Aimee Allison Hein is assistant professor of moral theology at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. Her writing has appeared in Asian Horizons and Health Progress.
Description
Given the dangerous political divisions in this country, the churches have a justice-oriented responsibility toward one of its main causes: immigration. Aimee Hein argues with power, passion, and plenty of examples that American Christians can and should repair and restore immigration, and that migrants and Indigenous peoples too are "capable agents" leading immigration reform. This book is exceptionally timely, well-researched, culture-critical, and yet hopeful. It will give courage and energy to anyone at a loss to see how our immigration problem can be solved, or what the churches can really do about it. --Lisa Sowle Cahill, J. Donald Monan, S.J., Professor of Theology, Boston College This incisive book grapples with the history that shapes and misshapes how US Christians conceive of border enforcement. Hein offers a piercing theological-ethical reflection on the demands that our past places on the relationships that bind immigrants and citizens today, deepening migration ethics' ability to provide an expansive vision that takes us beyond communitarian and cosmopolitan views to discern a more just future. --Victor Carmona, associate professor of theology and religious studies, University of San Diego Aimee Hein provides a compelling and bold ecumenical agenda for the urgent challenges posed by forced migration in our day. Her integration of Indigenous studies with Christian theological ethics and practice yields an account of citizens' responsibilities in justice that will be of great service to disciples and citizens alike. Interrogating the function and costs of our nation's founding myths, she challenges US citizens to remember rightly, repent, and repair, advancing a valuable responsibility framework for migration ethics today. --Kristin E. Heyer, professor of theological ethics, Boston College Aimee Hein's new book draws on a synthesis of US history, theologies of responsibility, and ethics of immigration in order to argue that the United States and its Christian churches have specific responsibilities of repair to immigrant communities. In this context, being a disciple means learning new histories and stories. Hein shows us that a just response to immigration includes changes at the level of law, policy, churches, communities, and human hearts. Essential reading for any study not only of the theology and ethics of migration, but of justice and the ethics of memory. --Tisha M. Rajendra, associate professor of Christian ethics, Loyola University Chicago