The global crisis of forced displacement is growing every year. At the same time, Western Christians' sympathy toward refugees is increasingly overshadowed by concerns about personal and national security, economics, and culture. We urgently need a perspective that understands both Scripture and current political realities and that can be applied at the levels of the church, the nation, and the globe. In Refuge Reimagined, Mark R. Glanville and Luke Glanville offer a new approach to compassion for displaced people: a biblical ethic of kinship. God's people, they argue, are consistently called to extend kinship-a mutual responsibility and solidarity-to those who are marginalized and without a home. Drawing on their respective expertise in Old Testament studies and international relations, the two brothers engage a range of disciplines to demonstrate how this ethic is consistently conveyed throughout the Bible and can be practically embodied today. Glanville and Glanville apply the kinship ethic to issues such as the current mission of the church, national identity and sovereignty, and possibilities for a cooperative global response to the refugee crisis. Challenging the fear-based ethic that often motivates Christian approaches, they envision a more generous, creative, and hopeful way forward. Refuge Reimagined will equip students, activists, and anyone interested in refugee issues to understand the biblical model for communities and how it can transform our world.
"The lens of kinship with refugees that Mark and Luke Glanville offer has the potential to be revolutionary. This book will change and deepen the conversation around a biblical ethic for welcoming refugees, and I highly recommend it."
Jarrod McKenna, host of the InVerse Podcast and co-initiator of the #LoveMakesAWay movemen
"What would it mean if, rather than just providing support and protection for people experiencing displacement, we actually lived life with them? In this important book, Mark and Luke Glanville provide an answer to this question through the biblical concept of kinship. Building on existing work in political theory, theology on hospitality, and our responses to people on the move, Glanville and Glanville suggest that the Scriptures call us to enfold displaced people as kindred, in relationships where both the host and the hosted bless and receive blessing. This framework has the potential to radically disrupt existing approaches to refugees and protection in both scholarship and practice, as they demonstrate through their engagement withkey biblical texts and day-to-day institutions and processes. It's a radical disruption that is desperately needed in these dark and challenging times for the politics of migration and politics in general."
Erin Wilson, associate professor of politics and religion at the University of Groningen
