Undoing Manifest Destiny: Settler America, Christian Colonists, and the Pursuit of Justice

by L. Daniel Hawk

Reckoning with the Colonial Past to Bring Justice to the Present

As White settlers spread across North America, they crafted and enacted an epic story of their God-given dominion—over the land, over Indigenous nations, and over the future. Their narrative constructed a myth of innocence that justified a massive program of violence and dispossession by suppressing a darker history. That history still reverberates today, from settler America’s relations with the Indigenous nations of the United States to ways the land has been commodified as property. It's time for the whole truth to be told.

In Undoing Manifest Destiny, L. Daniel Hawk exposes the belief systems and practices that settlers developed to justify the displacement, destruction, and cultural erasure of Indigenous peoples, beginning in the early American colonial period and extending to the present day. Writing as the descendant of White settlers and as a biblical scholar, he challenges settler Christians to uncover what the settler narrative denies and to work toward addressing historic injustices.

In this book, Hawk

combines settler colonial theory, historical analysis, and Christian theology to examine how settler America sought to erase Indigenous presence from lands taken by the United States and its colonial predecessors; offers a decolonizing perspective that challenges the church to acknowledge its complicity with the colonial project and to enter into dialogue directed toward setting things right; and highlights contemporary manifestations of colonialism in US interactions with its Indigenous citizens, demonstrating that past issues are still present and need to be addressed today. Hawk asserts that Christians were complicit with programs of erasure, and so Christians are called to confront and heal their residue today. Joining historical research with theology and biblical scholarship, Hawk helps us recognize the myths that shape the American imagination and to engage our faith for a better way forward.

This book is an invaluable resource for scholars, educators, students, and readers invested in areas such as post- and de-colonial studies, race and ethnicity, United States history, and social justice. Deepen your understanding of history, confront unsettling truths, and work toward justice and healing with Undoing Manifest Destiny.

Genres: History

256 pages, Paperback

Published February 3, 2026

Reviews

[Stephanie’s Ninth Suitcase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher. Opinions expressed are my own.
Spiritual Themes
Hawk decries the historical role of the church in colonization efforts, with special attention to the doctrine of manifest destiny. The book is a call to Christian descendants of settlers, for collective, communal repentance. While actual discussion of practical ways to move forward with knowledge is limited to a small section at the end of the book, this highly informative text is a very important rallying cry against injustice. It’s a meaningful and necessary departure from the wicked narratives that have shaped the history of the United States.

Scripture Connection
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 8:32

What to Expect
Undoing Manifest Destiny is, by and large, a foray into the history of colonization on the continent of North America, specifically in the context of the region now deemed the United States. In nine well-researched chapters, Hawk unearths a handful of the long-buried, dark events in our nation’s history, shedding light not on isolated occurrences, but on the horribly typical patterns of colonization that continue into the present.

As Hawk explains in chapter one, he begins each chapter with an account from his home state of Ohio, to “emphasize the importance of excavating the importance of settler/Indigenous interactions in [one’s] particular location,” and “not because Ohio is unique but because it is typical. The practices of erasure and dispossession that characterize the Ohio narrative are replicated, in myriad forms, throughout the United States” (p. 22).

Through these gruesome histories, Hawk identifies various phenomena that have shaped the United States’ narrative of, and approach to, the Indigenous peoples of this continent. For instance, in the second chapter, Hawk describes the principles of the Doctrine of Discovery, a legal and theological precedent established in a 1493 papal bull by Pope Alexander VI. This instruction legitimized violent conquest of “discovered” lands “that did not already lie under the authority of a Christian sovereign,” under the auspices of missionary endeavors (p. 33). In chapter seven, “Constructing the Indian,” Hawk delves into the five archetypal cultural representations of Indigenous peoples, such as the “Noble Savage” (an idealized figure from a vanishing era” and the “Indigenous Helper” (who welcomed settlers to the new land and formed a bridge between the two cultures).

