In today’s book review, I’m actually going to shirk the duty of writing my own review, merely because I have come across an incredibly well written review of three books on the subject of Christian hospitality that is well worth sharing.
Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine Pohl (Eerdman’s)
And You Welcomed Me: A Sourcebook on Hospitality in Early Christianity by Amy Oden (Abingdon Press)
Untamed Hospitality: Welcoming God and Other Strangers by Elizabeth Newman (Brazos Press)
Scott H. Moore, Director of the Great Texts Program and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, wrote this review in 2007 for the Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor and reflects on three books in particular that have been published in the last decade of on the tradition of Christian hospitality. I urge you to grab a beverage and take the time to read his 4-page review thoroughly, and then of course, to find copies of the books as well to savor page by page.
I’ll let this quote from Prof. Moore stand as an introduction: “For [the author], hospitality becomes the means by which we see the world and others and they actually are, as marked by the image of God. Hospitality enables recognition, and this recognition affords the dignity that can be so easily hidden within those in need of hospitality. We begin actually to notice the stranger in our midst and to see Christ in the least of these. [She] notes that by being hospitable, barriers of class, ethnicity, and credentials are overcome as we seek to build a welcoming community together.”
Read Prof. Moore’s review as a PDF download at The Center for Christian Ethics.
Read Prof. Moore’s review in an online reader.
I am currently waiting for permission from Baylor University to publish the article on this site as well.
About Kresha
Kresha is the mother of three young children, the wife of one incredibly good man, an opera singer, a cloth diapering instructor, and an avid researcher. She and her husband share a passion for living life thoughtfully and intentionally in response to God's grace in their lives and she loves to share good meals (and good wine) around a very large table.
I already have read AND YOU WELCOMED ME. It such a inspirational book. The word ‘Hospitality’ simply means the practice of being hospitable. But when we add the prefix ‘Christian’, in hospitality it transforms into something for which the people in this cruel world today thirsts for. that’s why we all need christian hospitality.
CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY