Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement

By Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh Eerdmans, 2008
9780802846921
$24.00…30% off until February 15…$16.80

Several years ago, Steven Bouma-Prediger of Hope College in Michigan and Brian Walsh, campus minister at the University of Toronto, discovered that their work on homelessness was moving along parallel paths. Their subsequent collaboration in the writing of Beyond Homelessness has resulted in a profound look at what they call our “culture of displacement,” and the homelessness shared by those without housing and those whose housing may distance them from their neighbors, true roots and any sense of community. Their work weaves together the facts of homelessness and the spiritual homelessness of postmodernity.

Examining our relation to the land, to the place we live and to the relationships in which we move, Bouma-Prediger and Walsh define home as a matter of community. Home, they assert, is about belonging, connectedness, shared memory and trust. They carefully examine all the various dynamics of home-breaking—socioeconomic, ecological, political, cultural, psychological and spiritual. Drawing from statistics and studies, music and literature, these authors have created a comprehensive and holistic picture of homelessness that goes far deeper than housing issues and public policy debates might assume. They poetically paint a picture of a far deeper, far more unifying element of the human experience, characterized by our common hunger for home, for rootedness, for belonging, and a life free from fear.

The opening chapter of the book sets the stage, with parallel stories of Kenny and Kenneth. These two men, living nearly side-by-side, are separated by only a few blocks and the multiple stories of an expensive condominium. Though neighbors, their paths never cross and, on the surface, their lives could hardly be more different. One lives in the streets, addicted to drugs, finding some modicum of community among fellow street-dwellers and a program for homeless people where he has found a role as a cook. The other owns three homes, travels extensively, and has money to acquire all the trappings of success and comfort. But Bouma-Prediger and Walsh probe deeper and discover common themes of displacement: rootlessness, lack of place, impoverished relationships, despair. The story of Kenny’s socio-economic homelessness and Kenneth’s spiritual homelessness sets the stage for an exploration of the realities of the culture of displacement common to so many.

Amnesia, exile, empire, loss, return, memory, despair, hope...these themes and more are explored. Woven throughout the book are biblical interludes that explore the Scriptures of both testaments for what the authors call “a powerful vision of home, a devastatingly truthful picture of homebreaking, and an empowering hope for homecoming.” These biblical stories offer much for prayerful reflection and further Scripture study, as well as for preaching and teaching. Christian faith, they argue, is an incarnational faith, rooted in time and place. As such, it embraces homelessness and longing while at the same time offering a very real hope in a new homecoming, a new heaven, and a renewed earth.

The creative power of this book lies in its resistance to limited and familiar categories and topics. This is a book about homelessness and housing issues, but much more. It is a book about ecology and stewardship, but much more. It is a scripture study of these themes, but much more. It is a book about exile, refugees, and displaced peoples, but much more. It responds to all these aspects of home with a vision of redemptive homecoming that is unflinchingly honest, empowering and hope-filled. Our homemaking Creator, they insist, will not give up on this creational home and its homebreaking inhabitants. Beyond Homelessness opens up the biblical story of home, homelessness, and homecoming to offer new energy for renewed, covenantal hope that welcomes all God’s children home.