Stand down, sit up, and talanoa

This opening chapter serves two functions: First, drawing from the title of one of the signature reggae songs, Stand up, to suggest an alternative attitude to the imperializing and imperiling ways of Christian theologies and missions. I invite standing down (a military stance), sitting up (a common call by activists), and talanoa (a Pasifika term for story, telling, conversation) on the stuff of empires, religions and power. This is the attitude that the essays in this collection, together, invite. Second, to situate the essays in relation to the problematics of empires, religions and power, and in relation to the flow of the book (from discernment to disturbance and engagement).