Against the Manichees: Immigration Detention and the Shaping of the Theo-political Imagination

Rowlands, Anna

Abstract

This chapter explores the practices of immigration detention examined through an Augustinian lens. Making a case for a metaphysical reading of contemporary immigration practices distilled from the reasoning of both detainees themselves and the theological tradition, Anna Rowlands deploys Augustine’s notion of evil as the process through which the good is lost as an illuminating way to understand the disordered nature of detention practice. She concludes with an argument for attending to the question of the global, national and local “goods” that an immigration system should serve.

Citation

Rowlands, A. (2018). Against the Manichees: Immigration Detention and the Shaping of the Theo-political Imagination. In U. Schmiedel, & G. Smith (Eds.), Religion in the European Refugee Crisis (163-187). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67961-7_9

• Online Publication Date: Feb 16, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018-02
• Deposit Date: Oct 26, 2017
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 163-187
• Book Title: Religion in the European Refugee Crisis
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67961-7_9