories we find there aren't about a battle of wills but about a sacred dance--about God and humans moving together in harmony, creating something holy.
This reframing shifted something deep within me, reminding me that the religious life isn't a struggle for control but a movement of grace and love.”
***
“It wasn't just the fire or the wind that left the people in awe but the familiar sound of their own languages echoing through the heart of an empire that had long sought to strip them of such things. The same empire that demanded their silence, that told its subjects to abandon their native tongues, now found itself undone by a God using language not to dominate but to liberate. Too many have wielded language as a weapon, forcing those they subjugate to conform to their way of speaking, of being. Christianity, bound up as it has been with empire, has too often been complicit in this, insisting that to belong, one must speak the language of power, must fit the mold of the dominant culture.
“But in Acts 2, the Spirit moves to unmake this story. The Spirit of God does not ask us to contort ourselves into something we are not. There is no demand for assimilation, no hierarchy of languages or cultures. No single race, class, or status holds dominance in the kin-dom of God. Instead, the Spirit invites us to be the fullest expression of who we are, in all our particularity, in all our strangeness and beauty.
“Empire--whether Roman, American, or Christian--will not have the final word. The Spirit of God subverts its logic, calling forth the richness of every tongue, every story, every people. The multitude of voices will always rise, because this is how God works. God is in the midst of the holy chaos, in the languages and people that empire could never quite silence.”
***
“Empire always finds new names, new narratives to justify itself, new ways to dress war as peace. Like Roman culture, American culture is also steeped in military imagery. The United States built its own version of Pax—Pax Americana—on military and economic dominance. From its founding, America has viewed itself as a "new Rome," destined to spread democracy and freedom around the world. It might present itself as a champion of peace, but the reality is the United States maintains military bases in over fifty countries. Its peace is enforced through domination, whether through military interventions or economic control. Pax Americana hinges on a familiar paradox: Its peace is built on imposing its will on others--even and especially through force. In the end, Pax Americana, like Pax Romana, is about who holds power, who benefits from it, and who suffers under it.”
***
“Shalom is not just a simple greeting or the absence of conflict. It's not merely a world where wars have ceased and people just coexist. It is more profound, more ancient. Shalom is the fullness of life, the kind of peace that mends every crack left by sorrow, every fracture carved by violence.
“This peace extends to all of creation. The land, the sky, the creatures, and the waters are all part of it, flourishing together. Imagine a world where the earth isn't stripped bare by greed, where the poor no longer hunger and the oppressed no longer cry out beneath the weight of their chains. Shalom is the sound of the earth when it is whole.
“And yet, shalom is not passive. It confronts injustice with courage. It insists on healing broken relationships between people, between nations, between humanity and the rest of creation. And it doesn't settle for an easy truce. Shalom calls for repair, for the mending of the torn places in our world, the healing of wounds both seen and unseen. Picture the Jubilee year in ancient Israel, when debts were forgiven and land was returned to its original owners. This wasn't just economic relief; it was an act of justice, a declaration that no one should be trapped in cycles of poverty, that land and life belong to all.
“Shalom is the inheritance of those who carried the weight of empire on their backs and still dared to dream beyond it. The prophets, the freedom fighters, the ones who risked everything with the unshakable conviction that this world is not the end of our story did not wait for empire’s permission to dream. They believed in a world that could come to life through imagination.”
***
“Empire does not deal in friendship. It thrives on isolation. Its dominion is built not only through conquest but through the slow separation of people from one another, from themselves, from the earth. It is in the way a body becomes untethered from its own history, in the way a community is fractured, the way an individual becomes convinced they are meant to withstand alone what was always meant to be carried together. If an empire cannot make you silent, it will make you believe that your voice is meant only for yourself.”
“I think of the day Jesus sat in a boat, teaching the crowds on the shore. When he said, "The kingdom of God is ..." they leaned in, bracing for words about men and armies, kings and dominion. They expected images of power, grandeur, and conquest. But Jesus, with gentle subversion, spoke instead of a woman. A woman who took a little yeast, hid it in dough, and watched it rise into enough bread to nourish a whole community.
