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This book reconstructs the connection between religion and migration, drawing on post-colonial perspectives to shed light on what religion can contribute to migrant encounters. Examining the resources and motives for hospitality as lived in Christian contexts in the Nordic region, it addresses the content of talk about "religion" in public discourse, the concept having become something of an empty signifier in debates surrounding migration. Multidisciplinary in approach, this volume demonstrates that "religion" is not, in fact, an empty signifier, but gains substance through practice and interpretation. Considering the undeveloped potentiality of religion and the manner in which the unseen religious perspective in secularity becomes manifest in practice, this volume will appeal to social scientists and scholars of religion with interests in migration, refugee studies, theology, and Christian practice.
List of contents
1. Introduction: The Pursuit of Common Grounds – Conceptualizing Values and Encounters 2. A Nonmodernist Humanizing: Reconstructing Theological Resistance Beyond Secular–Religious Binaries 3. Religion, Race, and the Fantasies of Benevolence 4. Migration and Christian Vocation in a Global World 5. "Tu Veux un Chewing-gum?": Encounters in Hospitality and Willfulness 6. Europe Between Globalism and Localism 7. We Who Flee and We Who Are in the Business of Producing Refugees 8. State Lockdown: The Concept of "Risky Immigrants" in Danish Policy Discourse 9. The Gift of Being Needed: Protestantism and the Double-Edged Sword of Hospitality 10. Bordering, Othering, and Empathy: Enhancing Social Proximity in a World in Motion 11. The Cracks in the Category of Christianism: A Call for Ambiguity in the Conceptualization of Christianity 12. Challenged by Ecumenism: The Blessing of the Religious Other for Ecclesial Hospitality Practices 13. Conceptions of Dialogical Hospitality: The Ugly Side of Hospitality
About the author
Cecilia Nahnfeldt is Scientific Leader, Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society, Uppsala University and Researcher at Research and Analysis Department, Church of Sweden, Uppsala.
Kaia S. Rønsdal is Associate Professor in the field of Leadership, Dialogue and Care in Plural Contexts at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, Norway.
Summary
Examining the motives for hospitality as lived in Christian contexts in the Nordic region and addressing the content of talk about ‘religion’ in public discourse, this book reconstructs the connection between religion and migration, drawing on post-colonial perspectives to shed light on what religion can contribute to migrant encounters.
