Transformative Activism in a World of Structural Oppression

Explores how interpretation fosters and empowers transformative activism.

Structural oppression is the injustice that builds a world: it forms the foundations of identities and communities, defines the boundaries of shared realities, and shapes common sense understandings of what is permissible, possible, and desirable. Anti-oppression activists find themselves navigating this world, driven by a sense of moral urgency to seek transformative change despite the hostile and disorienting terrain they face. This book develops a map of the world that these activists must navigate and transform, finding a guide in theological and political traditions that emphasize our duty to recognize the redemptive possibilities already present in an unredeemed world. The resulting account of a ‘redemptive hermeneutic posture’ generates promising strategies that activists might use to build a broad transformative movement and make a post-oppression world more possible.