“This kingdom does not arrive with spectacle or force; it moves in unseen, quiet abundance through the ordinary. It breaks apart the illusions of power. It shatters our expectations. So how do we pursue hope, joy, and liberation alongside our neighbors and the divine while living in systems designed to manufacture despair? How do we move toward justice when empire demands our exhaustion, when scarcity is woven into the fabric of our world? How do we resist oppression without becoming consumed by it? These are the sacred questions we carry on this journey—not for easy answers, but for the fullness of life itself.”
***
“There were cracks in the logic, places where my spirit felt unsettled, but I believed that if I wanted to belong not just to this community but to an eternal one--I had to think and believe rightly And right belief wasn't found in curiosity or questions; it was found in compliance. I accepted this because I was taught that the church wasn't like "the world." We were set apart and no longer vulnerable to its lusts and distractions. We were called to die to our "old selves," distancing ourselves from anyone who might tempt us to stray, who might lure us into sin.
“Before I knew it, my loyalty to the church eclipsed my relationships with family and old friends, who I now saw as lost in their worldly ways. I pushed them aside to chase the high of worship and the security of belonging to this new community. I didn't see how fragile this belonging was though, how it depended not on love but on conformity. As Brené Brown reminds us, when belonging demands that we reject, abandon, or distance ourselves from certain people, it isn't about true connection at all but about control and power.”
***
“And so, if literature helped plant the seeds of empire, then freedom's work must also start in the realm of stories. It's not enough to dismantle empires; we must also confront and unlearn the toxic ideas these stories spread. Writers, readers, and educators are called to challenge the stereotypes, myths, and Eurocentric fantasies that have long defined colonized people in these texts. Because in the end stories are about power, and we hold the choice of which ones will shape our future.”
***
“The letter to Philemon is a reminder that interpretation is never free from bias. Whether it is seen as a story of reconciliation or a quiet endorsement of bondage depends entirely on what the reader brings to it. And in the colonial era, those assumptions were deeply shaped by the institution of slavery and the needs of those in power. It's a sobering truth: Biblical interpretation has always been influenced—and at times distorted—by political and colonial forces. What we choose to see in the text often reveals more about the systems and hierarchies we're trying to preserve or dismantle than it does about the text itself.”
***
“There's something about hierarchy and power that teaches us not to believe those deemed below us. When people express their suffering, we downplay it, dismissing their pain as a misunderstanding, an exaggeration of reality, based on our limited perspective. But the truth of the experience belongs to the one who bears it.”
***
“When we believe the divine wills something absolutely, we stop wrestling with the complexity of the world. It's how dualism still thrives in religious spaces today. I've felt it in many church settings—the pressure to see my own will as something to be set aside, to understand my desires as inherently in conflict with God's. What I wanted, thought, or felt was always considered at odds with the divine. It wasn't a both/and but an either/or. Either God was at work or I was. This set up a relentless internal tension, not just with God but with myself.
“But the more l immersed myself in Scripture, the more I saw that God isn't at war with humanity. The stories we find there aren't about a battle of wills but about a sacred dance--about God and humans moving together in harmony, creating something holy.
This reframing shifted something deep within me, reminding me that the religious life isn't a struggle for control but a movement of grace and love.”
***
“It wasn't just the fire or the wind that left the people in awe but the familiar sound of their own languages echoing through the heart of an empire that had long sought to strip them of such things. The same empire that demanded their silence, that told its subjects to abandon their native tongues, now found itself undone by a God using language not to dominate but to liberate. Too many have wielded language as a weapon, forcing those they subjugate to conform to their way of speaking, of being. Christianity, bound up as it has been with empire, has too often been complicit in this, insisting that to belong, one must speak the language of power, must fit the mold of the dominant culture.
“But in Acts 2, the Spirit moves to unmake this story. The Spirit of God does not ask us to contort ourselves into something we are not. There is no demand for assimilation, no hierarchy of languages or cultures. No single race, class, or status holds dominance in the kin-dom of God. Instead, the Spirit invites us to be the fullest expression of who we are, in all our particularity, in all our strangeness and beauty.
