The Value of Placelessness: New Possibilities for Christian Realist Thought in an Age of Migration

Christian realist thought retains significant power and interest for interpreting global issues and institutions. However, Christian realism has not fully addressed how people on the move – or without a place to call home – relate to political institutions and structures. This field of thought is therefore missing a necessary lens of analysis through which to examine questions of Christian love and social justice in an age of migration. This presentation seeks to open a conversation that 1) incorporates Christian realist insights about human nature, social justice, and political institutions, and 2) recognizes that human migration and the phenomenon of placelessness can deeply change human relationships to those institutions. Our ways of conceiving and doing justice must take into account how “placeless” people relate to their political context. Political structures can, and sometimes must, adapt to the realities of human mobility, multiple belonging, and cases of placelessness in the contemporary global context.