ABSTRACT
The border is often imagined as a legal fact that functions as a site of exclusion from the territory of the nation-state for those who have no claim of right to enter. This chapter examines that concept of the border with particular attention to the ways that territory, sovereignty, and jurisdiction intersect in thinking about the border. The chapter then turns to resources from border communities and the scholarship of critical border studies to question whether the border is only a site of exclusion or can also be imagined as a site of engagement. Drawing on work from Christian theology and ethics, the chapter concludes by asking how theological resources could help to reimagine the border as a site of engagement.
