What do you think?
Rate this book
Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition
Although hospitality was central to Christian identity and practice in earlier centuries, our generation knows little about its life-giving character. Making Room revisits the Christian foundations of welcoming strangers and explores the necessity, difficulty, and blessing of hospitality today.
Combining rich biblical and historical research with extensive exposure to contemporary Christian communities -- the Catholic Worker, L'Abri, L'Arche, and others -- this book shows how understanding the key features of hospitality can better equip us to faithfully carry out the practical call of the gospel.
Combining rich biblical and historical research with extensive exposure to contemporary Christian communities -- the Catholic Worker, L'Abri, L'Arche, and others -- this book shows how understanding the key features of hospitality can better equip us to faithfully carry out the practical call of the gospel.
205 pages, Paperback
First published August 3, 1999
192 people are currently reading
2347 people want to read
About the author
Christine D. Pohl
15 books26 followersChristine D. Pohl is Associate Provost and Professor of Church and Society/Christian Ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, where she has taught since 1989. She received a B.S. in Special Education at Syracuse University, 1972; a M.A. in Theological Studies, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 1986; and a Ph.D. in Ethics and Society at Emory University, 1993. She is best known as the author of Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
April 25, 2023
A very challenging and convicting survey of the theology, practice, and culture of hospitality throughout church history, including plenty of evaluation of the modern church's approach. We read this as part of our Pastoral Training Center's focus on the biblical qualifications for eldership, and I think I will make it a staple of the curriculum going forward. Some readers may not appreciate the ecumenism of Pohl's survey -- lots of stuff from the patristics, as well as the mystics and contemplatives, but also, to be fair, lots of stuff from Luther, Calvin, the Wesleys, et.al. too -- and some of her contemporary resources have not aged well (Jean Vanier). But for what it is, I found it insightful and helpful.
December 27, 2022
A top read for 2022.
"By definition, hospitality involves some space into which people are welcomed, a place where unless the invitation is given, the stranger would not feel free to enter."
We are called to create spaces of welcome in our hearts and homes because we were given a welcome invitation into the heart and eternal home of our Host, Jesus Christ.
Beautiful, well researched, and inspiring.
"By definition, hospitality involves some space into which people are welcomed, a place where unless the invitation is given, the stranger would not feel free to enter."
We are called to create spaces of welcome in our hearts and homes because we were given a welcome invitation into the heart and eternal home of our Host, Jesus Christ.
Beautiful, well researched, and inspiring.
May 30, 2025
I really appreciated this! It was SO not prescriptive. I wanted her to tell me exactly what to do and how, but probably for the best, she didn’t. It was kind of a vast overview of the history of the tradition of hospitality, how it’s changed over time, and what this might look like now.
A favorite quote to wet your appetite:
“As a way of life, an act of love, an expression of faith, our hospitality reflects and anticipates God’s welcome. Simultaneously costly and wonderfully rewarding, hospitality often involves small deaths and little resurrections. By God’s grace we can grow more willing, more eager, to open the door to a needy neighbor, a weary sister or brother, a stranger in distress. Perhaps as we open that door more regularly, we will grow increasingly sensitive to the quiet knock of angels. In the midst of a life-giving practice, we too might catch glimpses of Jesus who asks for our welcome and welcomes us home.”
A favorite quote to wet your appetite:
“As a way of life, an act of love, an expression of faith, our hospitality reflects and anticipates God’s welcome. Simultaneously costly and wonderfully rewarding, hospitality often involves small deaths and little resurrections. By God’s grace we can grow more willing, more eager, to open the door to a needy neighbor, a weary sister or brother, a stranger in distress. Perhaps as we open that door more regularly, we will grow increasingly sensitive to the quiet knock of angels. In the midst of a life-giving practice, we too might catch glimpses of Jesus who asks for our welcome and welcomes us home.”
August 7, 2007
loved, loved this book. Not about making cookies and having a clean home (nothing wrong with cookies, btw) but about making room in your life for the marginalized and stranger. Doesn't offer too many practical solutions but by reviewing the historical precedents of hospitality in the church, challenges our current notions of private space, etc.
January 21, 2024
3.5 stars.
Making Room is about the Christian practice of hospitality (welcoming and caring for those in need, as opposed to entertaining). My husband and I were intrigued by the topic and chose this book for our Bible study.
We learned a good bit from the book, were challenged on our thinking, and enjoyed discussing the chapters. The book was, however, dense and sometimes a bit laborious to slog through. It brought to mind many of our college textbooks.
In the end, I would recommend the book only if you are interested in exploring the subject. I don’t think it would arouse the interest in you. However, I was challenged by the book and am actually keeping it for my bookshelf. I usually pass books along after reading them.
Making Room is about the Christian practice of hospitality (welcoming and caring for those in need, as opposed to entertaining). My husband and I were intrigued by the topic and chose this book for our Bible study.
We learned a good bit from the book, were challenged on our thinking, and enjoyed discussing the chapters. The book was, however, dense and sometimes a bit laborious to slog through. It brought to mind many of our college textbooks.
In the end, I would recommend the book only if you are interested in exploring the subject. I don’t think it would arouse the interest in you. However, I was challenged by the book and am actually keeping it for my bookshelf. I usually pass books along after reading them.
April 18, 2024
Although the language of this book is a bit pedantic and made it difficult at times to wade through; the message is powerful and needed. The book itself was well researched and included many quotes from seasoned hosts through the centuries. It’s 4 stars for me instead of 5 since it felt slightly less accessible than it possibly could have been.
The premise of the book is that hospitality isn’t just a choice for Christians, it’s a command—and it involves hosting strangers at its core. As Jesus said, “as you did it to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.” The book explores how historically the Christian tradition distinctively hosted the poor and neediest, without advantage to the host. Yet over the years households became small and insulated and left the care of strangers to emerging institutions such as hospitals and large charities.
The heart of this book is a call to host those who are least likely to reciprocate it, but are worthy of respect because of the work of God in them and because they are created in His image. We explore how this looks and how it involves things like hosting in community, intentional effort to encounter the stranger, hosting with boundaries, etc.
“Practicing hospitality always involves risk and the possibility of failure, but there is greater risk and loss in neglecting hospitality.”
“Jesus challenges narrow definitions and dimensions of hospitality and presses them outward to include those with whom one least desires to have connections. The poor and infirm come with their inconvenient needs and condition, with their incapacity to reciprocate. But in welcoming them one anticipates and reflects the welcome of God.”
The premise of the book is that hospitality isn’t just a choice for Christians, it’s a command—and it involves hosting strangers at its core. As Jesus said, “as you did it to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.” The book explores how historically the Christian tradition distinctively hosted the poor and neediest, without advantage to the host. Yet over the years households became small and insulated and left the care of strangers to emerging institutions such as hospitals and large charities.
The heart of this book is a call to host those who are least likely to reciprocate it, but are worthy of respect because of the work of God in them and because they are created in His image. We explore how this looks and how it involves things like hosting in community, intentional effort to encounter the stranger, hosting with boundaries, etc.
“Practicing hospitality always involves risk and the possibility of failure, but there is greater risk and loss in neglecting hospitality.”
“Jesus challenges narrow definitions and dimensions of hospitality and presses them outward to include those with whom one least desires to have connections. The poor and infirm come with their inconvenient needs and condition, with their incapacity to reciprocate. But in welcoming them one anticipates and reflects the welcome of God.”
June 5, 2021
Really, really good. I appreciate how well researched this book is (the author often quotes Luther, Calvin, Chrysostom, and Benedict), which makes it interesting.
Note: Rosaria Butterfield quotes Making Room, by C.D. Pohl in her own book, so I ordered it and read it.
Note: Rosaria Butterfield quotes Making Room, by C.D. Pohl in her own book, so I ordered it and read it.
June 4, 2024
Both informative and practical - a book I will keep handy on my bookshelf. I have several more books to read now that I’ve read this one.
February 18, 2019
A challenging look at true hospitality. It covers what the Scriptures and Jesus teach us about hospitality, how social and economic changes have changed what hospitality has meant over the centuries, and practical challenges that we encounter today.
April 4, 2025
Making Room by Christine Pohl is a deep dive into the history of hospitality and how it plays out—or should—in Christian communities today. At times it felt a bit repetitive, but given the density of the material, the repetition helped reinforce her key points.
