“The Bible and Colonization” by Mark G. Brett
Note: We are currently journeying with an association of Baptist churches as they move toward a vote on repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery, for which we provide an introductory resource here. This week’s recommended resource is the first chapter of Mark G. Brett’s Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire.
Mark Brett is a Baptist who teaches Hebrew Bible and ethics at Whitley College in Australia. This chapter examines some of the ways that the Christian Bible was used to justify colonization, the theological and philosophical arguments posed at the point of content, which we still hear whispers of in today’s context, and the debate around repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery. While Brett looks at the Australian context there are many parallels as to how these European debates were playing out in the “new lands” of North and South America as well as Australia and New Zealand.
“The Bible and Colonization” is excerpted from Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire, by Mark G. Brett, published by Sheffield Phoenix Press.