“Empire--whether Roman, American, or Christian--will not have the final word. The Spirit of God subverts its logic, calling forth the richness of every tongue, every story, every people. The multitude of voices will always rise, because this is how God works. God is in the midst of the holy chaos, in the languages and people that empire could never quite silence.”
***
“Empire always finds new names, new narratives to justify itself, new ways to dress war as peace. Like Roman culture, American culture is also steeped in military imagery. The United States built its own version of Pax—Pax Americana—on military and economic dominance. From its founding, America has viewed itself as a "new Rome," destined to spread democracy and freedom around the world. It might present itself as a champion of peace, but the reality is the United States maintains military bases in over fifty countries. Its peace is enforced through domination, whether through military interventions or economic control. Pax Americana hinges on a familiar paradox: Its peace is built on imposing its will on others--even and especially through force. In the end, Pax Americana, like Pax Romana, is about who holds power, who benefits from it, and who suffers under it.”
***
“Shalom is not just a simple greeting or the absence of conflict. It's not merely a world where wars have ceased and people just coexist. It is more profound, more ancient. Shalom is the fullness of life, the kind of peace that mends every crack left by sorrow, every fracture carved by violence.
“This peace extends to all of creation. The land, the sky, the creatures, and the waters are all part of it, flourishing together. Imagine a world where the earth isn't stripped bare by greed, where the poor no longer hunger and the oppressed no longer cry out beneath the weight of their chains. Shalom is the sound of the earth when it is whole.
“And yet, shalom is not passive. It confronts injustice with courage. It insists on healing broken relationships between people, between nations, between humanity and the rest of creation. And it doesn't settle for an easy truce. Shalom calls for repair, for the mending of the torn places in our world, the healing of wounds both seen and unseen. Picture the Jubilee year in ancient Israel, when debts were forgiven and land was returned to its original owners. This wasn't just economic relief; it was an act of justice, a declaration that no one should be trapped in cycles of poverty, that land and life belong to all.
“Shalom is the inheritance of those who carried the weight of empire on their backs and still dared to dream beyond it. The prophets, the freedom fighters, the ones who risked everything with the unshakable conviction that this world is not the end of our story did not wait for empire’s permission to dream. They believed in a world that could come to life through imagination.”
***
“Empire does not deal in friendship. It thrives on isolation. Its dominion is built not only through conquest but through the slow separation of people from one another, from themselves, from the earth. It is in the way a body becomes untethered from its own history, in the way a community is fractured, the way an individual becomes convinced they are meant to withstand alone what was always meant to be carried together. If an empire cannot make you silent, it will make you believe that your voice is meant only for yourself.”
March 12, 2026
This book is excellent. The author did such a great job of exposing all the many ways that colonialism and white supremacy are still at work within our culture, government, and especially the evangelical church. On every level it stands in opposition to the Gospel modeled and taught by Jesus. I especially liked the format of the book which ends each chapter with confession, benediction, and prayer. I took my time reading this one so I could really think through all of the author’s many excellent observations and admonishments. It is a book I will be thinking about for some time to come and recommending highly to others.
December 15, 2025
4.25 stars!
This book is very well-timed and especially cool because it is narrated by the author.
I really enjoyed the audio! Kat Armas has a really nice voice.
I think I would have enjoyed this one even more if I had a physical copy for the beginning parts of each chapter. It felt a little rushed just listening on audio, and I think it would have been more impactful to sit with it before the chapter text started.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one and found it to be refreshing and informative.
This book is very well-timed and especially cool because it is narrated by the author.
I really enjoyed the audio! Kat Armas has a really nice voice.
I think I would have enjoyed this one even more if I had a physical copy for the beginning parts of each chapter. It felt a little rushed just listening on audio, and I think it would have been more impactful to sit with it before the chapter text started.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one and found it to be refreshing and informative.
