The Stranger Within Your Gates

The intellectual dilemma that converts posed to classical Jews played itself out in discussions of marriage, religious practice, inheritance of property, and much else: on the one hand, converts must be no different from native-born Israelites if the god of the Hebrew Bible is a universal deity; on the other hand, converts must be distinguishable from native-born members of the community if a divine covenant was made with Abraham's descendants.

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.

Readers will find this an invaluable guide to the preoccupations and features of Micheaux's remarkable career and the insight it provides into the African American experience of the 1920s and 30s.

The concept of human dignity has been stripped from its traditional context in Christian thought, becoming "a moral trump frayed by heavy use," but a compelling alternate vision has not yet emerged. "God and Human Dignity" offers a fresh restatement of the nature and scope of human dignity in Christian perspective. Theologians, ethicists, and biblical scholars from around the world here examine the dimensions of human worth in the light of sacred Scripture, doctrine, and ecclesial practice. In contrast to modernity's often monochromatic accounts of human dignity in terms of freedom or rationality, these essays argue that human dignity in Christian perspective is a "many-splendored thing" reflecting humanity's participation in the divine drama of creation, redemption, and new creation. Representing disciplines across the academic spectrum, the essays in "God and Human Dignity" offer systematic and scriptural perspectives on human dignity that connect to a host of pressing contemporary issues. Contributors: C. Clifton Black, Russell Botman, Don Browing, J. Kameron Carter, Elaine Graham, Robert W. Jensen, James L. Mays, M. Douglas Meeks, Esther Menn, Peter Ochs, John Polkinghorne, Hans Reinders, Gerhard Sauter, Christoph Schwvbel, R. Kendall Soulen, Fraser Watts, Michael Welker, and Linda Woodhead.D

Investigate how Deuteronomy incorporates vulnerable, displaced people Deuteronomy addresses social contexts of widespread displacement, an issue affecting 65 million people today. In this book Mark R. Glanville investigates how Deuteronomy fosters the integration of the stranger as kindred into the community of Yahweh. According to Deuteronomy, displaced people are to be enfolded within the household, within the clan, and within the nation. Glanville argues that Deuteronomy demonstrates the immense creativity that communities may invest in enfolding displaced and vulnerable people. Inclusivism is nourished through social law, the law of judicial procedure, communal feasting, and covenant renewal. Deuteronomy’s call to include the stranger as kindred presents contemporary nation-states with an opportunity and a responsibility to reimagine themselves and their disposition toward displaced strangers today. Features: Exploration of the relationship of ancient Israel’s social history to biblical texts An integrative methodology that brings together literary-historical, legal, sociological, comparative, literary, and theological approaches A thorough study of Israelite identity and ethnicity