Toward a Political Theology of Refugee Resettlement

Abstract

The author evaluates the current partnership between the church, religious NGOs, and the US State Department on refugee resettlement. In conversation with refugee studies, he teases out positive implications of and limitations in two prominent models of postChristendom political theology, those of William Cavanaugh and David Fergusson. He then draws on the thought of Johann Baptist Metz and the practice of the Jesuit Refuge Service to suggest ways that a political theology of refugee resettlement might reform current practice and occupy a space between the theologies of Cavanaugh and Fergusson.

Introduction

“…The rule of “interreligious hospitality” (Cornille , 35) is to welcome the stranger, the refugee, and the migrant with the differences they bring to the table. The Jesuit Refuge Service frames the practice of care for refugees in similar theological terms, calling their unconditional hospitality “incarnational accompaniment” (Ralston ). Such faith‐bound grounding of hospitality does not align well with a position that refuses Muslims to enter this country because of their “otherness.” The fear of their supposed unassimilability into Western culture is no argument to withhold the gesture of hospitality.…”