January 26, 2026
I have mixed feelings about this book, so I’m going to try and lay it out here in pros versus cons
Pros:
A wisdom story & parable was told at the beginning of each chapter from different cultures around the world as a statement that wisdom can be found in all culture cultures. Huge fan of this, as there are many stories we can learn from in the world to gain God‘s wisdom, and it’s not only & solely found in the Bible from Christians!
Kat gave voice to the downtrodden & marginalized in every single chapter, lifting up their voices in a way that was dignifying and holy. She told stories for Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and various others about the subversive power of nonviolent resistance, and the example given by Jesus being holy different from the authorized imposition of power and control that we see in Rome and even in some modern church structures.
The benedictions at the beginning of each chapter were lyrical and beautiful prayers. They reminded me a lot of of Emily P Freeman‘s benediction at the beginning of each of her podcasts. They were freeing, truthful, and had fantastic language to some of the deepest herds and belongings of the human heart and reaching for God and reaching for belonging.
Cons:
Cat grossly misrepresented William Carey’s work in India, as well as the modern missions movement as purely a colonial empire shaped movement of sharing the gospel.
As a student of the modern missions movement, and someone who has read countless missionary biographies, I have read and seen over and over again that while Christians traveled with militaristic colonizers to different portions of the world they also were overtly separate from those colonial forces, partnered with the local people for good, started social programs schools & hospitals, fought human trafficking, rescued child prostitutes from temples and advocated on behalf of the locals for their rights even against the colonizers that were their OWN nationality.
Two things can be true at once, and I was enraged hearing the chapter where Kat categorized the modern missions movement as a purely colonial or empire shaped movement when in reality, God used the movement of people through colonization to even bring the gospel to lands where it had never been spoken before. Good was done alongside harm and that’s true of many things in life.
It seems to me like the nuance of this is something that Kat should’ve been able to recognize in praising the modern day missionaries for still acting in the subversive, kind uplifting in justice oriented ways of Jesus, even while they themselves were underneath the power of empire and colonization, but she did not seem to recognize this.
Additionally, the use of terms like colonization, empire, decolonized faith, were an assumed language, which may make this book feel too “woke” for the people that actually REALLY need to read it. Having already read several other books that involved talking about decolonizing faith it didn’t throw me off, but I realized that the audience that really needs to read This book is gonna be thrown off by so many terms they’re not even familiar with they may not catch the message.
There was such a universal approach to names and naming of God and the divine that it felt like Jesus was portrayed as a example instead of the one true God and the one way to God, the father. The ways in which he acted and lived and taught were praised, however, Him as the ultimate authority or ultimate God of the universe solely was really underplayed, and that gave me pause as a believer.
As an audiobook, it read extremely well and Kat did a fantastic job of narrating it.
But I just kept feeling like I couldn’t wait to finish it because I was tired of listening to it. I felt like the same ideas were spoken over and over again in different ways… that we need to not give in to a system of oppression that’s under the guise of religion, and we need to embrace the ways of belonging, gracefulness, and belovedness Jesus taught.
It seemed like a lot of words to say what the gospel itself truly says already in the text.
Pros:
A wisdom story & parable was told at the beginning of each chapter from different cultures around the world as a statement that wisdom can be found in all culture cultures. Huge fan of this, as there are many stories we can learn from in the world to gain God‘s wisdom, and it’s not only & solely found in the Bible from Christians!
Kat gave voice to the downtrodden & marginalized in every single chapter, lifting up their voices in a way that was dignifying and holy. She told stories for Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and various others about the subversive power of nonviolent resistance, and the example given by Jesus being holy different from the authorized imposition of power and control that we see in Rome and even in some modern church structures.
The benedictions at the beginning of each chapter were lyrical and beautiful prayers. They reminded me a lot of of Emily P Freeman‘s benediction at the beginning of each of her podcasts. They were freeing, truthful, and had fantastic language to some of the deepest herds and belongings of the human heart and reaching for God and reaching for belonging.
Cons:
Cat grossly misrepresented William Carey’s work in India, as well as the modern missions movement as purely a colonial empire shaped movement of sharing the gospel.
