Strangers and Scapegoats: Extending God’s Welcome to Those on the Margins 

EMQ » July–September 2023 » Volume 59 Issue 3

Reviewed by Josiah A. Stephan, professor at South Florida Bible College & Theological Seminary, Deerfield Beach, Florida. 

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Biblical justice within sociological dimensions has been an ongoing issue of debate within the Christian Church, while at the same time being a seemingly never-ending challenge for full engagement in promoting social justice on the part of Christians. Although many authors approach this topic from either a hermeneutical or practical lens, Matthew Vos, a professor of sociology at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA, decides to part from the traditional theology-praxis continuum concerning perspectives on justice.  

At the same time, he invites the reader to view the justice issues that the world faces today from a sociological viewpoint. He does this to take up the cause of the holistic gospel to be true bearers of God’s good news. Vos discusses and challenges the norms of society that have caused human beings to remain strangers to those around them, withholding compassion and care. Building on both sociological and theological rationales, Vos presents a new way of addressing the marginalizing aspects of society for individuals, while realizing the grandness of the task before Christians.  

Throughout the book, Vos takes the reader on a reflective journey, comparing societal norms and biblical values and how they compete with one another. He begins by attempting to position the Christian in the sociological dilemma of caring for the stranger. This requires the Christian to fight against societal customs and an instinctual desire to care about oneself as opposed to the other. He answers long-pressing internal questions regarding why humanity senses a need to define boundaries between in-groups and out-groups, and how these questions can be responded to biblically to promote the conversion of strangers into neighbors.  

The second part of Vos’s book explores countless examples which look at the different marginalizing effects on strangers within society while challenging the reader internally regarding his or her transgressions that have promoted this very marginalization. His examples explore deeper concepts than just caring for the poor and needy.  

He delves into more controversial instances that many Christians stray away from, including intersex persons and “the unseen strangers who make our shoes” (167). It is marginalized groups such as these that need the Christian’s attention according to the author. Vos then concludes his book by inviting the reader to challenge the status quo of current societal norms by inviting the stranger in for the common good. 

Vos effectively challenges the reader who has adopted current societal norms that are counter-productive to Christian mission and the propagation of the gospel. Although missiologists, pastors, and evangelists would benefit greatly from this book, it is the lay Christian that must take hold of the author’s words.  

Transformations in the hearts of believers to care for and love the stranger will only occur through a change in perspective. A shifting of perspective that has reverberations into societal changes will take time and effort on the part of a multitude of individuals. Nonetheless, Vos provides a much-needed challenge to the Christian church at large to not let its aims “become more associated with walls, boundaries, and moral platforms than with heralding the good news” (53). 

For Further Reading

Call for Justice: From Practice to Theory and Back, by Kurt Ver Beek and Nicholas P.  Wolterstorff (Cascade Books, 2019). 

Am I Still My Brother’s Keeper?: Biblical Perspectives on Poverty, by Robert Wafawanaka (University Press of America, 2012).

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EMQ, Volume 59, Issue 3. Copyright © 2023 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.