Bordered by COVID-19 and the EU-27: Imagining a theology of global domicile

Authors

  • Darrell Jackson

Abstract

The European Union legislates the free movement of people, capital and goods, within and between its member states. This political commitment has been hard-pressed by the undocumented migrants entering the EU. The COVID-19 pandemic catalysed restrictions upon the free movement of people within the EU. Whilst legal, these restrictions posed a significant existential threat to the EU. Accompanying these is an increasing tendency to prioritise the claims of the nation state above all other obligations, including those of international law or any sense of moral or ethical obligation. European churches play an active role in refugee advocacy and welfare, fostering processes of welcome and integration, accompanied by the development of ecclesiologies that simultaneously transcend borders and acknowledge their legal and political necessity. This paper highlights the responses of nation-states to migrants and contrasts these with a constructive diaspora theology that is fit for purpose within the context of the European Union and its member states.

Author Biography

Darrell Jackson

Revd Associate Professor Darrell Jackson, who grew up in the Isle of Man, is the Dean of Research at Whitley College in the University of Divinity. Darrell has served as an ordained Baptist minister in local church ministry, regional ministry and ecumenical mission since 1989. He has been a full-time missiological educator since 2007 and moved to Australia in 2012 to take up an appointment at Morling College in Sydney. In mid-2019 he was appointed to his current role at Whitley College. He is a Mission Commission Associate of the World Evangelical Alliance, a member of the Commission for Mission of the Baptist World Alliance, a missiological advisor to Baptist Mission Australia, and a member of the International Board of European Christian Mission International. His most recent publications include a chapter in Christianity in Oceania, one of the Companions to Global Christianity Series from Edinburgh University Press, and a chapter in Call to Mission and Perceptions of Proselytism: A Reader for a Global Conversation (Pickwick Publications).

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Published

2023-03-29

Issue

No. 7 (2023): Journal of Contemporary Ministry

Section

Peer Reviewed Articles

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