There was much that was encouraging and thought-provoking throughout the book (I took SO many notes in the margins!). However, there wasn’t much practical application for individuals wanting to practice hospitality in their homes. The emphasis is primarily on the church and Christian communities extending hospitality to marginalized groups.
That said, this was the most intellectually stimulating book I’ve read on the subject. Having read many books on hospitality, this is one of the few I think would genuinely appeal to men as well.
There was much that was encouraging and thought-provoking throughout the book (I took SO many notes in the margins!). However, there wasn’t much practical application for individuals wanting to practice hospitality in their homes. The emphasis is primarily on the church and Christian communities extending hospitality to marginalized groups.
That said, this was the most intellectually stimulating book I’ve read on the subject. Having read many books on hospitality, this is one of the few I think would genuinely appeal to men as well.
Read
April 3, 2023The topic kind of throws you off. If you’re thinking this is an easy read on an incredibly practical subject, you have the wrong impression. Pohl’s book is an in-depth, theological and sociological analysis of the role of hospitality in the Scriptures, early church period, and modern missional practice. You will not finish reading with some “how to” steps but with a more profound appreciation of this lost (and sometimes resurrected) practice. You will be inspired, but you will also need to reread some paragraphs 😂
September 15, 2024
An excellent resource on hospitality, both academic and convicting. If you read only one book on hospitality, let it be this one.
Note: This was published in 1999, about 20 years before Jean Vanier’s death and subsequent revelation of his abuses. Helpful Christianity Today article from 2023: https://www.christianitytoday.com/202...
Note: This was published in 1999, about 20 years before Jean Vanier’s death and subsequent revelation of his abuses. Helpful Christianity Today article from 2023: https://www.christianitytoday.com/202...
January 5, 2015
Before I read this book last year, I thought that "hospitality" meant treating people nice when they came over to visit. Pohl opened my mind to the history of true Christian hospitality and its centrality in both Scripture and the early Christian church. She also details why the practice and even the definition of the word have gotten confused over church history. In the process of examining what historical and current Christian movements have done to recover the practice of hospitality, she begins to tackle the theological and practical questions of how we are to best live out this form of radical love for our friends, neighbors, and strangers passing on their way.
It is a very well-written book. More than that, if you want it to be, it will be a life-changing book. Pohl doesn't provide concrete answers to every difficulty in practicing concrete Christian hospitality in our world (that would require several additional books, and I recommend Pohl and Heuertz's "Friendship at the Margins" for starters), but she does give us a look into the relevant questions and challenges us to explore further. If you take this book seriously and try to live out this kind of hospitality in your life, I believe you will grow closer to the Kingdom of God.
It is a very well-written book. More than that, if you want it to be, it will be a life-changing book. Pohl doesn't provide concrete answers to every difficulty in practicing concrete Christian hospitality in our world (that would require several additional books, and I recommend Pohl and Heuertz's "Friendship at the Margins" for starters), but she does give us a look into the relevant questions and challenges us to explore further. If you take this book seriously and try to live out this kind of hospitality in your life, I believe you will grow closer to the Kingdom of God.
October 30, 2017
This reads like a doctoral dissertation. While I learned some things from it, it is repetitive, overly scholarly, & barely inspirational - what challenges the subject matter does pose are undermined by the intellectual scrutiny the author uses to over-examine such challenges.
May 24, 2007
Killing me slowly. This book could have been about a chapter long.
June 18, 2023
This is the kind of book that I really want to like. It's thorough and thought-provoking, well-structured and precise. Honestly, though, reading this felt more like a discipline than a joy. The language is heavy and academic (I had to look up words which I want to say is a good thing, but actually just felt annoying). It is a helpful book, very different than other books I've read on hospitality in that it focuses on locating hospitality within the rich story of its history. I just wish it was a bit more personal and a little less dry. Every now and then the author inserted a personal anecdote illustrating a point and it was so refreshing. She has had some interesting experiences in hospitality herself and spent time in a number of intentional hospitality-driven communities. I wish she had shared more of those stories. Instead the majority of the book is a compilation of what other people think and have experienced. There's nothing exactly wrong with this -- it just turns out this isn't actually the kind of book I love, as much as I might want to.
