“Strangers” in the New Testament and Contemporary International Migrant Workers

Viewed sociologically, the origin of the earliest Christianity may be explained in terms of a process in which minjung(people) in the first century envisioned and experimented a new hope in the face of the Roman imperial globalization. This study examines the dynamic features of early Christianity as a movement of alternative community(s) and changes that it sought to make, against the massive wave of globalization that the Roman Empire brought to disrupt and destroy the traditional communities in villages and cities. Then, this study endeavors to consider how the early churches which defined themselves as strangers in the world embraced the weak and strangers into their communities. In conclusion, this study tries to make a brief reflection on the ethical implications that such originary experiences of the early church might bear on today’s situation of global diasporas of foreign migrant workers.