Theologizing Place in Displacement

Displacement of peoples around the world continues to impact governmental policies and contest national identities. At the micro level, displacement's impact on the religious lives of those affected by displacement is a growing field of study and worthy of consideration as a form of self-theologizing and religious renewal. Theologizing Place in Displacement looks at the process of theologizing about place among displaced Orthodox Christian believers in the Republic of Georgia and outlines three key areas where a local theology takes shape around key Orthodox theological themes.

"Elliott writes with compassion and heart-rending empathy as he tells the story of displaced persons within the faraway regions of the Republic of Georgia. His work is very useful for (among others) Western Christians ministering among refugees and other displaced persons in the Eastern Christian world. We need to remember not only that displacement is a much more severe problem to someone with an Eastern mindset than it might be to a Westerner, but also that Eastern Christendom provides means of coping with displacement that we Westerners would never think of, means from which we too might need to learn."

--Donald Fairbairn, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

"Elliott's Theologizing Place in Displacement details the dislocation of some 270,000 Georgians made refugees by armed conflicts in Abkhazia (1992-93) and South Ossetia (2008). Paradoxically, the author tells a tale of bridges involuntarily burned by building bridges across disciplines. This study is especially successful in utilizing insights and methodologies drawn from ethnography and theology to relate the role of faith to aiding displaced Orthodox believers as they cope with wrenching loss. Here global implications abound."

--Mark R. Elliott, Editor Emeritus, East-West Church Report, Asbury University

Curtis W. Elliott is a part-time instructor of cross-cultural leadership at Toccoa Falls College and a social and theological researcher in partnership with the Salvation Army and Trevecca Nazarene University.