A Theology of Home in a Time of Homelessness

To end homelessness, society must understand 'home' as participating, not possessing. Theology offers insights for this mode of belonging.

Homelessness abounds today in various forms of displacement and as a pervasive condition of unbelonging. This Element argues that for theology to play its part in ending homelessness, it must better understand its own concept of 'home'. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.Homelessness abounds today in various forms of displacement and as a pervasive condition of unbelonging. It ruins health, lives, communities, habitats, creativity, and hope. This Element argues that for theology to play its part in ending homelessness, it must better understand its own concept of 'home'. The Element proposes a vision of home capable of resisting the tacit, mistaken theology of home that undergirds the various iterations of modern homelessness. Weaving biblical and ritual sources, the argument constructs theological responses to the twin forces of consumerism and nationalism which, alloyed with sexism and racism, constitute the time of homelessness in which we live. It asks the reader to imagine home as 'participating instead of possessing' in every sphere of life, in pursuit of a theology of home capable of preventing homelessness and not merely ministering to people experiencing it. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.