Refuge Reimagined - by Mark R Glanville & Luke Glanville (Paperback)

About the Book

Mark R. Glanville and Luke Glanville offer a new approach to compassion for displaced people: a biblical ethic of kinship. Challenging the fear-based ethic that often motivates Christian approaches, they demonstrate how this ethic is consistently conveyed throughout the Bible and can be practically embodied today.

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Refuge Reimagined provokes urgent conversation on the importance of responding to and welcoming refugees like family. Glanville and Glanville summon Christians to welcome those forcibly displaced through the face-to-face recognition that they are, in fact, our global brothers and sisters and must be welcomed as such. Refuge Reimagined powerfully reminds us that when we embrace the opportunity to welcome the most vulnerable and uphold their dignity, we discover the fullness of our being in God. The book is both a powerhouse of sound biblical exegesis and a perceptive modern-day analysis that compassionately and rightly calls us to listen to God and learn from our biblical ancestors and contemporary practitioners. It inspires reflection on our base impulses that too easily lead to inaction or polarized entrenchment, positions our imaginations and communities for welcome, and prompts action on the profound truth that in the end, refugees are, indeed, the you and me of another place and family."

"Informed and informative, Refuge Reimagined combines careful biblical and sociopolitical scholarship to call Christians and the church to respond compassionately to the mounting refugee crisis. Using the foundational concept of kinship--familial, communal, national, and global--the authors seek to cultivate an ethic of virtuous welcome that could be a catalyst for the more humane treatment of foreigners in the body politic. Insightful, pastoral, and practical, this volume is an exemplary resource."

About the Author

Dr. Mark Glanville works as the Director of the Centre for Missional Leadership at St. Andrews Hall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He is an Old Testament scholar, and has written five books, including Improvising Church: Scripture as the Source of Harmony, Rhythm, and Soul and Preaching in a New Key: Crafting Expository Sermons in Post-Christian Communities. Mark's vocational goal is to research, teach, write, speak, and play music to nourish Christian leaders to creatively reimagine what the church can be and do in post-Christian societies, with the Bible in our hands. Mark is also a professional jazz pianist, active on the Vancouver jazz scene. Mark's podcast is Blue Note Theology, which he hosts from the grand piano. His personal website is https: //www.markglanville.org.

Luke Glanville (PhD, University of Queensland) is associate professor in the department of international relations at Australian National University. He is the author of Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect: A New History.