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Cribbin, Book Review  101 

  

Book Review 

 

Holy Anarchy: Dismantling Domination, Embodying 

Community, Loving Strangeness 
by Graham Adams 

 
Reviewed by Jo Cribbin 

 
 

 
 

2022. London: SCM Press. £19.99. 
 

Christian thinkers and practitioners working in 

relief and development may sometimes, perhaps even 

often, question what exactly it means for the kingdom 

of God to be at hand, in the midst of the many crises 

and injustices that characterise the environments in 

which their organisations operate. Exactly where and 

how should we expect to see God’s kingdom come in 

the different parts of our world? What part do we have 

to play in its coming? Graham Adams’ Holy Anarchy: 

Dismantling Domination, Embodying Community, 

Loving Strangeness is a theological exploration of these 

questions and seeks to provide a way for Christian 

individuals, communities, and organisations to re-

imagine what the coming of God’s kingdom could look 

like. Holy Anarchy adopts a decolonial approach--

seeking to understand how colonisation and colonial 

logics and their effects continue to influence our 

relationships with one another, our systems, and 

society---and what a decolonial practice of seeking to 

undo these logics and their resulting power structures 

could look like in a faith community. 

The book centres around the premise of “holy 

anarchy,” a term originally expressed by theologian 

Andrew Shanks as an alternative to the “kingdom of 

God.” In four parts, Holy Anarchy addresses the 

themes of domination and injustice, how these may be 

subverted and dismantled, and how flourishing 

communities may emerge in their place. Adams walks 

the reader toward a vision of holy anarchy, exploring 

some of the obstructions that rise up to block its way, 

including empires of domination, unjust systems and 

structures, consumerism, and exploitative dominion 

over the earth.  

In part one, Adams explores the notion of holy 

anarchy, comparing it to other theological expressions 

and conceptualisations of the kingdom of God. Holy 

anarchy is described as a future state of solidarity among 

peoples and God, marked by the flourishing of life and 

absence of domination of people over one another. 

Holy anarchy is not, however, just a distant horizon for 

which the church should wait and pray, impervious to 

and unmoved by the obstacles in our world that prevent 

its realisation; it is also a path that Christians and the 

church are invited to journey along. For Adams, a first 

step on this journey is a re-thinking of our 

understanding of truth. He explores two different types 

of truth: truth in hand, and truth in process. Truth in 

hand is the understanding that truth is fixed and 

unchanging, something that can be possessed or 

grasped in the hand, while truth in process understands 

truth as more akin to an open palm, which is not fixed 

but rather is evolving through a living network of 

conversation and interaction. For Adams, it is this truth 

in process that is of higher value for the coming of holy 

anarchy, as it creates an attitude in which difference may 

be understood and valued. If truth can be held in an 

open palm, we are able to ask ourselves what it is that 

we are not seeing, even as we are able to listen to and 

value others’ truths, and perhaps in the process be 

brought into deeper solidarity with one another. 

Part two calls for a dismantling of domination 

through doing justice. Holy anarchy exposes patterns of 

domination and unjust structures for those open to 

perceiving it. In this section, God is described as one 

who subverts structures of domination and brings about 

holy anarchy instead, inviting us to do the same. This 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(1),  Summer 2023 

Cribbin, Book Review  102 

  

willingness and ability to see and name injustice begins 

with an internal change, described by Adams as a 

process of being shaken by God, or “decolonising 

consciousness.” Adams argues that holy anarchy wakes 

us up and allows us to see the world as it really is, with 

all its injustices, power imbalances, and structures of 

domination. It also allows us to see and hope for an 

alternative future. It is only from a place of shakenness, 

from seeing things as they really are, Adams argues, that 

we are able to see the very injustices in which we 

ourselves are complicit, and can begin to reject them, 

replacing them with acts of justice.  

In part three, Adams describes an embodiment of 

community that occurs as we are shaken by God, 

resulting in the forging of paths towards solidarity and 

communion with one another. Doing justice is not a 

purely individual practice--we are called into 

community and solidarity with one another, following 

the example of Jesus in his ministry, who subverted the 

power of Empire and dismantled domination in a 

radical, unexpected way. The communities we build, in 

our churches, neighbourhoods, and organisations will 

always be awkward and imperfect. Rather than brushing 

off such imperfections, Adams calls for the Church to 

recognise its shortcomings, acknowledge its failures, 

and, despite all this, continue to commit to an ever-

deeper journey of solidarity, learning, and 

transformation.  

In part four, “love kindness--befriend strangers,” 

Adams points to wider spaces for partnership and 

solidarity beyond the walls of the church, and the 

potential for faith to allow us to commune with others 

who may be wholly unlike ourselves. Adams challenges 

us to consider both the structures of domination, 

exclusion, and destruction in our own world and the 

harm such structures create, whether based on 

economics, race, gender, sexuality, disability, or 

religion. Holy anarchy shakes us open and allows us to 

recognise these injustices, both within and without 

ourselves, and moves us to act in love and solidarity with 

others in a genuinely radical way. 

For Christian organisations working in relief, 

development, and advocacy, Holy Anarchy provides an 

invitation to examine the cultures and practices that 

permeate our organisations. It is an invitation to 

introduce a “decolonising consciousness,” to examine 

how we approach those who are different from 

ourselves in the course of our work, or to ask what 

biases prevent us from seeing colonial practices and 

structures of domination that may be present within our 

organisational practices.  

Holy Anarchy may be more immediately 

accessible to readers with familiarity with academic 

theological writing, due to some of the language and 

concepts Adams employs. Yet any theological 

complexity is beautifully balanced with a collection of 

original hymns and questions for reflection provided at 

the end of each chapter, in addition to an extended 

collection of worship materials at the end of the book. 

These may be the most valuable portions of the book 

as they provide a space for individual reflection and 

guided conversation--a space for truth in process to 

occur. Holy Anarchy may be a challenging and even 

uncomfortable read at times, but this is deliberate. 

Through rich theological reflection and liturgical 

practice, Holy Anarchy asks each of us to reject power, 

injustice, and dominion in our world, whilst at the same 

time inviting us to imagine a different reality, one in 

which structures of domination are dismantled, 

community is embodied, strangeness is loved, and 

difference is valued. 
 

 

 

Jo Cribbin is Strategic Coordinator – Crisis to 

Resilience at Tearfund. She specialises in strategy and 

project management, with a particular focus on 

theology, humanitarian response, and resilience. Jo 

holds a Master’s in international relations from the 

University of Cambridge. 

 

Author email: joanna.cribbin@tearfund.org  

mailto:joanna.cribbin@tearfund.org

