Christianity, Settler Colonialism, and Extractivism

Informed by field research in the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota, this book discusses how hydraulic fracking impacts Christian congregations and Native American communities.

Jan Pranger discusses Christian congregations’ responses to the social, economic, and environmental changes extractive industries impose on local Indigenous and settler communities. Revisiting the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the histories of colonization of local Indigenous peoples, this book provides a Christian theological and ethical perspective on resource extraction through the lens of settler colonialism. In essence, Pranger queries how Christianity contributes to and is shaped by the structures, cultures, and spiritualities which enable the extraction of resources from Indigenous peoples and the Earth.