Religious Anarchism: New Perspectives

This fall will mark the release of a book project that brings together twelve people who hold both anarchism and religious faith as significant parts of their identities. Religious Anarchism: New Perspectives features anarchists from Christian, Buddhist, Muslim and Daoist traditions whose essays “provide an outline history of some of the leading currents of religious anarchist thought and develop fresh perspectives on issues central to anarchism including resistance, struggle and counter-cultural experimentation; political detachment, ethnocentrism and community-building.” (Ruth Kinna, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Loughborough University; editor of Anarchist Studies)

My contribution to the book is the essay “The Church as Resistance to Racism and Nation: A Christian, Anarchist Perspective”. Here, I examine the relationship between the history of race as an idea and the making of the nation-state, and I look to Scripture to describe how Christians can participate in the struggle to resist racism at its core.

The essay holds together several important concerns for me as a Christian and an anarchist woman of color, and explores the history of race, race’s role in the nation building process and Christian resistance to racism and the nation-state.

Although I haven’t delved into the other essays, there are a few in particular whose titles have peaked my interest. These include “Responding to the State: Christian Anarchists on Romas 13, Rendering to Caesar, and Civil Disobedience” by editor Alexandre J. M. E. Christoyannopoulos; “Building a Dalit World in the Shell of the Old: Conversations between Dalit Indigenous Practice and Western Anarchist Thoughts” by UK Jesus Radical Keith Hebden; “Imagining an Islamic Anarchism: A New Field of Study is Ploughed” by Anthony T. Fiscella and “To Be Condemned to a Clinic: The Birth of the Anarca-Islamic Clinic” by Mohamed Jean Veneuse. Although I am disappointed with the shortage of female voices (I am the only one), I look forward to exploring the wide array of religious perspectives that are held together in this text.

Preview Religious Anarchisms, including the table of contents, preface, introduction and a portion of the first essay. (Cambridge Scholars Press)

Tags: anarchism, Christianity, international, race, religion, resource, theology