The Edge of Water: Preaching Sovereignty in Rising Tides

Abstract

This analysis of two Fijian Methodist sermons responding to climate catastrophe argues for the significance of preaching that emerges from displaced and occupied communities, particularly for Christianities shaped by Western colonialism. Not only do these testimonies call the Western church to repentance, they challenge the West’s over-eager cooption of “place” as a theological project. In their proclamation of ontological alternatives to Western political and epistemological sovereignties, these sermons call listeners—and preachers—to a radical relationality with the world and with God.