Reckoning with the Colonial Past to Bring Justice to the Present As White settlers spread across North America, they crafted and enacted an epic story of their God-given dominion―over the land, over Indigenous nations, and over the future. Their narrative constructed a myth of innocence that justified a massive program of violence and dispossession by suppressing a darker history. That history still reverberates today, from settler America’s relations with the Indigenous nations of the United States to ways the land has been commodified as property. It's time for the whole truth to be told. In Undoing Manifest Destiny , L. Daniel Hawk exposes the belief systems and practices that settlers developed to justify the displacement, destruction, and cultural erasure of Indigenous peoples, beginning in the early American colonial period and extending to the present day. Writing as the descendant of White settlers and as a biblical scholar, he challenges settler Christians to uncover what the settler narrative denies and to work toward addressing historic injustices. In this book, Hawk combines settler colonial theory, historical analysis, and Christian theology to examine how settler America sought to erase Indigenous presence from lands taken by the United States and its colonial predecessors; - offers a decolonizing perspective that challenges the church to acknowledge its complicity with the colonial project and to enter into dialogue directed toward setting things right; and - highlights contemporary manifestations of colonialism in US interactions with its Indigenous citizens, demonstrating that past issues are still present and need to be addressed today. Hawk asserts that Christians were complicit with programs of erasure, and so Christians are called to confront and heal their residue today. Joining historical research with theology and biblical scholarship, Hawk helps us recognize the myths that shape the American imagination and to engage our faith for a better way forward. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars, educators, students, and readers invested in areas such as post- and de-colonial studies, race and ethnicity, United States history, and social justice. Deepen your understanding of history, confront unsettling truths, and work toward justice and healing with Undoing Manifest Destiny . "'Fake news!' some might react upon seeing the title of L. Daniel Hawk's book. Yet echoing the voice urging St. Augustine before biblical scrolls to 'take up and read,' I dare any considering Undoing Manifest Destiny to do the same and thenprove the Scriptures wrong that 'the truth will set you free' (John 8:32)! What truths? Settler truths! Government truths! Native and Indigenous American truths! Each of these voices resound concretely through Hawk's pursuit of justice so that―and here be forewarned!―you and I as readers will be unsettled from the blinders of our preferred 'testimonies' and impelled by the Spirit of truth to bear ever more authentic witness to the coming divine reign that promises, finally, to undo all earthlycolonial regimes, even the ones that we are complicit with because of the benefits gained." Amos Yong, professor of theology and mission at Fuller Theological Seminary "A necessary and prophetic text for those interested in the unsettling yet essential work of reconciliation between settlers and Indigenous people. L. Daniel Hawk is a compelling storyteller, myth buster, Bible expositor, and bridge builder. Hawk's book brings the 'receipts' of colonization―receipts of settler violence, broken treaties, missionary missteps, and stolen land. If the church is courageous enough to take Hawk's stories seriously, it may yet restore the integrity of its presumed destiny to manifest good news, living in right relationship with Indigenous people and the Creator." T. Christopher Hoklotubbe, director of graduate studies at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community and coauthor, with H. Daniel Zacharias, of Reading the Bible on Turtle Island "This book is a well-crafted overview of the history, ideology, and legacy of settler colonialism's 'logic of elimination,' which clarifies how, as Dr. King put it, 'our nation was born in genocide.' Historian and biblical theologian L. Daniel Hawk grounds each chapter in the regional lore of his home place, interrogates devised and dismembered public narratives, and concludes with suggestions for, and a call to, decolonizing discipleship. A highly recommended primer that meets this moment!" Ched Myers, coauthor of Healing Haunted Histories: A Settler Discipleship of Decolonization "Get ready for a disturbing yet hopeful journey as L. Daniel Hawk, writing not just as an academic but as someone whose heart beats for genuine reconciliation, walks us through the painful truths behind Manifest Destiny and the doctrine of discovery. Undoing Manifest Destiny challenges the descendants of settler colonists to question the stories that forme