[The following italicized text is a short excerpt from Englewood’s recent review of Cascade volume, Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization (2021) by Elaine Enns and Ched Myers.]
I’ve heard it said that for many white folks like myself, books function in the role of elders, a role that has largely been lost in white settler society. Healing Haunted Histories is the kind of book I would consider an elder, a book to return to again and again to uncover new layers of identity, vision and guidance for the inner and outer work of decolonization. With care and nuance, this book challenges us as Christian communities to engage in costly discipleship that requires us to examine how our lives have been built on structures of violence against our Indigenous neighbors and would-be hosts. The authors call us toward a radical conversion in step with an Indigenous Jesus who offers healing and liberation from the wounding ways of settler colonialism through practices of solidarity, reparation and repatriation. Ultimately, the invitation to restorative solidarity is a total transformation of our lives and relationships; a change that does not come easily, in my experience. Yet the authors hold out the gospel hope that with repentance, change is possible.
Read the full Englewood review here.