ABSTRACT

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.

chapter Chapter 1|17 pages

Introduction

The pursuit of common grounds – conceptualizing values and encounters

chapter Chapter 2|11 pages

A nonmodernist humanizing

Reconstructing theological resistance beyond secular-religious binaries

chapter Chapter 5|18 pages

“Tu veux un chewing-gum?”

Encounters in hospitality and willfulness

chapter Chapter 6|17 pages

Europe between globalism and localism

chapter Chapter 8|26 pages

State lockdown

The concept of “risky immigrants” in Danish policy discourse

chapter Chapter 9|12 pages

The gift of being needed

Protestantism and the double-edged sword of hospitality

chapter Chapter 10|16 pages

Bordering, othering, and empathy

Enhancing social proximity in a world in motion

chapter Chapter 11|19 pages

The cracks in the category of Christianism

A call for ambiguity in the conceptualization of Christianity

chapter Chapter 12|10 pages

Challenged by ecumenism

The blessing of the religious other for ecclesial hospitality practices

chapter Chapter 13|8 pages

Conceptions of dialogical hospitality

The ugly side of hospitality