As a student of the modern missions movement, and someone who has read countless missionary biographies, I have read and seen over and over again that while Christians traveled with militaristic colonizers to different portions of the world they also were overtly separate from those colonial forces, partnered with the local people for good, started social programs schools & hospitals, fought human trafficking, rescued child prostitutes from temples and advocated on behalf of the locals for their rights even against the colonizers that were their OWN nationality.
Two things can be true at once, and I was enraged hearing the chapter where Kat categorized the modern missions movement as a purely colonial or empire shaped movement when in reality, God used the movement of people through colonization to even bring the gospel to lands where it had never been spoken before. Good was done alongside harm and that’s true of many things in life.
It seems to me like the nuance of this is something that Kat should’ve been able to recognize in praising the modern day missionaries for still acting in the subversive, kind uplifting in justice oriented ways of Jesus, even while they themselves were underneath the power of empire and colonization, but she did not seem to recognize this.
Additionally, the use of terms like colonization, empire, decolonized faith, were an assumed language, which may make this book feel too “woke” for the people that actually REALLY need to read it. Having already read several other books that involved talking about decolonizing faith it didn’t throw me off, but I realized that the audience that really needs to read This book is gonna be thrown off by so many terms they’re not even familiar with they may not catch the message.
There was such a universal approach to names and naming of God and the divine that it felt like Jesus was portrayed as a example instead of the one true God and the one way to God, the father. The ways in which he acted and lived and taught were praised, however, Him as the ultimate authority or ultimate God of the universe solely was really underplayed, and that gave me pause as a believer.
As an audiobook, it read extremely well and Kat did a fantastic job of narrating it.
But I just kept feeling like I couldn’t wait to finish it because I was tired of listening to it. I felt like the same ideas were spoken over and over again in different ways… that we need to not give in to a system of oppression that’s under the guise of religion, and we need to embrace the ways of belonging, gracefulness, and belovedness Jesus taught.
It seemed like a lot of words to say what the gospel itself truly says already in the text.
December 2, 2025
Liturgies for Resisting Empire
by Kat Armas
Thank you to Brazos Press for the ARC! ✨📖
Liturgies for Resisting Empire is a thoughtful, dense, and deeply reflective work of political theology that explores what it means to belong: to God, to community, and to ourselves, while living under the pressures of empire. This isn’t a light or casual read; it’s an academic, spiritually probing examination of how power structures shape our daily lives and how faith communities can reclaim practices of resistance, dignity, and humanization.
What Stands Out
• The depth. Armas doesn’t shy away from complicated, technical, or historically loaded conversations.
• The liturgies. Each chapter opens with a prayerful reflection, grounding the book in lived spirituality rather than abstract theory.
• The decolonial lens. Armas reframes Scripture through a multicultural, anti-imperial perspective that challenges traditional Western readings.
• The invitation to belong. Not to empire or oppressive systems, but to a rooted, embodied, liberative faith.
Ideal For Readers Who Enjoy:
• Academic theology
• Faith-based social justice
• Anti-imperial or decolonial perspectives
• Liturgy and structured spiritual practices
• Books that blend history, Scripture, and activism
A Few Notes
• It’s definitely not a traditional Christian devotional. The theological approach is progressive, political, and challenging.
• The tone can feel technical or scholastic at times, which works well for study groups or readers who want something rigorously intellectual.
Overall
A complex and powerful exploration of what it means to resist empire and reclaim belonging in a world shaped by dehumanizing systems. • Rich, thoughtful, and best suited for readers who appreciate deep theological work rather than simple inspiration.
Recommended for:
• Small groups
• Academic settings
• Readers in deconstruction
• Anyone craving a justice-centered approach to faith
by Kat Armas
Thank you to Brazos Press for the ARC! ✨📖
Liturgies for Resisting Empire is a thoughtful, dense, and deeply reflective work of political theology that explores what it means to belong: to God, to community, and to ourselves, while living under the pressures of empire. This isn’t a light or casual read; it’s an academic, spiritually probing examination of how power structures shape our daily lives and how faith communities can reclaim practices of resistance, dignity, and humanization.
What Stands Out
• The depth. Armas doesn’t shy away from complicated, technical, or historically loaded conversations.
