From “Undoing Manifest Destiny: Settler America, Christian Colonists, and the Pursuit of Justice” by L. Daniel Hawk
In this chapter I will employ a patristic metaphor to read the book of Joshua. “Holy Scripture,” wrote Gregory the Great, “presents a kind of mirror to the eyes of the mind, so that our inner face may be seen in it. There we learn our own ugliness, there our own beauty.” Following Gregory, I will read Joshua as a mirror that reflects the American settler narrative and its conceits. I propose that Joshua constitutes a critical biblical resource for generating Christian conversation about Christians’ complicity with the American colonial enterprise. Joshua, as I see it, reflects a version of Christian America’s narrative and its justifying mechanisms.