Hospitality and Immigration: Biblical and Social Scientific Perspectives on the Role of the Church and the State

The following presentation took place at the 2025 Symposium for the Theological Interpretation of Scripture: Hospitality & Immigration on North Park University’s campus in Chicago, IL on February 14 and 15, 2025.  

In Session 4, Ruth Melkonian-Hoover presents a rich, interdisciplinary argument on hospitality and immigration, weaving both biblical/theological insights and social scientific perspectives. She begins by grounding hospitality in the scriptural witness—arguing that God’s people are repeatedly called to welcome the stranger, and that Israel’s identity is bound up in remembering their own alien status. From there she pivots to empirical research on immigration: she presents social scientific data and sociological trends to show how migrants’ experiences, integration, and identity formation both challenge and enrich host communities. Melkonian-Hoover’s core claim is that Christian theology of hospitality must be responsive to real human stories and social structures; it cannot remain a purely idealistic or abstract ethic detached from the messiness of lived social life.

Jonathan Peterson, in his response, complements and at times critiques her framework. He applauds Melkonian-Hoover’s integration of theology and social science, but presses further on how theological commitments must shape how we read that social data. He emphasizes that discipleship demands imaginative reorientation: our political, economic, and communal structures must be transformed by the gospel’s hospitality, not merely adjusted to accommodate new arrivals. Peterson argues that hospitality is not only a response to migration but a paradigm that calls the church to reexamine what “home,” “belonging,” and “civic belonging” mean in light of God’s kingdom.

Timestamps

• Introduction & vision of hospitality · 0:00 – 7:00

• Biblical foundations: Israel, exile, and the stranger · 7:00 – 18:00

• Social science perspective: migration trends and data · 18:00 – 30:00

• Ethical and theological integration: challenges & proposals · 30:00 – 43:00

• Peterson’s response: theological framing of hospitality · 43:00 – 55:00

• Dialogue, questions, and concluding reflections · 55:00 – end