April 25, 2024
I loved the biblical, historical and practical applications of hospitality, it took a really wholistic approach to really show a lot of facets of a complex issue. As Gods people we’re called to be radically loving and hospitable, but not just entertaining and welcoming to those in our community, but to those outside of any community and most need of welcome. This is hard to do is a society that farmed out hospitality and service to specific industries and disconnected serving the body with serving the spirit, we also live in a more individualistic culture which makes it hard to practice hospitality without the support of community or neutral environments to engage outsiders before entering the home. Most important for hosts is to be joyous rather than begrudging and to be vulnerable, opening up their own lives to their guests. We need to love people through sharing ourselves with them and giving them out whole attention, as we are recognizing them as children of God with dignity and eternal importance, we love because Christ loved us and through loving others we get to love Christ!! Anyways this book was wonderful, informative and highly convicting, a reminder of all we are called to be and the reality that even all the hospitality in the world could not meet the needs around us, because only Christ fulfills that need. 8/10
January 18, 2018
This was super challenging as well as inspiring. So much stretching to figure out how to welcome people in joyful and sustainable ways. And then to receive from them. Communities are vital to sustaining these practices and the idea of welcome is crucial to communicating value to humans.
June 23, 2024
There is a reason this book is a modern classic on hospitality. Take and read!
June 2, 2018
The reading level for this book verges on a college level. Pohl does a beautifully thorough job of looking at both ancient and contemporary voices on the topic of hospitality. Quickly she redefines the western understanding of hospitality and launches into a defense for that definition and the practices and boundaries that come with being hospitable to strangers (another term she will define). In God's timing, I just so happened to be hosting a friend who was recently kicked out of his apartment. To be reading this book while interacting with this person in need was both humbling and enlightening. Not only did I get to practice what this book preaches, but I was also able to realize how difficult it is to be truly hospitable and how much I need maturation in this area. Pohl does a wonderful job of equipping her reader with models to follow and concepts to endorse. I would recommend this to any believer wanting to strengthen their Christian commitment, seeing as how hospitality is a Christian expectation.
February 6, 2017
This book is a historical analysis of the place and practice of hospitality in the broadly-defined Christian Church. It looks at how hospitality has changed in each era of church history, and how those changes have helped or hindered the biblical goals of hospitality. This is not a how-to book, so those looking for practical hostessing tips should look elsewhere. It is a book for those who want to think deeply about hospitality, who want to examine our cultural practice through a wider historical lens in order to identify our successes and failures. Though often focusing on serious (full-time) practitioners of hospitality, the author also addresses the average church, the average Christian household, with a realistic assessment of both our limitations and opportunities. An excellent read.
August 28, 2012
This book is not a page-turner, but is relatively easy to digest and offers a compelling exploration of and argument for hospitality as a Christian tradition. In many ways, I was not surprised to read and learn about hospitality in terms of providing welcome and care for the stranger, and yet I so often think of hospitality as inviting friends over for dinner. Pohl makes clear that entertaining friends is not outside the realm of hospitality, but that the Christian tradition of hospitality is so much richer and so much riskier. I was challenged by this book to start thinking about how I can create more space in my life to interact with strangers (those who are poor, without a place or community of support) and invite them to share in the life of our home.
April 6, 2020
Overall a good book on the history of hospitality and its role within the Christian faith. It is a more academic read than Rosaria Butterfield's book on hospitality, and I preferred her book because it felt less repetitive and more personal than this book. A lot of the chapters said the same thing just in different ways. It was informative and gave some good advice on how to reduce risks while showing hospitality, but it didn't seem to give as a deep a theological underpinning for hospitality as Butterfield's book even though this one reads more academically than hers. I'd say it's a good companion book to read for the history of hospitality and how our understanding of the word has changed to go along with Butterfield's book The Gospel Comes With A House Key.
February 3, 2008
We have always practiced hospitality but the Holy Spirit is using this book to help guide us in broadening that circle of welcome to strangers. I'm still not sure exactly how to do that, even after reading the book, but my heart is totally there. Very excited about what God has been changing in our lives and how this book will help us grow even more.
August 28, 2008
so far so good. this is is being read by our entire community as we explore how to practice hospitality to our neighbors in a way that pleases God, blesses others, and is sustainable. it's a challenging and exciting set of questions to wrestle with... even more so when put into practice!
April 18, 2023
“By definition, hospitality involves some space into which people are welcomed, a place where unless the invitation is given, the stranger would not feel free to enter.”
Great book of hospitality— not entertaining guests in your perfectly cleaned home that looks like no one actually lives there. Hospitality is creating a space to welcome everyone- especially the least of these: the poor, the marginalized, the refugee, and the homeless.
Caring for these kinds of people has become a privatized, compartmentalized affair. Hospitals, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters do what regular people once did for the stranger. How can we make true hospitality a practice and rhythm in a world like this one?
This book has some great stuff. The constant reminder that Jesus has said that in creating space for the least of these we are creating space for Jesus himself was excellent.
I can’t help but feel like the conclusions were a little half-baked, though. Additionally, I was hoping for a more gospel shaped theology of hospitality. I think this would be an excellent accompaniment to Rosaria Butterfield’s “The Gospel comes with a House Key.” She seems to live out what Pohl envisions here, and her book feels almost like a conclusion to Pohl’s own thoughts.
Great book of hospitality— not entertaining guests in your perfectly cleaned home that looks like no one actually lives there. Hospitality is creating a space to welcome everyone- especially the least of these: the poor, the marginalized, the refugee, and the homeless.
Caring for these kinds of people has become a privatized, compartmentalized affair. Hospitals, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters do what regular people once did for the stranger. How can we make true hospitality a practice and rhythm in a world like this one?
This book has some great stuff. The constant reminder that Jesus has said that in creating space for the least of these we are creating space for Jesus himself was excellent.
I can’t help but feel like the conclusions were a little half-baked, though. Additionally, I was hoping for a more gospel shaped theology of hospitality. I think this would be an excellent accompaniment to Rosaria Butterfield’s “The Gospel comes with a House Key.” She seems to live out what Pohl envisions here, and her book feels almost like a conclusion to Pohl’s own thoughts.
Read
August 26, 2024Christine Pohl's main claim here is that the word "hospitality" has been severely diluted over the centuries. Today it is more closely related to the idea of entertaining friends or family. Pohl reaches back into the Bible and to early Christian thinkers to overturn this shallow notion of hospitality and replace it with a vision of loving our neighbor, caring for the stranger, the poor, and basically opening up our lives to others in the name of Jesus.
There are two key strengths.
1. Pohl charts the history of hospitality well, at least as far as I can tell. She does a good job of analyzing how culture and historical movements have shaped our view of hospitality so that the reader gets a good understanding of why we are where we are today.
2. Pohl does not hesitate to recognize the challenges and tensions in true hospitality work. She gives wise guidance for practitioners and allows for a wide variety of hospitality expressions.
Highly recommended.
There are two key strengths.
1. Pohl charts the history of hospitality well, at least as far as I can tell. She does a good job of analyzing how culture and historical movements have shaped our view of hospitality so that the reader gets a good understanding of why we are where we are today.
2. Pohl does not hesitate to recognize the challenges and tensions in true hospitality work. She gives wise guidance for practitioners and allows for a wide variety of hospitality expressions.
Highly recommended.
April 11, 2025
{PTC} [Probably more like 3.5] This book is very helpful for thinking through the command, importance, method, and challenges surrounding hospitality. I believe that the author accomplished everything she set out to do so I’d say it’s a positive read given the right context. There are some glaring areas of awkwardness in the book: numerous Jean Vanier quotes, uncomfortable phrasing (for me and those in my “tribe”), and Eastern Orthodox and Catholic threads throughout. An informed reader can navigate these areas with discernment. From a writing standpoint, I think the author tends to be repetitive (to the extent that I thought I accidentally skipped back to previous chapters) which made reading this one feel longer than it should have been. The repetition could’ve been replaced with more content on receiving hospitality and giving hospitality in rural contexts. Overall, I learned a lot and was convicted by the book.
May 10, 2021
I found this book to be refreshing. Hospitality is such a counter cultural idea where I live, where we go about our busy lives and keep our doors locked. There are chapters here that would be interesting conversation for a board or staff. Hospitality is not entertainment, but sharing one’s human self with other humans. Can a church truly be hospitable? We may be welcoming, but hospitality demands a much more communal focus from the entire body. This book shares wise words from many angles to deepen our understanding of the spiritual practice, or actually way of life, of hospitality.