• The liturgies. Each chapter opens with a prayerful reflection, grounding the book in lived spirituality rather than abstract theory.
• The decolonial lens. Armas reframes Scripture through a multicultural, anti-imperial perspective that challenges traditional Western readings.
• The invitation to belong. Not to empire or oppressive systems, but to a rooted, embodied, liberative faith.
Ideal For Readers Who Enjoy:
• Academic theology
• Faith-based social justice
• Anti-imperial or decolonial perspectives
• Liturgy and structured spiritual practices
• Books that blend history, Scripture, and activism
A Few Notes
• It’s definitely not a traditional Christian devotional. The theological approach is progressive, political, and challenging.
• The tone can feel technical or scholastic at times, which works well for study groups or readers who want something rigorously intellectual.
Overall
A complex and powerful exploration of what it means to resist empire and reclaim belonging in a world shaped by dehumanizing systems. • Rich, thoughtful, and best suited for readers who appreciate deep theological work rather than simple inspiration.
Recommended for:
• Small groups
• Academic settings
• Readers in deconstruction
• Anyone craving a justice-centered approach to faith
January 16, 2026
For anyone looking to read this, don't read it straight through---there are Liturgies, prayers, fables, and homilies at the beginning of each chapter, along with a repetition of certain points that, even if you agree, can get a bit tiring. It's best read one night at a time. so you can best absorb 1) the point Armas is making and 2) all of the "extras" that she had stuffed in from different cultures.
Personally, I got a lot out of her personal story. As a fellow Latina raised in the Evangelical church (and all the pressures and issues that come with that), I related to a lot of it, and other aspects gave me something to think about, whether I agreed or disagreed. I also think she is at her strongest when discussing The Problem of Rome, and how, a thousand years later, all sorts of religious still feel the consequences of the Pax Romana.
For anyone looking for answers re: why the HELL anyone with a conscience or how anyone pretending to be religious got on board with the current government, this is not that book. There's a bit of lived experience, yes, but answers to that question are better answered in Jesus and John Wayne. This book is more of an advocate for fixing the current problems by 1) understanding how Empire got us into this mess, 2) recognizing the indigenous traditions stomped out by Empire, and 3) how the wisdom from those traditions can be used in the service of community resistance.
Personally, I got a lot out of her personal story. As a fellow Latina raised in the Evangelical church (and all the pressures and issues that come with that), I related to a lot of it, and other aspects gave me something to think about, whether I agreed or disagreed. I also think she is at her strongest when discussing The Problem of Rome, and how, a thousand years later, all sorts of religious still feel the consequences of the Pax Romana.
For anyone looking for answers re: why the HELL anyone with a conscience or how anyone pretending to be religious got on board with the current government, this is not that book. There's a bit of lived experience, yes, but answers to that question are better answered in Jesus and John Wayne. This book is more of an advocate for fixing the current problems by 1) understanding how Empire got us into this mess, 2) recognizing the indigenous traditions stomped out by Empire, and 3) how the wisdom from those traditions can be used in the service of community resistance.
March 29, 2026
The church is supposed to be Christ's spotless bride, but Christians have made unholy alliances with nationalism, fundamentalism, and coercive power structures. Jesus calls us to another way: "It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant." (Matthew 20:26)
In "Liturgies for Resisting Empire," Kat Armas provides a way to follow Christ's teaching. Armas, a Cuban theologian, offers a holy resistance through joy, reality, wisdom, kinship, paradox, slowness, wholeness, connection, and peace. It peels off our cultural falsehoods so that the real gospel can shine through.
There is so much in this book that heals: that the body is good, that other people are not threats, that curiosity is wise, and that even Jesus needed friends.
Here are some quotes that stood out to me:
"When belonging demands that we reject, abandon, or distance ourselves from certain people, it isn't about true connection at all but about control and power." (p. 24)
"Divine wisdom is not confined to one culture or people... truth can be found in unexpected places." (p. 57)
"Paradox is something to be embraced, not resolved." (p. 106)
Kat Armas doesn't sugar-coat her ideas. A lot of people won't like what she says. But the church needs books like this- books that challenge our assumptions. We need books that make us feel uncomfortable. Discomfort is an invitation to growth.
