One of our research associates, Hadje Cresencio Sadje, has just published a booklet: Theology at the Border: Community Peacemaker Teams and the Refugee Crisis in Europe.
In this new volume, Hadje explores the role of Community Peacemaker Teams in Europe in responding to the needs of refugees through theologically-informed political, economic, and public policy advocacy.
This booklet explores how CPT Europe’s work can inform a contextually sensitive, socially relevant, and liberating form of Christian faith that is immersed in the everyday lives of people, especially refugee lives. Although it is not solely a Christian organisation, the work of CPT rests on a strong theological affirmation of immersion as a concrete approach to doing theology at the borders of this world. The work of CPT Europe shows how theological reflection at the borderland should not remain academic exercise, but instead it ought to emerge in the context of common people, especially the poor, the vulnerable, and the oppressed.
In brief, this booklet argues that theology cannot be done without taking lived realities into account, and it demonstrates this conclusion by showing how CPT Europe provides a paradigm for doing theology – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching God – at the borderland.
The booklet is available here.
A fuller description is below:
‘When the EU refugee crisis broke up in 2015, the large influx of refugees shocks the European countries (Poushter 2016). Like America, many Europeans depicted refugees as a “dark cloud” that moved slowly and cover entire Europe, especially extreme right-wing parties (Poushter 2016; Ames 2019). They regarded refugees as a potential source of domestic terrorism and social-economic burden (Poushter 2016; Barder and Ritchie 2017; Ames 2019). Beverly Crawford Ames, a DAAD/AICGS Research Fellow and former Director of Berkeley’s Center for German and European Studies observed how extreme right-wing in Western societies used dehumanizing, demeaning, and defamatory words to described migrants and refugees. For instance, Ames writes, “…Migrants, e.g., human beings who were born across their borders, are called “congenital criminals, lepers, thieves, unclean,” “garbage,” “animals,” “predators,” “testosterone bombs,” and worse” (Ames 2019). Consequently, Ames further argues that these dehumanizing words can cause real damage, especially in policymaking. She writes, “Dehumanizing language pollutes the debate, blocks solutions to social problems, and can relax our instinctive aversion to aggression and violence (Ames 2019). In a similar vein, Christine Goodall describes, “…nearly a decade ago that Western democracies were becoming increasingly unwelcoming, and talked of a ‘tragic conflict in much secular ethics today as applicable to asylum seekers’ and refugees, and that ‘action based on humanitarian principles’ appeared to be becoming ‘increasingly difficult to sell to electorates’” (Goodall UNCHR 2015).
However, many Christian communities and individuals uniquely positioned to stand up against the dehumanization of refugees in Europe (Goodall UNCHR 2015). They are refusing to be intimidated into silence. On November 5, for example, Bishop Ignatius of Metropolis of Dimitriados and Almyros Greece, publicly stated that “…he who doesn’t help refugees & migrants ’is not a Christian’” (2019). He criticized the Greek government for using Greek Orthodox religion to demonize migrants and justify their actions against refugees. He further argues, “…refugees and migrants are Christ today. We teach this Christ … We will be held accountable, if we do not receive him. Only with this Christ, we can truly celebrate Resurrection at Easter” (2019). Like Bishop Ignatius, several Christian groups joined for a common purpose, like Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe and World Council of Churches, to protect and fulfill the human rights of all refugees, regardless of their status (Jackson and Passarelli CCME 2016). Aside from CCME and WCC, however, one of the most active Christian organizations have responded to protect and promote the rights and dignity of refugees is the Community Peacemaker Team (CPT). Inspired by the theology of accompaniment and advocacy (EAPPI-WCC 2019; Lamberty 2012: Bosch1991; Goizueta 1995; Braaten 1985), CPT Europe seeks to follow God’s Spirit as it works through local peacemakers to confront systems of violence and oppression (CPT Europe 2016).
Hence, this booklet explores how CPT Europe’s work can inform a contextually sensitive, socially relevant, and liberating form of Christian faith that is immersed in the everyday lives of people, especially refugee lives. Although it is not solely a Christian organization, the work of CPT Europe rests on a strong theological affirmation of immersion as a concrete approach to doing theology at the borders of this world. It shows how theological reflection at the borderland should not remain an academic exercise, but instead, it ought to emerge in the context of common people, especially the poor, the vulnerable, and the oppressed. In brief, this booklet argues that theology cannot be done without taking lived realities into account, and it demonstrates this conclusion by showing how CPT Europe provides a paradigm for doing theology – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching God – at the borderland.’
