Home In A Time Of Homelessness

Homelessness abounds today in various forms of displacement and as a pervasive condition of unbelonging. It ruins health, lives, communities, habitats, creativity, and hope.

Siobhán Garrigan, Loyola Professor of Theology at Trinity College Dublin, will look at theological perspectives on homelessness, arguing that for theology to play its part in ending homelessness, it must better understand its own idea of ‘home’.

To this end, she will challenge the tacit, mistaken theology of home that undergirds the various forms that modern homelessness takes, and propose an alternative. Weaving biblical and ritual sources, she will suggest new theological responses to the twin forces of consumerism and nationalism which cause so much of the homelessness experienced in today’s world.

Asking people to imagine home as ‘participating instead of possessing’, in every sphere of life, Siobhán will encourage us to engage with a theology of home capable of preventing homelessness and not merely ministering to people experiencing it.

Music from Festival regulars Caroline Orr, Norman McKinley and Peter Greer.