Human Just Like Me: A Grounded Theory of Disrupting Dehumanization through Table Fellowship

Abstract

This qualitative study proposes a grounded theory of Christian identity transformation based on the experiences of 100 undergraduate college students (in-group), reported in reflection papers, who attended a free community dinner with their neighbors who were experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness (out-group). The grounded theory that emerged from student reflection papers is that the experience of eating with an out-group in a setting that disrupts in-group/out-group social dynamics, within the context of Christian community and utilizing an action-reflection model of learning, leads to humanizing theological insights that disrupt previously held stereotypes of the out-group. Jack Mezirow’s theory of disorienting dilemmas as provoking adult learning is used to explain the transformative impact of the dinner. Extended attention is given to the theological significance of in-group/out-group boundary crossing as it relates to Karl Barth’s theological anthropology of mutuality as well as Delores Williams’ understanding of sin as invisibilization.