Immigration and Faith: Cultural, Biblical, and Theological Narratives

by Brett C. Hoover

Publisher:

Paulist Press

, 2021

Overview

Immigration and Faith describes immigration as an ongoing historical reality that human beings understand through distinct, powerful narratives. Such narratives help various groups of people frame and see migration through a discerning lens. In nations like the United States, with strong immigrant histories, the collision and interweaving of various migration narratives helps partially to explain the ever-shifting tensions and political struggles over immigration.

Migration stories, however, are not only about immigrants. Internal migration elicits similar cultural, scholarly, and theological narratives—of insiders and outsiders, welcome and fear, loss and success. Whether describing international or domestic migration, these “moving stories” interpret the collective experience both of migrants and others impacted by migration. Receiving communities from dominant cultures have much to say, too, and the stories may be constructed more to speak to their experiences than to those of immigrants. Finally, those who choose to remain in the places from which migrants depart also figure into migration narratives, often subtly and almost invisibly. Any honest account of migration, whether internal or international, must incorporate something of the experience and conditions of all three communities: moving, staying, relocating. Approaching narratives from this trifold perspective reveals migration as the multilateral, systemic reality that it is.

Key Features

• Describes immigration as an ongoing historical reality.
• Interprets the collective experience both of migrants and others impacted by migration.
• Incorporates something of the experience and conditions of all three communities.

Product Details

• Title: Immigration and Faith: Cultural, Biblical, and Theological Narratives
• Author: Brett C. Hoover
• Publisher: Paulist Press
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Pages: 208
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• ISBNs: 9780809154739, 0809154730
• Resource ID: LLS:MMGRTNFTHNRRTVS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-02-21T18:26:37Z

About Brett C. Hoover

Brett C. Hoover, Ph.D. is the Associate Chair of Graduate Education and Associate Professor of Practical and Pastoral Theology for the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University.

His latest book, Immigration and Faith: Cultural, Biblical, and Theological Narratives, takes an interdisciplinary and wide ranging approach to the reality of human migration, with a special emphasis on the North American context. In nations like the United States with strong immigrant histories, the collision and interweaving of various migration narratives—cultural stories not only of receiving communities but of migrants themselves and the sending communities from which they come—help to explain the ever-shifting tensions and political struggles over migration. Hoover’s extensively researched portrayal combines sociological, cultural, and historical analysis with biblical, theological, and ethical study to create a nuanced, well-rounded discussion. Ultimately, he offers a practical theology of migration that integrates Catholic social teaching, tradition, and ethics in a clear and compelling way. Therein lies the possibility of opening new pathways for transformative encounters in immigrant societies. Immigration and Faith is a good introduction for students and scholars, but its accessibility makes it a helpful tool for parishes and other ministerial contexts.