Occupy Religion

Joerg Rieger is Wendland-Cook Professor of Constructive Theology at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of numerous books, including Christ and Empire. He lives in Dallas, Texas.Kwok Pui-lan is William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at Episcopal Divinity School. She is the most recent past president of the American Academy of Religion and author of several books. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, as it pertains to theology, is examined here. The authors communicate clearly and compellingly as they offer examples from the Occupy events that provoke religious consideration and illustrate Occupy’s possible influences in the religious theater. The volume also looks back at Liberation theology and how some of the events of the 1960s had religious overtones. The Occupy theology concept, as delineated here, seems to offer new ways to define justice, opportunities to discover the divine through human diversity (including religious diversity), and pathways to authentically participative religion. The text’s discussion of historic underpinnings will assist the reader new to this field, while those familiar with the work of Hans Kung and Paulo Freire will appreciate grappling with this new focus.

• AcknowledgmentsChapter 1 Why Occupy Religion?Chapter 2 We Are the 99 PercentChapter 3 The Multitude Springs into ActionChapter 4 Theology of the MultitudeChapter 5 Reimagining the God of the MultitudeChapter 6 Envisioning the Church of the Multitude Epilogue