Christ among refugees and migrants at Christmas, part 2: the sojourner paradigm

In part one, we looked at the argument that the Christmas stories, the career of Jesus more generally, and the mission of his followers support the view that the church and the societies in which it bears witness are obligated to welcome and include the refugee and migrant. Here we will consider the one large biblical concept to which appeal is made in support of the inclusive agenda—the hospitality extended to the “sojourner” in ancient Israel.

My overall argument is that the church has got itself boxed in to one way of viewing the problem, and that scripture is both less interested and more complicated. Part 1 dealt with the less interested, part 2 deals with the more complicated.

In a transcribed conversation with Jim Wallis of Sojourners, “theologian and immigrant advocate” Karen González says:

Read more...
Tucker Ferda’s “process eschatology” and the coming of the Son of Man
In an excellent interview on the Protestant Libertarian Podcast about his book Jesus and His Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins (2024), Tucker Ferda uses the expression “process eschatology” to register the fact that in Jewish apocalyptic writings the “end” is… ( | 6 comments)
The form of this order of things is passing away: who is wrong—Paul or Matthew Thiessen?
I said I would come back to Matthew Thiessen’s “incoherent” account of Paul’s eschatology, so here we are. Chapter four of A Jewish Paul: The Messiah’s Herald to the Gentiles is about Paul the “End-Time Jew.” Thiessen begins: “Paul never wrote an autobiography. Why would he when he… ( | 1 comment)
The “narrative-historical” method according to ChatGPT
I asked ChatGPT (Chat with Website) to summarise the “narrative-historical” approach to biblical interpretation that I pursue on this website. This is what it came up with. It’s not quite how I would have put it. I wouldn’t have said “empires like Rome,” for example; “historical… ()
The politics of Jesus: why did he not condemn the imperial oppressor?
In a lengthy Theopolis essay entitled “Pentecost and the Gift of a New Politics,” Alastair Roberts asks why Jesus had so little to say about the evil empire in their midst. “Jesus declares the coming of the kingdom of God: should not such a kingdom have involved, at a bare minimum, the defeat… ( | 4 comments)
Paul and 4QMMT: works, faith, and justification
Matthew Thiessen says that to understand the historical Paul we must relocate him in the world of first century Judaism, and here’s a book that does just that: Ben C. Blackwell, John K. Goodrich, and Jason Maston, eds. Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism (2015).… ()
Paul’s former life in “Judaism”—whatever that was
Matthew Thiessen is keen to demonstrate that “Paul did not convert from an established religion called Judaism to a new religion called Christianity” (A Jewish Paul: The Messiah’s Herald to the Gentiles, 57). We can agree on that. His conversion was to a radical allegiance… ( | 7 comments)
Matthew Thiessen on the Jewish Paul: should we choose against readings that are harmful to others?
In the introduction to his book A Jewish Paul: The Messiah’s Herald to the Gentiles (2023), Matthew Thiessen says that his broad aim is to present a reading of Paul that does not perpetuate an old “Christian” or “Lutheran” view of Judaism as “inferior or even pernicious, something left… ( | 1 comment)