Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1981
WEBSITE: https://www.matthewkaemingk.com/
CITY: Houston
STATE: TX
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2017045569
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017045569
HEADING: Kaemingk, Matthew, 1981-
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PERSONAL
Born May 9, 1981; married; wife’s name Heather; children: Calvin, Kees, and Caedmon.
EDUCATION:Whitworth University, B.A., 2003; Princeton Theological Seminary, M.Div., 2008; and holds Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Ph.D. (systematic theology), 2003; Fuller Theological Seminary, Ph.D. (Christian ethics), 2013.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Minister, educator, and writer. Ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church. Whitworth University, Spokane, WA; adjunct instructor, 2011; Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, adjunct instructor, 2011-14, affiliate professor, 2014, then assistant professor of Christian ethics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, scholar-in-residence at the Center for the Study of Religion and Society, 2011-12, Fuller Institute of Theology and Northwest Culture, Seattle, WA, executive director, 2013-17, Fuller Theological Seminary–Houston, TX, associate dean. Also Theologische Universiteit Kampen, Kampen, the Netherlands, scholar-in-residence, 2016.
MEMBER:American Academy of Religion, the Society of Christian Ethics.
AWARDS:Recipient of grants and scholarships, including a Fulbright Scholarship.
WRITINGS
Guest editor at Comment Magazine, 2011.
SIDELIGHTS
Matthew Kaemingk is an ordained minister and educator whose primary areas of interest and research are Christian ethics, work and marketplace theology, Christianity and Islam, religious pluralism, political ethics, theology and culture, reformed public theology, Abraham Kuyper and neb-calvinism, and ethics and globalization. He is also interested in worship, ethics, and public life. In the course of his career, Kaemingk has played a role in launching three theological initiatives in the Pacific Northwest designed to help churches engage with the arts, the marketplace, and the local culture.
In his first book, Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear, Kaemingk addresses how Christians should respond to Muslim immigration amid the public debates concerning religious freedom, tolerance, terrorism, and security. Kaemingk considers both nationalistic fears and idealistic multiculturalism in modern society but turns his attention to a proposed third way that encompass Christian pluralism in a way that includes both Christian faith within a historical context and Muslim immigrants and their public rights, dignity, and freedom. Kaemingk points out in the book’s introduction that since World War II both North America and Europe had experienced an unprecedented wave of millions of Muslim immigrants. This wave of immigration has led to the question of how people with such diverse beliefs can live together.
Kaemingk goes on to point out in the introduction that, as a minister, he often finds himself involved in the debates concerning how Christians should react to the many controversies surrounding Muslim immigration, including issues such as how Christians should respond to their Muslim neighbors, whether Christianity and Islam can coexist, and if there are limits to religious freedom and tolerance. The two sides to these issues revolve around Muslim immigration and whether or not it should be allowed or highly curtailed, with each side having their own approach. Noting that he proposes a third approach, Kaemingk writes in the introduction to Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear that he wrote the book for “Christians who sense a deep need for an alternative response to Islam that begins and ends with Christian conviction–not the simplistic ideologies of the right and left.” He goes on to note that he is also writing for non-Christians who are examining the Christian response to Muslim immigration. “In a time when opinions on immigration appear to be limited, either to the left-wing extreme of uncritical multiculturalism, or to the right-wing extreme of intolerant nationalism, Kaemingk’s book comes as a refreshing wind of encouragement to Christians whose hearts ache for something more,” wrote a Faith & Forced Migration website contributor.
Kaemingk begins with a case study focusing on Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the country’s response to Muslim immigration over the past five decades. Next, he turns his attention to the history a of Christian pluralism with a focus on the theology of Abraham Kuyper, who served as the prime minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905 and was also a journalist and an influential neo-Calvinist theologian. The next section explores the future of Christian pluralism as Kaemingk discusses pluralism pertaining to its relationship to the teachings of Jesus Christ, the basis of worship, and idea of pluralism and action. Kaemingk also suggests approaches for Christians to reach out to Muslim immigrants and develop a respect and more expansive viewpoint concerning Islam. The book closes with a focus on American evangelicals and how they can help mend the vast divide that has arisen between the West and Islam.
Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear “provides Christians a compassionate, coherent approach to the pressing problem of how religious difference should be handled in a secular society,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Dan Carter, writing for the Shared Justice website, commented: “If you’re looking for a pamphlet or primer on Christian ethics and immigration, this is not it. It is over 300 pages of academic reflection that covers history, theology, worship, and praxis. It is not, however, a dry read.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Kaemingk, Matthew, Christian hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear, Eerdmans Publishing Co. (Grand Rapids, MI), 2018.
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, November 13, 2017, review of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear, p. 58.
ONLINE
Christianity Today Online, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ (December 21, 2017), Matthew Arbo, “A Wall of Security or a Table of Fellwoship?,” review of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear.
Eerdword–the Erdman’s Blog, https://eerdword.com/ (January 22, 2018), “Erdman’s Author Interviews: Matthew Kaemingk on Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear,” video interview.
Faith & Forced Migration, http://www.faithandforcedmigration.com/ (January 3, 2018), review of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear.
Matthew Kaemingk Website, https://www.matthewkaemingk.com (March 16, 2018).
Shared Justice, http://www.sharedjustice.org (March 1, 2018), Dan Carter, review of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear.
Rev. Dr. Matthew Kaemingk is an assistant professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary and the associate dean of Fuller Texas in Houston.
Matthew's research and teaching focuses on Islam and political ethics, workplace theology, theology and culture, and Reformed public theology. His new book Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear will be released January 2018.
From 2013-2017 Matthew served as the Executive Director of the Fuller Institute for Theology and Northwest Culture in Seattle, WA. Matthew helped to launch three innovative theological initiatives designed to theologically equip churches to engage the arts, marketplace, and culture of the Pacific Northwest.
Matthew earned his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and holds doctoral degrees in Systematic Theology from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and in Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. As a Fulbright Scholar in Amsterdam Matthew studied political theology and the European conflict over Muslim immigration.
Matthew is an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church. He and his wife Heather live in Houston, TX with their three sons Calvin, Kees, and Caedmon. Matthew has a quasi-religious relationship with the Seattle Seahawks.
Click here for a full list of Matthew's writings in his curriculum vitae.
Eerdmans January 22, 2018 Author Interviews, Video
Eerdmans Author Interviews: Matthew Kaemingk on Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear
The arrival of Muslim immigrants during the past fifty years has ignited a series of fierce public debates on both sides of the Atlantic about religious freedom and tolerance, terrorism and security, gender and race, and much more. How should Christians respond?
Rejecting both fearful nationalism and romantic multiculturalism, theologian and ethicist Matthew Kaemingk makes the case for a third way. In his new book Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Terror, Kaemingk argues for a Christian pluralism that is committed to both the historic Christian faith and the public rights, dignity, and freedom of Muslim immigrants.
About Matthew Kaemingk
Matthew Kaemingk is an assistant professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, the associate dean of Fuller Texas in Houston, and an ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church. His scholarship focuses on Islam and political ethics, workplace theology, theology and culture, and Reformed public theology.
Read the Publishers Weekly Starred review of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear.
Jordan J. Ballor
— Acton Institute
In this compelling work Matthew Kaemingk asks what Amsterdam has to do with Mecca, and the answers he finds turn out to have implications the world over. . . . The charity and clarity on display here will challenge Christians to think more deeply, and to act more responsibly, in response to the call to live peacefully and faithfully with Muslim neighbors.
James K.A. Smith (from the Foreword)
— Calvin College
[T]his singular book does two things at once: It shows the real-world relevance of Reformed public theology while also making a constructive contribution to a pressing question that continues to dominate the headlines. This isn’t just more prolegomena and throat-clearing; this is a Christian ethicist tackling a real, difficult, practical question with the resources of theology. Kaemingk doesn’t pretend to be a policy expert, nor does he take his academic credentials to be a license to freelance as an activist. The (limited but constructive) role of the ethicist and theologian here is diaconal: offered in service of those involved in legislation, policy, NGOs, activism, and the quiet, quotidian works of mercy that constitute the church’s hospitality.
Purchase Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear at Eerdmans.com, Christianbook.com, Amazon, or at your local independent bookstore.
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Full Text:
* Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear
Matthew Kaemingk. Eerdmans, $28 (296p) ISBN 978-0-8028-7458-0
This fantastic debut by Kaemingk, professor of Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, pairs
philosophical rigor and practical advice in a powerful call for Western Christians to deal more justly with
Muslims. Using the left-leaning Netherlands as an example of the failure of unquestioning multiculturalism,
he assails liberalism's inability to account for the real problems of integrating Islam into Western life,
namely, fundamental cultural differences that should be acknowledged and celebrated rather than elided.
