My dissertation undertakes a critique of the law and of progress. Its core claim is that from the time if its introduction to Kenya, Western law has been inscribed in colonial and neocolonial narratives of progress. When the law is inscribed in narratives of progress it adopts an imperial politics which facilitates the exploitative extraction of resources from Kenya by its “development partners.” When the law assumes a progressive history, it makes the unequal relations between Kenya and the West seem natural, the way things naturally are. This prevents the radical problematization of inequality by law. It removes global political and economic power structures from the purview of the law. Inequality between Kenya and these nations is thus left unaddressed. In fact, by accepting the world as structured by imperial power the law legitimates inequality among nations.

At core, my project is about the false conception of history which undergirds the law. I engage in a radical historicizing of the law in order to reveal the lie of progress. I claim back Europe’s capture of history by insisting that history is the site of God’s redemptive action, hoping that the inscription of the law within a truer history will yield a theologically richer conception of law, one capable of fighting against global inequality.

My work calls the Western world and the church in particular to denounce the idolatry of progress. It invites the North American church to be more theologically critical of Western understandings of history and social change. Informed by more faithful theologies of history and law, the church will not join the world in prescribing for Africa the adoption of Western institutions and norms as has been done in the past. Instead, animated by eschatological hope rather than progress, the church will become engaged in the historically informed, boldly political work of resisting the colonizing powers which keep Africa poor.