Throughout, Hawk takes a head-on approach to the discomfort that may arise in the process of dismantling the colonial narrative, inviting readers (especially the “descendants of White settlers– people who, like [Hawk] enjoy a position of privilege in the settler narrative”) to an honest examination and grappling with United States history. Each chapter concludes with a set of fair, open-ended discussion questions.

Note: The book is, necessarily, graphic at points, as the author engages with the reality of settler violence against Indigenous peoples. Below, I’ve included quotations from one such account.
Review
As an Indigenous person, I found Undoing Manifest Destiny to be a deeply informative, deeply important, and also truly challenging, read. Hawk’s opening vignettes introduced me to numerous events with which I was unfamiliar, and I found these recountings to be both tethering and painful. Although Hawk’s audience is the descendants of White settlers (and I have those in my lineage, too), reading this book empowered me to connect more deeply with my Indigenous heritage, bringing my ancestry to light. It was horrifying to read about numerous treacherous, unprovoked attacks on Indigenous peoples, often in spite of direct evidence of friendship on their part.

While I was certainly familiar with most of the trends outlined in these pages, I was not familiar with all of the events, and Hawk’s narration paints these occurrences in painful detail. One story that stuck in my head was of the Moravians. Upon seeing the settlers, a young man “welcomed the party and introduced himself as a Christian Indian. He was shot dead and scalped,” Hawk writes. When the settlers informed the Moravian tribe that they were being removed to Fort Pitt, “the Moravians received the news with joy, as the Lenapes had been treated well there.” After a “sham trial,” falsely implicating the Moravians in settler deaths, the Moravians were sentenced to an execution that “resembled the way that colonists slaughtered cattle” (p. 74, paraphrasing Peter Silver, Our Savage Neighbors, Norton, 2008). After pleading mercy, the Moravians “spent the night praying and singing hymns.” Then, “the executions brought members of the community in twos and threes into two buildings,” where the members of the militia smashed their skills as they knelt in prayer” (p. 74). This was, of course, not an isolated instance: just one example of many.

As Hawk invites readers to closer inspection of the nation’s history, he also invites readers to draw their own conclusions. He lays out the facts, relying on robust research rather than emotional appeals, comments on the patterns showcased throughout history, and then allows readers to do what they will with that information. The discussion questions were some of my favorite parts of the book. The questions directly engage with the settler narrative, anticipating potential discomfort on the reader’s part, but they’re open-ended. Readers are not told to “think this way,” but are encouraged to reflect on the topics engaged, and to consider the material from multiple angles.

Here’s the last question in chapter one: “Are efforts to demystify the settler narrative expressions of justice or of an unbiblical ideology?” (p. 24). I really appreciated that Hawk anticipated that some readers may consider the book’s project to be controversial, but welcomed these readers into the conversation, rather than implying that they were the wrong audience. This approach continues throughout the book.

Just as the discussion questions seek to invite, not alienate, Christians from the conversation, Hawk presents a balanced commentary as he interacts with historical precedents. For example, in the chapter about Erasing the Indian, Hawk sheds light on the efforts of those who sought to counterbalance the settler’s efforts to exterminate the Indigenous people.

He shares about the Indian Adoption Project, which was painted as a philanthropic aid to Indigenous children, but translated to kidnapping children from their parents, and concludes, “It is a tragic irony that those in the settler state who cared most to advance the cause of Indigenous people developed policies that instead resulted in some of the greatest damage suffered by Indigenous communities (p. 159). As Hawk explains, “arrogant paternalism” left people to believe that they were “mak[ing] amends for White settler sins by assimilating [Indigenous peoples] into American society” (p. 160).

Content Note (Thematic)
I keep on the lookout for Christian titles that address the evils of colonization from a biblical perspective, because the Church MUST have a paradigm shift away from what Hawk refers to as the settler narrative.

A year or two ago, I was reading an environmental title that engaged with this theme, but I was appalled when I got to the section about colonization in the Bible. The author heavily implied (or outright stated?) that Israel was putting words in God’s mouth to justify what they wanted to do. I did not finish that title, as I found it to undermine the authority of Scripture.

I share this because, as a result of that, and similar experiences, I approach books about these themes with hope, but also wariness. I am absolutely convinced that the colonization of “North America” was entirely wrong and NOT ordained by God, but I cannot go along with the authors who bend Scripture to fit today’s cultural narratives.

All that to preface… I honestly am not sure what to make of Hawk’s exposition of Joshua (which occupies the eighth chapter of the book). Hawk argues that there are three multiple narratives in the book of Joshua (the settlement narrative, the conquest narrative, and the humanist), and he evidences this by pointing out that certain parts of the text appear contradictory (some places imply that all the Canaanites were conquered; others reference expulsion and even assimilation). Hawk describes certain parts of Joshua as implementing “totalizing rhetoric employed in ancient battle accounts” (p. 202). Elsewhere, Hawk writes that the “Historian” narrator in Joshua “counters the Theologian’s stylized narrative, as if to say, ‘It didn’t happen quite that way” (p. 203).

I’m not prepared to endorse this line of argumentation, but I do appreciate that Hawk seems to derive his arguments from Scripture (albeit through a specific lens of interpretation). Additionally, it’s worth noting that, according to Hawk, historical settlers were not using the book of Joshua to justify their actions.

All in all, content note for this section, but it is the second-to-last chapter of the book and I don’t consider it foundational to the book’s argument.

Recommendation Status
Undoing Manifest Destiny is a challenging, but deeply important, read that sheds light on the gruesome realities of colonization and its justifying narratives in the United States. Hawk employs a direct approach in his discussions of the harmfulness of manifest destiny and its thought children which, unfortunately, originated in institutional Christianity. Hawk is spot-on in his desire for Christian repentance (not guilt) and his counter-cultural truth telling.

This is a title I would highly recommend to fellow Christians (especially the descendants of White settlers), in ongoing conversation with the Lord: prayer for openness to what He’s saying and a discerning heart to hear His voice in the midst of this historical moment — beyond political polarities.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" has been a driving force in American history from the arrival of the first colonists to the present. It is an aspect of American Exceptionalism that has received strong theological support. The Euro-American push westward was often driven by a postmillennial belief that, for many European-American colonists and their descendants, a vast, largely uninhabited landscape was theirs to dominate and use as they pleased. That indigenous people inhabited this land was considered irrelevant, since they didn't seem to be able to use the land as the colonists believed it should. So, from the beginning, the indigenous people were pushed off their lands, moving them further westward until they were confined to small pockets of often unusable land. Again, much of this was justified theologically.

Daniel Hawk, professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Ashland Theological Seminary, which is located in Ashland, Ohio, has written a powerful, and I think a must-read for Christians, book addressing the impact of the idea of Manifest Destiny on the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and the United States in particular. That book is titled "Undoing Manifest Destiny: Settler America, Christian Coonists, and the Pursuit of Justice. That IVP Academic, an evangelical publisher, has published this book is worth noting. They also published what in many ways is a companion piece, Reading the Bible on Turtle Island: An Invitation to North American Indigenous Interpretation, as well as the First Nations Version: An Indigenous Bible Translation of the New Testament. I mention this because white evangelicals have been significant backers of the anti-DEI movement. So, I want to credit IVP for this effort.

Hawk sets this book in the context of the impact of White settlement of Ohio in the colonial period. He begins by telling the story of a statue of an Indian maid who watches over the city of Tiffin, along the west bank of the Sandusky River. The statue was unveiled in 1926 to commemorate a young woman who aided an attachment of US soldiers during the War of 1812 by showing them the location of a spring that could be enclosed by the stockade. This statue was designed to celebrate the prosperity of the city, but why? After all, before too long, Native Americans would be largely driven from Ohio to make way for more White settlers. Why this story? This is Hawk's hometown, so his ancestors are part of the story of the settler culture of Ohio. Thus, we have the first chapter, "The Indian Maid of Fort Ball," which sets in place the story of White settlement and its impact on Native Americans. Hawk writes of the book's purpose, that he believes "that settler Christians like myself have an oblicagion ot dismantle the sinful structure that our Christian forebears established and that persists to the present day" (p. 20). In unmasking the settler narrative, Hawk reminds us of the impact of the doctrine of discovery and the "creation mandate," both of which were used to support the displacement of the indigenous population.

