Liturgies for Resisting Empire

Seeking Community, Belonging, and Peace in a Dehumanizing World

by Kat Armas

Review posted January 29, 2026.
Brazos Press, 2025. 205 pages.
Review written January 24, 2026, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

I've been reading this book slowly, a section at a time, as part of my devotionals over the last several weeks. I'm not sure I grasped everything, but I like the way it opened up my thinking and showed me how much of the way I look at the world is shaped by empire-building.

At the front and back of the book, there's a liturgy, with an Invocation and Benediction - and prayers, reflections, and readings in between. Each chapter begins with an Invocation and Reflection - a folk tale from an indigenous people group - and ends with a Prayer of Resistance and a Benediction. Each chapter is about something in Empire to reject, and something in Christianity to embrace. For example: "Rejecting Lies, Embracing Reality," "Rejecting Hierarchy, Embracing Kinship," "Rejecting Dualism, Embracing Paradox," "Rejecting Sameness, Embracing Wholeness," "Rejecting Dominance, Embracing Connection," and "Rejecting Violence, Embracing Peace."

This is another book I've marked up with quotes for Sonderquotes. It's full of food for thought, challenging assumptions I'd carried and didn't even realize I was holding. Let me type out a few examples to give you the flavor, rather than trying to summarize:

But the Bible itself reveals a truth often overlooked: Divine wisdom is not confined to one culture or people. Many of the sayings in the Bible's wisdom literature echo the insights of neighboring ancient societies. Take Proverbs 22:17-24:22, which parallels the Instruction of Antenemope, an Egyptian wisdom text dating back to at least the twelfth century BCE that offers guidance on how to live with humility, integrity, and care for the vulnerable. The Hebrew authors did not reject these principles but instead wove them into their sacred texts.

In doing so, they remind us that wisdom transcends boundaries, that truth can be found in unexpected places, even beyond our own traditions. This is a quiet decentering of exclusivity, a recognition that knowledge belongs to no single people. Instead, it is a gift to be shared and honored across cultures. Perhaps this is the heart of wisdom itself: an openness to learning from the "other," without fear, in a sacred exchange that resists the grasping hand of empire.

The last chapter especially shows us how Jesus brought the opposite of empire.

When empire used the cross to subdue, Jesus used it to restore. This is restorative justice: healing through relationship and repair. In Christ, justice is not the hammer of empire but the mending of what is broken - the gathering of the lost, the lifting of the fallen, the restoration of dignity where it has been stripped away. The cross does not demand allegiance through fear but invites transformation through love.

And in this sacred reversal, reconciliation finds its true meaning. Enemies are no longer enemies; the estranged are drawn into belonging, woven into a community where love breathes life into existence. Christ's self-giving redefines our very identity, calling us into a peace that heals and binds and makes whole. Here, in the shadow of the cross, we step into divine reality - a place where love transforms empires and grace redraws the boundaries of what it means to belong. Here, we find shalom.

I'm going to hold onto this book to read again - hoping more will sink in each time I read it. This book acknowledges that the Way of Christ is not the Way of Empire and helps us see the difference.