May 10, 2014
This book written in 1999 deals with Christian hospitality from all the angles--historical, theological, practical, cultural, etc. The author is a believer, scholar, and serious practitioner of hospitality. This book will challenge and inform any Christian--written with competency and accessibility.
I read most of this book while preparing for a sermon that I preached on 27 April 2014. That sermon should appear on this web site, soon:
http://www.cornerstonecc.org
QUOTES:
Indeed, Christian believers were to regard hospitality to strangers as a fundamental expression of the gospel. (5)
Practicing hospitality always involves risk and the possibility of failure, but there is greater risk and loss in neglecting hospitality.
Hospitality, because it was such a fundamental human practice, always included family, friends, and influential contacts. The distinctive Christian contribution was the emphasis on including the poor and neediest, the ones who could not return the favor (6).
Hospitality has an important, even essential, place in our fractured, individualistic, results-oriented society (9).
"Hospitality is so necessary in bishops that if any are found lacking in it the law forbids them to be ordained." ["Decretum Gratiani," 1150 A.D.]
"We should not regard what a man is and what he deserves: but we should go higher – that it is God who has placed us in the world for such a purpose that we be united and joined together. He has impressed his image in us and has given us a common nature, which should incite us to providing one for the other. The man who wishes to exempt himself from providing for his neighbors should face himself and declare that he no longer wishes to be a man, for as long as we are human creatures we must contemplate as in a mirror our face in those who are poor, despised, exhausted, who groan under their burdens . ." [Corpus Reformatorum: Joannis Calvini Opera Quae Supersunt Omnia]
"A poor wretch cries to me for alms: I look and see him covered with dirt and rags. But through these I see one that has an immortal spirit, made to know and love and dwell with God to eternity: I honor him for his Creator's sake. I see through all these rags that he is purpled over with the blood of Christ. I love him for the sake of his Redeemer. The courtesy therefore which I feel and show toward him is a mixture of the honor and love which I bear to the offspring of God, the purchase of his Son's blood, and the candidate for immortality. This courtesy let us feel and show toward all men; and we shall please all men to their edification. [John Wesley, Works of John Wesley, vol. 3; sermon 100 "On Pleasing All Men."]
By how much the brother may be least, so much the more does Christ come to thee through him. [Chrysostom, Homily 45]
If Christ forgave and healed those who had injured Him and welcomed into paradise those who had scorned Him, how could Christians neglect even a starving murderer, Chrysostom wondered. (70)
In commenting on Romans 12:13, he noted that the phrase "given to hospitality" suggests "not waiting for those that shall ask for it… but to run to them, and be given to finding them." (70)
Sitting down at the same table meant becoming friends with them, creating a family. It was a way of life absolutely opposed to the values of a competitive, hierarchical society in which the weak are pushed aside. [Jean Vanier, The Heart of L'Arche: A Spirituality for Every Day, 29]
Justice is important, but supper is essential. [Ed Loring, Open Door Community, Atlanta, GA]
One great reason why the rich in general have so little sympathy for the poor is because they so seldom visit them. Hence it is that one part of the world does not know what the other suffers. Many of them do not know, because they do not care to know: they keep out of the way of knowing it – and then plead their voluntary ignorance as an excuse for their hardness of heart. [John Wesley, Sermon 98, "On Visiting the Sick"]
Sometimes we describe our nation as a society of relative strangers – millions of people minimally attached to home and community, highly mobile, independently pursuing our own projects, contentedly leaving one another alone to pursue our own tasks. (89)
A steady exposure to distant human need that is beyond our personal response can gradually inoculate us against particular action. . . Isolation from local need, and overexposure to overwhelming but distant need, make our responses to strangers uncertain and tentative at best.
We need to find or create contemporary equivalents of the city gate, community rituals, and small group meetings in which we can build preliminary relations with strangers. (97)
Jesus, the most desired guest, comes in the form of the vulnerable stranger. The possibility that hosts are welcoming Jesus can overcome resistance and fear. (97)
There is a complex dance between recognizing our own need, ministering to those in need, and recognizing their ministry to us. The helper must also be able to receive –especially from those who look as if they have little to offer. (119)
Every house should have a "Christ room" for a brother who is in need. (St. Jerome)
People for whom hospitality is a disposition and a habit are less afraid of the risks associated with caring for strangers than they are of the possibility of cutting themselves off from the needs of strangers. (176)
I read most of this book while preparing for a sermon that I preached on 27 April 2014. That sermon should appear on this web site, soon:
http://www.cornerstonecc.org
QUOTES:
Indeed, Christian believers were to regard hospitality to strangers as a fundamental expression of the gospel. (5)
Practicing hospitality always involves risk and the possibility of failure, but there is greater risk and loss in neglecting hospitality.
