Doing theology requires dissension and tenacity. Dissension is required when scriptural texts, and the colonial bodies and traditions (read: Babylon) that capitalize upon those, inhibit or prohibit “rising to life.” The contributors in this book challenge the way Christian theology is currently done in the academy and the Western world.

Doing theology requires dissension and tenacity. Dissension is required when scriptural texts, and the colonial bodies and traditions (read: Babylon) that capitalize upon those, inhibit or prohibit “rising to life.” With “nerves” to dissent, the attentions of the first cluster of essays extend to scriptures and theologies, to borders and native peoples. The title for the first cluster — “talking back with nerves, against Babylon” — appeals to the spirit of feminist (to talk back against patriarchy) and RastafarI (to chant down Babylon) critics. The essays in the second cluster — titled “persevering with tenacity, through shitstems” — testify that perseverance is possible, and it requires tenacity. Tenacity is required so that the oppressive systems of Babylon do not have the final word. These two clusters are framed by two chapters that set the tone and push back at the usual business of doing theology, inviting engagement with the wisdom and nerves of artists and poets, and two closing chapters that open up the conversation for further dissension and tenacity. Doing theology with dissension and tenacity is unending.

1.“Take away the stone”: Lazarus as (tombed) body (John 11:38–44)

Jione Havea

2.Call to Rise

Karen Georgia A. Thompson, Anna Jane Lagi, Aruna Gogulamanda, John Robert Lee, Chad Rimmer

talking back with nerves, against Babylon

3.“The Lord Needs Them” (Matthew 21:3): The Gospel’s Beasts and Sovereign Christ

Tat-siong Benny Liew

4.Resisting the Economic Shitstem: A Postcolonial Filipinx-Korean Reading of Luke 16:1–13 with Mel Chen’s Animacies Theory

Jeong, Dong Hyeon

5.Interrogating the Silence: Jesus’ response to a Mother’s cry, for a Daughter’s disability (Matthew 15:21–28)

Wendy Elson

6.Translating Leviathan, Talking back to God, Doing public theology from below

Gerald O. West

7.Sitting and Weeping by the Rivers of Babylon

Miguel A. De La Torre

8.Lamentations as a Healing Response to Necropower at the Texas-Mexico Border

Gregory L. Cuéllar

9.Tūturu whiti whakamaua, Kia tina, tina! Haumi e, Hui e! Taiki e! Defiance, Determination and Decolonisation

Te Aroha Rountree

persevering with tenacity, through shitstems

10.RastafarI and domestic labour: Roots in Menstrual Taboos and Western Inequality

Anna Kasafi Perkins

11.Queer Arctivism: Talking back to the Cis/tems

Ana Ester Pádua Freire

12.The Bacchus Lady as The Parable of “Promiscuous Care”

Nami Kim

13.Glimpses of God’s Dis/Abled Domain: Rising Up against Empire in small steps / huge leaps

Graham Adams

14.Temporarily Abled or Permanently Differently Abled: Rising to Life with Disability

Wanda Deifelt

unending

15.Rising to Life (John 11:38–44): Politics, contexts, illusions, oxymorons

Sainimili Kata Rockett

16.Chant down Christian shitstems: Then what?

Michael N. Jagessar