Praise for Shaking the Gates of Hell

Jürgen Moltmann, author of A Theology of Hope and Sun of Righteousness, Arise!: God’s Future for Humanity and the Earth; “The foremost Protestant theologian in the world” (Church Times): “This book is authentic and convincing with personal experience and a great vision. In many corners of the world there is a new paradigm emerging, the earth community and participatory democracy, versus the old, outdated and destructive paradigm of corporate globalization. Get out of apathy. A better world is possible. I read this book with a moved heart and new encouragement.”

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author of The End of Nature and The Comforting Whirlwind: God, Job, and the Scale of Creation: “This book speaks hard truth to hard power—it’s unsparing, and that’s what we need. It’s also loving, in the (not so easy) way that the Gospels are loving.”

Bill Wylie-Kellermann, author of The Powers in Particular: A Practical Theology of the Powers That Be; Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education, Chicago: ““Among the strengths of Sharon Delgado’s book is her theological eye for the ‘principalities and powers’ of our global situation. To the sweep of her social vision, her biblical lens adds depth and dimension. Her capacity to look upon the demonic without flinching is inseparable from our hope in this present age.”

Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Author of Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Ecological-Economic Vocation and Professor, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary: “With clarity, nuance, and verbal artistry, Sharon Delgado’s Shaking the Gates of Hell offers invaluable guidance to all who seek moral-spiritual wisdom, vision, and power for resisting the demands of the corporate-and-finance driven global economy and forging more equitable and ecological alternatives.  Her piercing analysis comes with a moving invitation to join with Jesus in his unrelenting and compassion-driven resistance to systemic powers that thwart God’s gracious gift of life in its fullness for all.  Holy hope and honesty ring throughout this powerful volume. It is a sign of abiding love and commitment to justice, and will nurture both in its readers. While highly relevant for Christians, the text will be vital to all who yearn to build a world in which all have the necessities for life with justice and joy, and in which Earth’s life systems flourish. Read it and grow in embodied hope!”

Rose Marie Berger, Senior Associate Editor, Sojourners Magazine: “The brutality most people face today is not from wars, but from violent interactions with the corporate security state. To understand private armies in Nigeria or militarized police in Ferguson, one must unmask the idols of corporate globalization—“the Devil made fleshless.” Delgado’s well-researched chapters move between the political and the personal, the heights of global finance and the gritty, joyous lives of Mexican farmers, preachers, water defenders, and street protesters. There is a way out—but it requires choosing resistance as a way of life, not as a meme or a muscle twitch as the water we’re in gets hotter. Shaking the Gates of Hell is essential Christian reading for getting coordinates on who Jesus The Resister is today.”

 Jim Winkler, President and General Secretary of the National Council of Churches: “Sharon Delgado, ever the prophet calling us back to the way of Jesus, is once again overturning the tables outside the temples of greed and empire.  Hers is a vision into a world that can be, indeed that MUST be if we are to survive.  Key is her the realization that the idolizing of mammon, through corporate globalization, brings with it climate change, permanent war, and gross inequity. Though the problems are material, the roots are spiritual, and so are the solutions. This book is not an easy read, but a hopeful and necessary one.”

Catherine Keller, author of On the Mystery: Discerning God in Process and Cloud of the Impossible; George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology at Drew Theological School: “This book doesn’t just shake, it rocks! Delgado offers a powerful account, lucid and lyrical, of the crossroads before us: the ‘corporate security state’ or the better world that is possible. This book makes it a bit more possible. For Christians who care about the earth and about humanity, for students of theology, activists, and church leaders: here is inspiration and information, proclamation and empowerment.”

Mark Davies, Wimberly Professor of Social and Ecological Ethics, Director of the World House Institute for Social and Ecological Responsibility, and Executive Director of the LEAD Hub North America for the United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry at Oklahoma City University: “Delgado’s realistic and blistering critique of our unjust, unsustainable, and death-dealing global social, economic, and political systems is a rebuke of any naively optimistic view that humanity will simply find a way to make everything alright. But it is not an invitation to sink into the apathy and despair of pessimism.  With powerful clarity, Delgado points the way toward a melioristic future in which we just might find a way to survive if we work like hell to face the fierce urgency of now.”

Carol S. Robb, author of Wind, Sun, Soil, Spirit: Biblical Ethics and Climate Change, professor of Christian social ethics, San Francisco Theological Seminary: “Delgado names and then unmasks the myths, laws, and practices that sustain global corporate reach and suck the moral fiber out of well meaning Christians. Reflecting on her participation in nonviolent direct resistance against these powers, and describing movements for global justice, such as they have emerged in Chiapas, Cochabamba, Nigeria, Argentina, India, and Kenya, Delgado prepares Christians for faith-led resistance as a way of life.”

Ched Myers, author of Binding the Strong Man; activist, theologian, and educator with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries: “In this book, Delgado offers a truly incarnational theology from the heart of her social location, clearly discerning the ‘signs of our times’—environmental devastation, economic domination, and violence—while reminding us of the power of biblical hope. This is a handbook for the next generation of grassroots social-change activism.”

 James Douglass, author, Resistance and Contemplation, The Nonviolent Coming of God, peace activist: “Sharon Delgado’s Shaking the Gates of Hell integrates prophecy and action. Delgado shows that unless we learn to shake the gates of the corporate hell taking over the planet, its creatures have no future. Yet through faith-led, nonviolent resistance, the gates of hell can fall, the reign of God can open up. As Delgado’s transforming conclusion at a Cancun WTO meeting shows, anything is possible if we have the faith to join the movement and shake those gates.”