His answer to this is for Christians to cultivate a pluralism that celebrates diversity while maintaining
theological commitment. He builds his argument off the work of Abraham Kuyper, a late-19th-century
Dutch theologian who critiqued liberalism's shallow view of faith. Kaemingk offers suggestions for
outreach efforts (including Dutch success stories such as that of a group of Christian women in Rotterdam
who spend a weekend each month in the Muslim area of the city to "stitch, knit, and talk" as the
communities make clothing together) that he says will cultivate the kind of respect for difference his new
expansive orientation requires. He closes with 10 ways for American evangelicals to mend the rifts between
Islam and the West. Despite the seriousness of his argument, Kaemingk's tone is encouraging throughout.
This useful and accessible academic work provides Christians a compassionate, coherent approach to the
pressing problem of how religious difference should be handled in a secular society. (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear." Publishers Weekly, 13 Nov. 2017, p. 58.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A515326049/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6981615d. Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A515326049
March 1, 2018
A Review of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear
In this article, Dan Carter offers a review of Center for Public Justice Fellow Matthew Kaemingk’s new book, Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear. Dan is a husband, father, neighbor, reader, runner, and Senior Pastor of Calvary on 8th St. located in Holland, MI.
The centerpiece of President Trump’s State of the Union address was immigration reform, and for many, the centerpiece of his rationale for immigration reform seemed to be fear. Many Americans are afraid. Our fear of the other, of difference, is as old as humanity. That is nothing new or noteworthy. The problems arise when we indulge those fears. So we fear those who speak differently, look differently, and believe differently than we do. Much of North America and Europe have directed those fears toward the Muslim immigrants whose numbers have increased in recent years. This has created a crisis of conscience; we choose whether to build habits of hospitality and compassion or habits of fear and suspicion.
In the coming months, immigration reform will continue to be a central issue for our nation. The protections afforded by DACA will end on March 5 and the Trump administration, as well as the State of the Union, have made it clear that big negotiations are on the horizon. We, as engaged citizens, will have the choice as to which habits we will build in our advocacy, conversations, and daily lives. We can choose which stories we tell – stories about MS-13 and crime, or stories about neighbors working together and families building new lives.
How can we make such choices? And how can we, as Christian citizens, train ourselves in the necessary theological, historical, and practical foundations we will need to engage this very difficult topic? When it comes to educating ourselves, we could do no better in this cultural moment than to invest some time in Matthew Kaemingk’s new book Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear. Kaemingk is the Associate Dean for Fuller Texas and Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics in the School of Theology, and has spent time in the Netherlands studying the country’s approach to Muslim immigration. He has studied Reformed theology and Muslim-Christian relations extensively. His heart for the Netherlands, Christian public theology, and his Muslim neighbors shines through in his work.
If you’re looking for a pamphlet or primer on Christian ethics and immigration, this is not it. It is over 300 pages of academic reflection that covers history, theology, worship, and praxis. It is not, however, a dry read. The topic and the writing are full of urgency. That urgency can be felt in the raw stories Kaemingk shares from his study of the Netherlands – stories from the last decade of vandalism, beheadings, and profanity in the streets. The disenfranchisement of Muslim immigrants led to isolated violence against native Dutch citizens, while the thin veneer of tolerance among liberals cracked and made way for constant threats against and marginalization of Muslims. This is not academic reflection for its own sake, but rather an attempt to answer our most pressing questions. Kaemingk dives into identifying cultural shifts that are tied to attitudes and policies. He locates failures and successes within the narrative of the Netherlands. He then offers ideas for how Christians can be shaped and formed to love our Muslim neighbors. All of this leads us to see how essential hospitality should be in our political, liturgical, and theological lives, especially for any Christian concerned with public justice.
Many of the stories that Kaemingk tells are tragic - stories that demonstrate the failure of Christians, Muslims, and others in the Netherlands to live peaceably together, as well as the broader failure of European multiculturalism. The dark questions these stories pose impel the book along. However, not all the stories are tragic - Kaemingk shares several stories that are filled with the hope that God is always active in the world.
It is impossible to capture the whole scope of the work here, but I will attempt to draw out several key themes that are particularly helpful to our pursuit of public justice.
