Theology, Migration, and Environmental Change

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the relationship among theology, migration, and environmental change. The chapter focuses first on the migration-environment relationship, which has received greater attention among scholars and the general public. It then surveys the less-commented-upon theological implications of that relationship in the form of some existing projects and potential further lines of inquiry. A key observation is that although the relationship between migration and environmental change manifests itself in multiple discourses—scientific, humanitarian, security, religious, and journalistic—and has been the subject of many empirical projects, the engagement with the topic has been riven with discrepancies in both academic and public contexts. Despite a consensus among scholars that the environmental impact on migration is measured and difficult to isolate, albeit real and important, public narratives of climate-caused cross-border migration “invasion” or “flood” persist. Interrogating such narratives not only requires engaging with deep assumptions about migration and environmental change; it is also a gateway to exploring the issue’s theological dimension, which takes the form of asking how care for the human and nonhuman other can meet within the commitments of a given faith tradition.