Embracing Fear: Christian Re-Existence in the Trump Era - Paperback

by Oscar García-Johnson (Author), Alexia Salvatierra (Foreword by)

Embracing Fear contends that fear--rather than something to medicate--can fertilize Spirit-powered imagination. Around the globe, authoritarian populists weaponize dread, promising safety through sameness and political conformity: one language, one wall, one flag. This "fortress mentality" echoes Babel's terror of scattering (Gen 11), now reinforced by algorithms, mass deportations and bombing, and competitive-authoritarian laws. Acts 2 offers a rival script: dispersion and migration become Pentecost. Refusing polite optimism that postpones liberation until Easter Sunday, the book invites readers to dwell in Holy Saturday, practicing "strategic hopelessness" in occupied democracies. Grace can flip fear into a discipline that shelters immigrants during ICE raids, hosts iftar in church basements, and translates worship into the many tongues silenced at Babel. Holy terror, not manufactured panic, sends Mary to sing of toppled thrones and Isaiah to proclaim good news to the poor. To embrace such fear is to choose reexistence: a Spirit-drenched life that scatters boldly and improvises Pentecost wherever Babel erects another wall.

Author Biography

Oscar García-Johnson is Professor of Theology and Decolonial Studies at Fuller Seminary. His work blends philosophies of the South, cultural theory, decolonial theology, and Indigenous spirituality to reimagine church and society. His publications include Spirit Outside the Gate, Theology Without Borders (co-author), and The Mestizo/a Community of the Spirit. He is currently writing a seven-volume series in Spanish titled "Teología Nuevo Mundo." Forthcoming from Cascade Books is Decolonial Love in a Time of Hatred.