Hospitality, because it was such a fundamental human practice, always included family, friends, and influential contacts. The distinctive Christian contribution was the emphasis on including the poor and neediest, the ones who could not return the favor (6).
Hospitality has an important, even essential, place in our fractured, individualistic, results-oriented society (9).
"Hospitality is so necessary in bishops that if any are found lacking in it the law forbids them to be ordained." ["Decretum Gratiani," 1150 A.D.]
"We should not regard what a man is and what he deserves: but we should go higher – that it is God who has placed us in the world for such a purpose that we be united and joined together. He has impressed his image in us and has given us a common nature, which should incite us to providing one for the other. The man who wishes to exempt himself from providing for his neighbors should face himself and declare that he no longer wishes to be a man, for as long as we are human creatures we must contemplate as in a mirror our face in those who are poor, despised, exhausted, who groan under their burdens . ." [Corpus Reformatorum: Joannis Calvini Opera Quae Supersunt Omnia]
"A poor wretch cries to me for alms: I look and see him covered with dirt and rags. But through these I see one that has an immortal spirit, made to know and love and dwell with God to eternity: I honor him for his Creator's sake. I see through all these rags that he is purpled over with the blood of Christ. I love him for the sake of his Redeemer. The courtesy therefore which I feel and show toward him is a mixture of the honor and love which I bear to the offspring of God, the purchase of his Son's blood, and the candidate for immortality. This courtesy let us feel and show toward all men; and we shall please all men to their edification. [John Wesley, Works of John Wesley, vol. 3; sermon 100 "On Pleasing All Men."]
By how much the brother may be least, so much the more does Christ come to thee through him. [Chrysostom, Homily 45]
If Christ forgave and healed those who had injured Him and welcomed into paradise those who had scorned Him, how could Christians neglect even a starving murderer, Chrysostom wondered. (70)
In commenting on Romans 12:13, he noted that the phrase "given to hospitality" suggests "not waiting for those that shall ask for it… but to run to them, and be given to finding them." (70)
Sitting down at the same table meant becoming friends with them, creating a family. It was a way of life absolutely opposed to the values of a competitive, hierarchical society in which the weak are pushed aside. [Jean Vanier, The Heart of L'Arche: A Spirituality for Every Day, 29]
Justice is important, but supper is essential. [Ed Loring, Open Door Community, Atlanta, GA]
One great reason why the rich in general have so little sympathy for the poor is because they so seldom visit them. Hence it is that one part of the world does not know what the other suffers. Many of them do not know, because they do not care to know: they keep out of the way of knowing it – and then plead their voluntary ignorance as an excuse for their hardness of heart. [John Wesley, Sermon 98, "On Visiting the Sick"]
Sometimes we describe our nation as a society of relative strangers – millions of people minimally attached to home and community, highly mobile, independently pursuing our own projects, contentedly leaving one another alone to pursue our own tasks. (89)
A steady exposure to distant human need that is beyond our personal response can gradually inoculate us against particular action. . . Isolation from local need, and overexposure to overwhelming but distant need, make our responses to strangers uncertain and tentative at best.
We need to find or create contemporary equivalents of the city gate, community rituals, and small group meetings in which we can build preliminary relations with strangers. (97)
Jesus, the most desired guest, comes in the form of the vulnerable stranger. The possibility that hosts are welcoming Jesus can overcome resistance and fear. (97)
There is a complex dance between recognizing our own need, ministering to those in need, and recognizing their ministry to us. The helper must also be able to receive –especially from those who look as if they have little to offer. (119)
Every house should have a "Christ room" for a brother who is in need. (St. Jerome)
People for whom hospitality is a disposition and a habit are less afraid of the risks associated with caring for strangers than they are of the possibility of cutting themselves off from the needs of strangers. (176)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews