The Ethics of Hospitality: An Interfaith Response to US Immigration Policies by Helen T. Boursier is due out next month. Set against an ethical-theological-philosophical framework of the role of love in the Abrahamic tradition, it highlights the heart-wrenching witness of refugee families seeking asylum from the Northern Triangle in Central America to the U.S. The book originated from the author’s four years as a volunteer chaplain with the families, two while she facilitated art as spiritual care inside an immigrant family detention center located in Texas. The Ethics of Hospitality includes the systemic connections between the U.S. and the violence which catapults these families to seek safety. Boursier proposes that the interfaith community has the privilege and responsibility to lead the outcry in the public square for their radical welcome. It would be appropriate as a text for a broad range of classes, including ethics, theology, interreligious studies, immigration, current events, gender studies, and hermeneutics. Here's the link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1498579183?pf_rd_p=c2945051-950f-485c-b4df-15aac5223b10&pf_rd_r=V447S83AFFJ9XVB9V1EQ

REV. HELEN T. BOURSIER, PH.D. is an ordained Presbyterian minister and has been a volunteer chaplain with refugees seeking asylum since 2014. She is an instructor at College of St. Scholastica.

What people are saying about this book:

“The Ethics of Hospitality is a must-read for anyone who takes seriously the moral imperatives of hospitality in the Abrahamic faiths’ sacred texts. This book clearly articulates the reasons so many progressive people of faith oppose current U.S. immigration policy.” —Bill Lyons, Conference Minister for the United Church of Christ

“This book is a must-read in these anti-immigrant political times and presidential hate-mongering. Helen T. Boursier’s The Ethics of Hospitality argues for a radical hospitality and welcoming of the strange Other as an expression of our love of God. I highly recommend it!” —Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Krister Stendahl Professor, Harvard Divinity School

“Boursier has written a memorable and timely book with equal doses of scholar’s erudition and pastor’s passion. Drawing from her ministry as a detention facility volunteer chaplain serving asylum seekers, Boursier brings the haunting testimonies of their fight for survival and dignity into dialogue with Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theological visions of love and hospitality. Engaging seminal theological voices—Boursier offers a spiritually, ethically, and pastorally grounded gateway into the monumental challenges that forced migration poses locally and globally. Boursier’s book is an exceptionally helpful resource for and all those in our diverse communities of faith who seek theological encouragement for embodied witnessing to the radical love of God that transcends even the most dehumanizing borders.”—Kristine Suna-Koro, Xavier University, In Counterpoint: Postcoloniality, Diaspora, and Sacramental Theology

“Boursier is called to be our witness to the profound suffering of refugee families who find themselves lost among us. Her descriptions are authentic, capturing the fear, pain, and sorrow, as well as the deep faith and hope of these families displaced from home and persecuted here. Boursier asks us to replace hostility with hospitality and to welcome asylum seekers with compassion and love.” —Hope M. Frye, Executive Director of Project Lifeline; lead attorney at Flores Monitoring