In "Liturgies for Resisting Empire," Kat Armas provides a way to follow Christ's teaching. Armas, a Cuban theologian, offers a holy resistance through joy, reality, wisdom, kinship, paradox, slowness, wholeness, connection, and peace. It peels off our cultural falsehoods so that the real gospel can shine through.
There is so much in this book that heals: that the body is good, that other people are not threats, that curiosity is wise, and that even Jesus needed friends.
Here are some quotes that stood out to me:
"When belonging demands that we reject, abandon, or distance ourselves from certain people, it isn't about true connection at all but about control and power." (p. 24)
"Divine wisdom is not confined to one culture or people... truth can be found in unexpected places." (p. 57)
"Paradox is something to be embraced, not resolved." (p. 106)
Kat Armas doesn't sugar-coat her ideas. A lot of people won't like what she says. But the church needs books like this- books that challenge our assumptions. We need books that make us feel uncomfortable. Discomfort is an invitation to growth.
November 18, 2025
Liturgies for Resisting Empire by Kat Armas is a work of genius! I wasn't sure what to expect when picking up a book with the words "liturgy" and "empire" in it, but I found myself intrigued by the depth of research and content that Armas shares in tying together the theology of Christ with the uprising of empires. She shares from the heart, that each of us just want to belong. But in societies, we find ourselves subject to various types of "empires", political, cultural, religious, patriarchal, familial, and more. Armas gives us a guide on how to steer away from the mindset of dominance and power and go back to the roots of humility and love that Christ espouses.
"Liturgies for Resisting Empire" is filled with so much content, it will make you want to keep reading so that you can better understand the hierarchy's we find ourselves trapped in today, and yet it is also hopeful and empowering by shining a light towards the One true God who is Sovereign and all Powerful. Thank you to RB Media, Brazos Press, and NetGalley for the Advanced review audiobook. All opinions are my own.
"Liturgies for Resisting Empire" is filled with so much content, it will make you want to keep reading so that you can better understand the hierarchy's we find ourselves trapped in today, and yet it is also hopeful and empowering by shining a light towards the One true God who is Sovereign and all Powerful. Thank you to RB Media, Brazos Press, and NetGalley for the Advanced review audiobook. All opinions are my own.
November 20, 2025
𝑳𝑰𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑮𝑰𝑬𝑺 𝑭𝑶𝑹 𝑹𝑬𝑺𝑰𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑬𝑴𝑷𝑰𝑹𝑬 𝒃𝒚 𝑲𝒂𝒕 𝑨𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒔 has been an amazing and timely gift, thanks to @recordedbooks & @netgalley which is out now.
This is a beautiful book for which I will be needing the physical copy. I was glad to have Armas read to me for my first journey through this book. To have her voice guide me through the liturgies, the prayers, the benedictions was an invitation to learn and hear from a perspective outside of my norm. I am a part of a community that is intentionally pursuing a multi-ethic expression of faith, so I am thankful to have many voices to speak into my life.
The way this book is structured gives specific topics inside the rhythms of liturgy, devotional, prayer & benediction. I wanted to spend more time with each one and soak it in, but I also wanted to keep having it poured into me. I will revisit it multiple times to let it soak, and then I am excited to share with my community and continue to process.
For those in the Christian faith, I definitely recommend being curious to hear and learn from this book, the audio a beautiful choice.
This is a beautiful book for which I will be needing the physical copy. I was glad to have Armas read to me for my first journey through this book. To have her voice guide me through the liturgies, the prayers, the benedictions was an invitation to learn and hear from a perspective outside of my norm. I am a part of a community that is intentionally pursuing a multi-ethic expression of faith, so I am thankful to have many voices to speak into my life.
The way this book is structured gives specific topics inside the rhythms of liturgy, devotional, prayer & benediction. I wanted to spend more time with each one and soak it in, but I also wanted to keep having it poured into me. I will revisit it multiple times to let it soak, and then I am excited to share with my community and continue to process.