WHAT IS CHRISTIAN PLURALISM?
Much of what is published on Shared Justice seeks to equip citizens to be engaged in their pursuit of public justice and pluralism in the public square. The Center for Public Justice Guidelines promote the importance of both structural and confessional pluralism. Structural pluralism is the effort to seek justice for diverse organizations and institutions in a society. Confessional pluralism, according to the Center for Public Justice, is the effort “to protect the religious freedom and other civil rights of all citizens - not only in their worship communities, but also in education, welfare services, and more.” Kaemingk uses the term “Christian pluralism” to describe these values. For him, the Christian defends her Muslim neighbor precisely because Christ is “a sovereign king who demanded justice for all religions and ideologies under his sovereign rule - even those who denied Christ’s very kingship” (24). This is a radical idea. Christ’s sovereignty does not create a zero-sum world where we must war against those who are different. Christ’s sovereignty creates a world where the Christian defends the rights of those who are not Christian.
Kaemingk’s practical and historical description of Christian pluralism is one of the best available. Christian pluralism, he argues, is based on a strong foundation of belief. This is in contrast to the standard way the world looks at diversity. So often, even for Christians, pluralism is attempted by letting go of one’s faith. Kaemingk highlights this fallacy: “The important thing, it is said, is that you not take beliefs too seriously. Beliefs, after all, are assumed to be a danger to democracy – not an asset. Ambivalence, not conviction, is the source of pluralism.”
However, Kaemingk argues throughout the book that “a durable defense of Muslim rights and dignity depends, not on ambivalence, but on conviction . . . Reducing Jesus to a moral teacher among many, the carpenter from Nazareth might inspire the pluralist to love her friends – but never her enemies” (19). We often cannot sense how thoroughly we’ve adopted the language and values of liberalism, how easily we shed religious language and motivations. We seek diversity by demanding that different groups melt into an indistinguishable sameness. This is why Kaemingk argues that individualistic political ideology is ultimately religious and fiercely dogmatic in nature, despite the fact that it is suspicious of traditional religious dogmatism. It asks that confessional diversity be shallow at best.
That’s a lot to unpack, but Kaemingk helps us by applying the complexities to real-world questions like a woman’s right to wear a veil.
Liberalism has therefore made its moral language the only moral language permitted in the public square. A Muslim woman who wishes to defend the right to wear her veil must claim that she does so because she is an autonomous, rational, self-creating, self-defining individual. She must claim that she ‘personally prefers’ to wear a veil because she happens to freely like it. Her true theological orientation and posture must remain concealed. Like a cruel joke, she is forced to parrot liberalism – even in her protest against it (69).
ROOTS OF CHRISTIAN PLURALISM
This movement of Christian pluralism and its desire for the flourishing of diverse communities has origins that are critical to understand. Kaemingk leads us through the necessary history, offering his interpretations of great Dutch thinkers and theologians, of which Abraham Kuyper features prominently. Kuyper asserts that, for the pluralist, Christ’s sovereignty is central and essential. Without a dogged insistence on Christ’s sovereignty, there is the very real possibility that the whole project of public justice splits at the seams. The Christian defends her neighbor and pursues justice precisely because “Christ alone holds the keys to history” (125).
“
The Christian pluralist seeks to be winsome and to persuade, but never to coerce.
To be strong in conviction but also leave ample space for your neighbor to flourish takes a great deal of humility. This is where the idea that Christ is Lord of history becomes practical in the life of a Christian citizen. Simply, if Christ is Lord of history, then we are not. Christ’s sovereignty should not lead the Christian to desire a theocratic government, but rather one that has the humility to see Christ at the center of history, not the Christian. Kuyper’s “pluralist movement needed to respect Christ’s exclusive rights to temporal sovereignty by engaging their diverse neighbors with ‘persuasion to the exclusion of all coercion’” (125). What a beautiful phrase to guide us. The Christian pluralist seeks to be winsome and to persuade, but never to coerce.
Kaemingk leads us through the theology of the trinity, common grace, and sovereignty to bring us to this litany of praise – worth sharing in full.
[Contemporary Christians] will know that God the Son is sovereign over the history, culture, and politics of their nation. When they see Muslim schools, families, mosques, and associations erected in their neighborhoods, Christian pluralists can respect these institutions and know that Jesus Christ alone is sovereign over their institutional life . . . Demanding that their Muslim neighbors alter their clothing, practices, or institutions will be seen as tantamount to denying the good cultural gifts that the Holy Spirit gave them . . . While Christians and Muslims may very well disagree strong on moral and political issues, Christians can always know that deep down we all share a common creational order and that all of us are haunted by a common set of creational laws written deep within our hearts (156).
A PARTICULAR SAVIOR AND A PARTICULAR HOSPITALITY
This Christ who is Lord of history is also a slave who died naked and alone. It is easy when speaking of politics to focus on the lofty ideas of theology or the mighty Lordship of Christ, yet Kaemingk insists that Christ’s Lordship was demonstrated through his service. His Kingship was tested in suffering. His robes of majesty were exchanged for a naked death on the cross. Therefore, as Christians, we too should seek justice for our neighbor as an act of service. This should be done not only through large policy, although that is necessary, but primarily through the sharing of food, conversation, and even sacrifice with our neighbors - all of them.
In fact, Kaemingk goes so far as to say that “Christian disciples must make hospitality, not justice, the primary frame through which they understand their public and political obligations” (186). We must accept this challenge to also adopt the language and practices of hospitality. For Kaemingk, the formation of the Christian community is absolutely essential for Christ-like engagement with our immigrant neighbors. Within our communities, a special attentiveness to worship is of the utmost importance. We can legislate, advocate, discuss and refine laws, but for the Christian, life begins and ends with worship. If our local experience of worship does not empower and encourage us to better love our neighbors, then we need to take a serious look at the quality and content of our worship.
THE TABLE
Kaemingk ends the book with a strong image: a table. We talk so often of open doors or bigger walls - these are the confines of our ability to visualize immigration. Now, we need a new image to work with. The table, filled with diverse food and neighborly conversation, is just the image we need. Perhaps we can evoke the table as we enter into the many discussions we’ll be having this year surrounding immigration reform in America. My hope is that we can imagine sitting around a family table as we draft legislation to fix our broken immigration system. My hope is that when we advocate, we remember how Christ has shown infinite hospitality to us, and try in our own ways to do the same. My hope is that the table will not be just metaphorical - may we invite others into our spaces with graciousness, ruled not by fear, but by the love of Christ.
May we also discover, as one church in the Netherlands did, that we need to ask others to cook for us, too. We must allow ourselves to be humbly served at their table, with their food, in their way, to give them the gift of service as well. One member of that church summed it all up beautifully – “They don’t want to be served by a community, they want to be a part of a community” (251).
Read the book. Share a meal. Advocate alongside your neighbor.
Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear can be purchased from Hearts and Minds Books. Shared Justice readers receive 20 percent off the price—just mention CPJ at checkout.
Book Review: Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration
Posted on January 3, 2018 by T.M.
Book review Christian hospitality and Muslim immigration
“Make America Great Again”
Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, so familiar to us now, is a battlecry of hope for some Americans, while for others it is a sinister harbinger of a less inclusive era. In the year since President Trump’s inauguration, countless opinions have been written to dissect his policies and measure his motives. And while it is still only possible for God to reveal what lies in a man’s heart, 2017 has shown us that many Americans are nostalgic for a time in our country’s past when they believe things were simpler. A time when globalization had not yet required us to live alongside people of other religions and cultures. A time when upholding your own values also meant upholding nearly everyone else’s.
Whether you too feel this same nostalgia, or are opposed to its very basis, Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear by Matthew Kaemingk is a book you need to read. Kaemingk uses his experience in The Netherlands, and their response to Muslim immigration over the last 50 years as the backdrop for his presentation of “Christian pluralism.” With the help of late 19th century theologian Abraham Kuyper, he describes Christian pluralism as “a state and society in which all worldviews [can] publically flourish and advocate for their own unique visions for the common good” (82).
As Western countries, including the United States, have grown more and more liberal, Kaemingk notes that Christians have usually responded in one of four ways. Some have assimilated and conceded their unique convictions to the liberal consensus. Others have adopted moderation, holding onto some of their convictions while modifying others. Still others have retreated from the public square and established cloistered Christian communities. Finally, some have chosen to respond to increasing liberalism with retribution, hoping to restore their country by reinstating a Christian hegemony. To both Kaemingk and Kuyper, none of these four responses is adequate, so they present Christian pluralism as a fifth alternative.