Having introduced the "doctrine of discovery" and the "creation mandate" in chapter 1, he moves on to develop further the meaning of these two elements of the settler narrative in chapter 2, "Discovering the Indian." In this chapter, he shows how the settlers supported the theft of native land by claiming ownership by "warping Christian theology," suggesting that they were extending Christendom. Why, because these lands were not controlled by Christian powers. He writes that "viewing themselves as the rightful sovereigns of the land, the people and government of the United States believed that they had the right to take land and subdue its indigenous occupants by any means necessary" (p. 49).

The next four chapters explore the ways settlers and the United States government treated the indigenous peoples of the land under US control. He starts with a chapter on "Extorting the Indian," in which he reveals the ways the government took indigenous land, starting in the east and moving westward through treaties (mostly left unkept), legislation, and executive orders. That was only the beginning, because the next chapter (chapter 4) speaks of "Exterminating the Indian." Here, he tells the stories of the use of the military and other forms of frontier violence to drive indigenous people off their lands, killing them if necessary. Here, we are reminded of the many wars against native peoples from Sand Creek to Wounded Knee. Though he doesn't mention it in the book, I grew up near the site of the Modoc Indian War, so I know that history well. Chapter 5 speaks of "Expelling the Indian," through removal and relocation. While the "Trail of Tears" is the best known of these efforts, it is not the only one. Again, we hear the heartbreaking stories of dispossession and displacement. We move from expelling to "Erasing the Indian" (Chapter 6). In this chapter, Hawk describes the efforts to "civilize the Indian" through boarding schools and the banning of Native religious and cultural expressions, including the dances. Each of these chapters tells horrific stories that are part of the American story, efforts often defended and extended by Christians.

Chapter 7 is titled "Constructing the Indian." Here, Daniel Hawk introduces us to "five mythic tropes." By that, he means how settler America, through the use of "myth and symbol," ended up erasing "real Indigenous people from its memory and replaced them with mythic figures that reinforced settler America's claim to the land." (p. 165). This effort is part of the way the United States constructed itself as a nation. To do this, mythic tropes were devised to support the effort. The first being "The Vanishing American." Here, the idea is that the Indian would eventually disappear either through assimilation or death, but however it went, Native Americans as a distinct race would disappear. The second trope spoke of "The Ignoble Savage." Here we have the myth that the Indigenous people were lawless, while the settlers were governed by laws. From the days of the Puritans, who saw themselves as an elect people, while the Indigenous people were seen as under the domain of Satan, we see the development of this myth. On the other side, we have the myth of "The Noble Savage." This trope offers the opposite of the previous one, where the Indigenous people are described with romantic and sentimental qualities. Here was an admirable figure, but as in the novel "The Last of the Mohicans," destined to perish. The fourth trope speaks of "The Indigenous Helper." Here, the primary figure is often a woman, such as Pocahontas or Sacageweah. Finally, there is the myth of the "White Savage," who again represents the settler/indigenous binary. While the Indigenous helper affirms the positives of settler society, the "White Savage" embraces the worst of the perceived qualities of the indigenous people. In all cases, the Indigenous people are perceived as savages, not as "real, present, flesh-and-blood human beings." Rather, they are portrayed as "a caricature constructed from the fabric of centuries-long settler expansion. By constructing mythological Indian types, White settler America erased real people, real cultures, and real communities from its vision with as much vigor as it sought to erase them from the land" (p. 188).

Daniel Hawk is the author of a commentary on the book of Joshua, which describes the conquest of Canaan. In chapter 8, "Mirroring the Conquest," he brings the two stories of conquest together as a mirror to explore the ways the book of Joshua was constructed and how it is reflected in the conquest of North America. It is interesting to learn that, as much as Joshua mirrors American manifest destiny, this story was rarely used in support of that effort. Perhaps, they knew that something was amiss in that biblical story. So, the Indigenous people were never described as Canaanites.

