Christianity Across Borders Theology and Contemporary Issues in Global Migration

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of key issues in contemporary global migration and considers the theological implications for Christianity, in general, and for Christian faith and practice in various parts of the world, in particular. Migrant Christians, who make up the majority of believers on the move and in diaspora, play an increasingly vital role in world Christianity today. Drawing on cases from across the globe, Gemma Tulud Cruz considers how Christians are faced with immense gifts and tremendous challenges brought by the ever-increasing presence of migrants in their midst and the conditions that characterize contemporary global migration. Migrant Christians themselves face multiple challenges, which have been made more stark by the coronavirus pandemic. The volume will be relevant to scholars of religion and of migration who are interested in a closer examination of what happens to Christians and Christianity, (faith) communities, and nation-states in the age of migration.

IntroductionPART I: Politics of Marginality and Identity 1 Resident alien: Home in the age of migration 2 Bonding and bridging: Christianity as lived religion among African and Asian migrants in the Global North 3 Liberating faith: Popular religiosity and power among Latinx migrants in the United States 4 Portable homeland: Transnationalism among Catholics 5 Toward an intercultural feminist theology: Cross-border feminist scholarship and activism 6 Toward healing: Climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and migration PART II: Special populations 7 Reimagining the moral economy of kinship: The family and global migration 8 A good woman,a true marriage?: Cross-border marriage migrants and gender 9 Witness as withness: Underclass migrant workers and pastoral ministry by the Churches 10 Toward just and inclusive communities: "Undesirable aliens" and Christian mission in the context of the European migrant and refugee crisis of 2015 and its aftermath 11 "Disposable people": Trafficked persons and Christian vulnerability 12 Shining a light on hope: Immigration advocates and humanitarian workers through the lens of migrant resilience

Gemma Tulud Cruz is Senior Lecturer in Theology and member of the Institute of Religion and Critical Inquiry at Australian Catholic University. She is author of numerous publications on migration theologies, including Toward an Intercultural Theology of Migration: Pilgrims in the Wilderness and Toward a Theology of Migration: Social Justice and Religious Experience.