Faithful Christians, Kaemingk argues, need not concede the bold public expression of their faith, or their conviction that believing in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. However, as citizens of a secular nation, Kaemingk posits that Christians do have to seek justice and equity for others who would also like to bring their beliefs into the public square. Trump’s presidency has pulled back a curtain from American evangelicalism and revealed a disconcerting desire to not only make America great again, but to make Christianity great again too. Throughout his book Kaemingk reminds us that any desire to restore America as a Christian nation is “a blasphemous attempt by the church to claim Christ’s authority for itself” (104).
Kaemingk’s position certainly sounds bold, especially when one considers the prevailing rhetoric of our time. Yet even in his enthusiasm for radical hospitality and freedom for American Muslims (and others) to live out their faith in the public square, he remains balanced. He explains how Christian pluralism, rather than seeking to abolish law and order and throw wide the doors of welcome, would actually fall apart without meaningful boundaries. Biblical hospitality means extending love and welcome to strangers. If all distinctions between citizens and immigrants, the native and the newcomer were to be erased, hospitality would become meaningless.
The first two-thirds of the book are spent learning from The Netherland’s response to Muslim immigration, and then unpacking this robust Christian pluralism with the help of Kuyper and other theologians. But in the final sections of the book, Kaemingk explores what it might look like for Christians today to grow a practice of just, hospitable pluralism. He discusses the importance of weaving pluralism into our worship, through lament and liturgy, and he presents the importance of “micro-practices” – ordinary ways that we can extend welcome to others on a daily basis.
In a time when opinions on immigration appear to be limited, either to the left-wing extreme of uncritical multiculturalism, or to the right-wing extreme of intolerant nationalism, Kaemingk’s book comes as a refreshing wind of encouragement to Christians whose hearts ache for something more. As I read, I found myself cheering at times, and tearing up at others, so grateful to know that I was not alone in my longing for American Christians to more fully and faithfully image the justice and hospitality of Christ in our multicultural society.
For those Christians who find a slogan like “make America great again” deeply disturbing, I hope this book will encourage and equip you to appropriately lead the church in a renewal of biblical justice and hospitality in the public square. And for those Christians who pine for a time when living in our country didn’t seem to be so complicated, I pray that this book will soften your heart toward the strangers who live among you and increase your confidence in the God who alone is sovereign over the future of America.
Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear by Matthew Kaemingk releases on January 25, 2018. You can preorder the book from Eerdmans or on Amazon.
REVIEWS | BOOK REVIEW
A Wall of Security or a Table of Fellowship?
Matthew Kaemingk makes a political and theological case for welcoming Muslim immigrants.
MATTHEW ARBO| DECEMBER 21, 2017
A Wall of Security or a Table of Fellowship?
Image: Oli Winward / Salzmanart
Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear
OUR RATING
4 Stars - Excellent
BOOK TITLE
Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear
AUTHOR
Matthew Kaemingk
PUBLISHER
Eerdmans
RELEASE DATE
January 25, 2018
PAGES
296
PRICE
$21.07
Buy Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear from Amazon
Osama is blind. According to an NPR report, he lost his eyesight in 2012 when a mortar shell exploded nearby, killing everyone around, except him. He, his wife, and four children were Syrian refugees in Jordan for three years before learning the US State Department had approved them for asylum. To obtain the relevant visas, however, Osama and his family required a sponsor: a family to welcome them and assist in their transition.
The sponsor for this Muslim family? A Christian congregation—Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey. The family had almost no information about the congregation. They were told only that someone would greet them. But soon enough, they received free housing and a kitchen stocked with food. A team of congregants undertook various gestures of hospitality, even inspecting the house to ensure it would be safe for a blind resident.
The family was overwhelmed by the generosity of the Nassau congregation, and the church was enriched in turn. As one congregant remarked, “the family’s presence has been a blessing to us all.” An immigrant family had need, and the church met it, in keeping with God’s Old Testament command: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born” (Lev. 19:34).
In 2016, the United States admitted approximately 38,000 Muslim refugees, according to the Pew Research Center. This figure is up considerably from the year prior, and more than double that of 2011. One reason for the increase is the staggering number of refugees spilling out from Syria and surrounding areas, where civil war and ISIS brutality have caused a mass exodus. Refugees from Syria alone have ballooned in number over the past five years, from around ...