The final chapter, titled "Beyond Innocence," calls for us, as readers, especially white settler Americans, to engage in dismantling the settler narrative. In the context of this discussion, Hawk takes note of the efforts by Donald Trump and his supporters, including the Heritage Foundation, to recast American history in "patriotic" fashion in ways that resist telling the full story because it is unflattering. Despite these efforts, the job of dismantling settler narratives remains with us. Some entities, including Christian denominations, have taken up this cause. He mentions the United Methodist Church, but my own denomination is among the dozen or so that have undertaken the effort to address this history.

We cannot change the past, but we can address it with honesty and with repentance. Repentance requires actions. We can be thankful for Daniel Hawk's efforts to address this history and its implications for the people of the United States, whether descendants of settlers or Indigenous.

[RJ Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Hawk’s “The Violence of the Biblical God” and appreciating the depth, tone, and honesty of that book, I quickly purchased this as soon as it released. I have referred back to The Violence of the Biblical God several times to improve my understanding of really difficult topics, especially the genocide in Canaan.

Undoing Manifest Destiny was a great read. The establishment of twisted interpretations of scripture to justify things like the doctrine of discovery are clearly laid out, and it’s easy to connect how this translates into paternalistic (in the better sense) and white supremacist (in the worst case) actions and tendencies. Christendom as the herald of industry, progression, and civilization is clearly framed as the dominating historical viewpoint and justification for Indian dispossession. While my 21st century sensibilities easily repudiate the elitist and racist components of this view on the surface, there are deeper issues at play, namely the intermixing of nationalist and Christian objectives.

A few of my other notes:

The well-meaning policy makers in the northeastern US, motivated by morality and white guilt, sought to improve the lives of Indians through legislative means and government programs. If only they had gone to where the work was happening, they would have seen the failure of the programs. The gap between good intentions and inept or wicked execution is as wide as the gap between the upper and lower class. Does our responsibility end at good intentions translated into action with distant consequences? Seemingly, not so.

The bedrock idea that individualization and private property make a civilized nation resulted in failed policies whereby Indian reservation land was split up into useless bits and, in the process, the excess sold off by the government for either profit or the further investment in boarding schools. Taking from the group to redistribute and embezzling profits from the excess… And we don’t fancy ourselves a communist state…

The only critique I have of Hawk’s book is the chapter on Joshua. I was reading with anticipation for the connection here and a scripturally based analysis of the settler narrative. Hawk essentially provides a rehashing of the Joshua interpretation from Violence of the Biblical God, and then briefly overlays this across the white settler narrative / manifest destiny concept. No real conclusions are drawn. It feels like there is a missing chapter here. In this way Hawk invites the reader to ask questions and do their own contemplating… perhaps Hawk is trying to guide the reader to something on their own. It still fills a bit disjointed. In Violence of the Biblical God, Hawk ends the Joshua discourse with a caution against using God’s divinely appointed violence to justify modern wars with mirrored purposes.

This book challenged me. At several points my thoughts led to… “yes bad things happened but how much of this was inevitable?” … “aren’t there two sides to this, what if Indian violence committed against settlers?”…. “I didn’t do this and neither did my parents… what do we realistically do with all this past sin? Wring our hands and then shrug our shoulders?”. I think Hawk does well to challenge the reader with contemplating questions and then actions. I do see clear signs of the white settler myths and narratives pervading current evangelical thinking… and will continue to understand the role of justice in right action as a Christian.

[Wes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dan is an exceptional scholar and this well researched book bears that out. He carefully works through the history of the United States to help the reader understand how the government and society as a whole have treated Native Tribes from the colonies to the present. From that foundation He helps the reader understand how Christians manipulated theology to under-gird the doctrine of Manifest Destiny in America. This is the kind of book that will generate push-back from all readers who do not realize how this idea has subconsciously impacted them. Dan hopes that his reader will engage these ideas from the mindset of how can I help undo the damage done and I would add that he seems to believe that the best way is to simply recognize where you have been impacted by this idea and then to begin to listen to indigenous voices who have been negatively impacted by American commitment to Manifest Destiny.