For those in the Christian faith, I definitely recommend being curious to hear and learn from this book, the audio a beautiful choice.
November 9, 2025
I was given a copy to listen to/review from RBMedia and NetGalley. I was expecting chapters of liturgies but instead found stories that included liturgies, benedictions and stories about Kat Armas' journey towards understanding the divine in a colonized world. Though not exactly what I was expecting I enjoyed the liturgies and the stories of learning and unlearning that have encouraged me to think differently about the things I have been taught in Western, US-centric Christian spaces. I would recommend reading this one!
November 15, 2025
A lot of deconstruction books are about the Bible or the church but I would call this a deconstruction book about empire. Separating faith from empire is a crucial but often undiscussed part of deconstruction. Armas walks the reader through ways that empire harms our daily lives, both individual and systemic. She demonstrates how a life of faith can be thoughtful and intentional about resisting empire and its influences. Each chapter also includes prayers and discussion questions, making it a good choice for small groups interested in these ideas.
January 1, 2026
I think It would need to read this many times to get everything out of, but I thought it introduced me to a new way of viewing faith in a world that is not always friendly. I particularly liked the comparisons to the Roman Empire since that felt very based in history while also provided a connection to the present.
I also really enjoyed that the audio-book was narrated by the author. I think that helped me really hear the meaning in her words.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an early copy.
I also really enjoyed that the audio-book was narrated by the author. I think that helped me really hear the meaning in her words.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an early copy.
January 3, 2026
Kat Armas does an excellent job explaining what empire is, how it is present in our lives, and how it has infiltrated the church. She also holds the Bible in conversation and in tension with itself on the topic, while still showing how the Scriptures taken as a whole lead us to resist empire. That might make some readers uncomfortable but is a conversation that needs to be had. I only give it 4 stars because I wish there was more discussion on practical ways to resist empire as it pertains to the topics discussed in each chapter, but overall I think this is a well-written, honest, and very timely book.
May 13, 2026
"Isn't this what we're called to do as people of faith and as a human community? To listen deeply, to wrestle with ideas together, to learn from one another, to disagree and grow? To be open to changing our minds? These should be our goals, not just for ourselves but for the sake of those journeying alongside us."
"...shalom is not passive. It confronts injustice with courage. It insists on healing broken relationships between people, between nations, between humanity and the rest of creation. And it doesn't settle for an easy truce. Shalom calls for repair..."
"...shalom is not passive. It confronts injustice with courage. It insists on healing broken relationships between people, between nations, between humanity and the rest of creation. And it doesn't settle for an easy truce. Shalom calls for repair..."
November 17, 2025
I really enjoyed this book. It's interesting and accessible.
Understanding context is so important. Armas does a great job breaking down the how/why/what now of how to walk in love with others, on this earth, and with ourselves.
While it is a Christian book, I consider to be more of a thought-provoking commentary and applicable to readers of all faiths (or none).
Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others.
Understanding context is so important. Armas does a great job breaking down the how/why/what now of how to walk in love with others, on this earth, and with ourselves.
While it is a Christian book, I consider to be more of a thought-provoking commentary and applicable to readers of all faiths (or none).
Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others.
December 16, 2025
incredible and much needed. kat armas is an excellent researcher and theologian + her writing is so important. even though i've far removed myself from christianity, her work never fails to be emotionally and intellectually resonant, empowering, and thought-provoking for me. she just gets it. 💘🥹 bendiciones y felicidades a kat y también JUST READ MORE LATINA SCHOLARS IN GENERAL, OKAY GOODREADS?!?! THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️
March 23, 2026
If you feel frustrated at the state of the world, read this book. If you are angry at the church, read this book. If you know Jesus and love him, never heard of him, not sure about him, read this book. If you feel overwhelmed at the violence, oppression, and exploitation you see around you and don’t know what to do about it, read this book. If you are human wrestling with how to be at peace, how to engage in the world to uplift and not destroy, read this book!! This book was beautiful, informative, and powerful. I will be reading this many many times over.
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