Abstract
Continuing in the noble tradition of attempting to separate Christianity from its historical links to colonialism and related inequalities, Kristina Lizardy-Hajbi’s new book, Unraveling Religious Leadership: Power, Authority, and Decoloniality, examines just how deeply interconnected the realms of faith and domination are. Lizardy-Hajbi is Associate Professor of Leadership and Formation at Iliff School of Theology. She draws on her life experiences to explore how the colonial history of the modern world has profoundly shaped not only what is taught about religion, but also how it is taught. Following suit, she explains how often it reinforces racialized norms and systems. In addition to discussing the extent to which colonialism impacts the social world, Lizardy-Hajbi is critical of the shortcomings of researchers and thinkers who have failed to address these issues adequately. Utilizing Franz Fanon’s framework of colonialism, which sees the people being colonized as only existing in relation to those in power, Lizardy-Hajbi explores the role religion has played in this process. In relying on the metaphor of the social world being a tangled mess of threads, she posits that we must unravel assumptions of White Eurocentric frameworks from our understandings of leadership, whether in religious institutions or the wider world.
With the primary goal of revealing and going beyond past conceptions of colonialism so that we may have a better and more inclusive understanding of modern Christian leadership, the author borrows from the works of BIPOC, Queer, and feminist scholarship to show how expansive and varied our understandings of Christianity can be and why it is essential to include these voices that have for so long been othered. Framing each of her six main chapters as a component of leadership used to perpetuate colonialism, Lizardy-Hajbi proffers alternative approaches for transformation.
Throughout the book she argues that normative understandings of leadership have been shaped by White, heteronormative, and neurotypical male definitions that continue to inform our understandings of what leadership is, even when leaders themselves may not fit this standard, if they make it to a leadership position at all. By examining the various components of leadership—with respective chapters on individualism, roles, power, and expertise—Lizardy-Hajbi explains that even those with the best intentions still sometimes uphold past conceptions that have links to colonialism. Importantly, she explains that many of the conceptions and modes of leadership she mentions weren’t necessarily created by colonialism but, due to the current global order, have been shaped by it, co-opted, and used to further modern colonial aims. In many ways, the work of Lizardy-Hajbi parallels much of the work done surrounding religious organizations, especially those that emphasize race and gender as pre-existing conditions in organizations, in the way that she sees colonialism in these organizations. Deftly, she posits that leadership as a concept is closely tied to Euro-Western/colonial worldviews that emphasize centralized power and influence as the most valid form of leadership. In response, Lizardy-Hajbi emphasizes a more shared communal understanding of leadership in which the people are given a voice and other forms of knowledge, aside from just institutional, are valued.
Lizardy-Hajbi draws on a wide range of literature to illustrate colonialism’s far-reaching influence in order to support her call for structural change. Foundational sociological theorists such as Max Weber and Michel Foucault provide the theoretical grounding for her analysis of religion and organizational life. In addition, contemporary scholars of race and religion, including Willie James Jennings and Korie Little Ewards, deepen her exploration of how power, authority, and colonial legacies inform and are reflected in religious leadership and its role in shaping the social world. It would have been interesting to see a more hands-on approach taken in which Lizardy-Hajbi directly interacted with religious leaders, through interviews or a survey, to add another layer to her analysis. Likewise, the book could have benefited from a more direct engagement with emerging literature surrounding racialized organizations. Overall, I found the text and her recommendations for change to be a timely and critically necessary reading in a rapidly changing religious landscape in which issues of race, class, sexuality, gender, and, of course, coloniality are continuing to play outsized roles.
To add to the importance of this work, its applicability is wide-reaching. For students interested in pursuing positions in ministry, Lizardy-Hajbi addresses many of the foundational issues that new clergy may face. Additionally, for researchers interested in religion, organizations, or leadership, this text provides an intersectional analysis of religious leadership, highlighting how colonial systems shape it and how these influences affect both individual and societal outcomes. Through her new book, Lizardy-Hajbi has started the work of unraveling the social order and revealing how deeply inequality and domination go in religious leadership. Our understanding is better for it.
