Table Of ContentHospitable God
exploring the hospitality of God, and its implications for human thought and action,
this book examines the concepts of hospitality as cognitive tools for reframing our
thinking about God, divine action, and human response in discipleship. Hospitality
is imagined as an interactive symbol, changing perspectives and encouraging
stable environments of compassionate construction in society.
Human rights are of crucial importance to the wellbeing of the people of our
planet. but there is a sense in which they will always be an emergency measure,
a response to evils as they are happening. the authors argue that a hospitable
comparative theology reaches out to bring Christian hospitality into the dialogue
of world religions and cultures. it will respect the identity of particular groups and
yet will strive for a cosmopolitan sharing of common values. it will respect tradition
but also openness to reform and re-imagining. it will encourage convergence and
development in a fluid stream of committed hospitalities.
For Judith Allen Smith in Black Mountain
And Luke and Logan Newlands in Los Angeles
Hospitable God
the transformative dream
GeorGe NewlaNds aNd alleN smitH
University of Glasgow, UK
© George Newlands and allen smith 2010
all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
George Newlands and allen smith have asserted their right under the Copyright, designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.
published by
ashgate publishing limited ashgate publishing Company
wey Court east suite 420
Union road 101 Cherry street
Farnham burlington
surrey, GU9 7pt Vt 05401-4405
england Usa
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Newlands, G.m., 1941–
Hospitable God : the transformative dream.
1. Hospitality – religious aspects – Christianity. 2. God – love.
i. title ii. smith, allen
241.6’71–dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Newlands, G. m., 1941-
Hospitable God : the transformative dream / George Newlands and allen smith.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
isbN 978-0-7546-6560-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Hospitality—religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Christian sociology. i. smith, allen
permar. ii. title.
bt738.N487 2009
241’.671—dc22
2009032349
isbN 9780754665601 (hbk)
V
Contents
Preface vii
PArT I GoD THe HoSPITABLe
1 God the Hospitable in Christian thought and action 3
2 the Hospitality tradition in society, religion and Culture 27
3 the inhospitable, the indifferent and the Faith traditions 55
4 postmodern Hospitality/postmodern Faith: Grace, Gift and Generosity
77
PArT II refrAmING fAITH IN THe HoSPITABLe GoD
5 Unwrapping the Gift 109
6 Convergent Hospitalities – Hospitable Community 139
7 Hospitable Church 169
8 the God of transformative Hospitality – reality and dream 195
appendix: an overview of Charles taylor’s a secular age 223
Bibliography 229
Index 243
preface
Hospitality to the stranger demands sacrifice: to surrender our biases: to make
the interests, joys and sorrows of the stranger our own. as such, hospitality to the
stranger is subversive by nature, threatening to the existing powers.
lucien richard, Living the Hospitality of God, New York: paulist press (2000, 21)
God is hospitable. easily said. the implications are immense and not always
appreciated by those who speak of God or speak for God. God is the creator and
sustainer of all that is. That is the classical Christian affirmation. Historically it has
often gone along with an assertion of divine omnipotence, power and domination.
this perspective has hardly been conducive to thoughts of hospitality.
It would seem that classical Christian affirmation of hospitality may be
necessary but is by no means always sufficient. God is love. This recognition has
always been in the background. but it has not always carried the implications
of what it means to permeate and sustain all that is. the purpose of this book is
to interpret the hospitality dimension of that unconditional love, explore what it
means to think of God as both creator and sustainer of precisely all that is, and to
understand this divine action as generated and expressed in all its dimensions, as
pure unbounded hospitality.
this is a study of the shape of God’s engagement with the world. Human
hospitality often involves a complex web of connections. we shall examine the
world of hospitality as a clue to a deeper appreciation of the hospitality of God,
and the consequences of this encompassing field of hospitality for human life. The
issue arises acutely today in a world that in some ways is much more comfortable
to live in than any previous age. in other ways our society is divided by chasms of
inequality and conflict. A rational, progressive and yet still deeply serious faith in
God often seems to be obscured by fundamentalism on the one hand and atheism
on the other. we believe that a reframing of the understanding of God as hospitable
can help us to move forward and beyond such alternatives and respond more
effectively to the Gospel in our contemporary world.
the notion of God as hospitable is not new. in recent years there have been
an encouraging number of studies, often on a fairly small scale, on this theme.
our purpose is to bring together some of these insights and, if possible, take
the discussion further, and underscore the importance of understanding God as
hospitable in our world. millions of words are poured out on word and sacrament,
grace and gift. we shall underscore hospitable word, hospitable sacrament,
hospitable grace and hospitable gift. the inhospitable remains a constant source
of doubt and despair, not least in theology and church.
viii Hospitable God
as we write, the world is shaken by severe economic recession. it becomes
harder to be hospitable when the resources for hospitality appear to shrink.
it becomes even more imperative to use the available resources to help those
who are at the point of greatest need, and at the same time to act to ensure that
hospitality will continue for the future.
we will be quite clear about this at the outset. it is true that the hospitality
of God, and of the deep structures of the universe, sounds like a breathtaking
improbability in today’s world. Yet this improbability is no greater than that of the
central Christian affirmation that God has truly entered into the created order in
incarnation and produced reconciliation out of the life and death of Jesus Christ.
there needs to be some evidence now that this claim has solid grounds. but
equally, in a framework which takes account of the creation of the cosmos itself,
it would not be entirely logical to expect the complete fulfilment of the divine
reconciliation in the short span of time which constitutes our contemporary sense
of historical development. the claims of Christianity are built on an eschatological
hope. To evacuate them into an indefinite future is meaningless. But we need
hardly expect fulfilment of the divine vision in our own time. The Christian hope
is a long-term hope and it is a real hope that shapes the here and now. we discover
more as we go along.
Hospitality happens not by words but by acts. in a book such as this
it would be remiss not to recognise at least one or two friends to stand for
those who instantiate for us hospitality in action – Colin and Helen anderson,
Graeme and sylvia auld, ruth and Norman shanks, blair robertson and
ross mcdonald, daniel sack and william tweedley, Keith and Gail ewing,
bill shaw, paul Nimmo, betty Holden, wendy dick, sammie and steve braxton.
we are grateful to supportive colleagues and friends, notably to the University
of Glasgow and especially david Jasper, mona siddiqui and lloyd ridgeon; to
richard amesbury, david Fergusson, tom Hughson sJ and Frank Clooney sJ;
to president iain torrance and morag, to wentzel and Hester van Huyssteen, to
robert and Jane maclennan and other friends at princeton theological seminary,
to Kenilworth presbyterian Church in asheville, to groups in various places for
comments on the transitions from human rights to hospitality, comments which
have stimulated, sharpened and qualified many of the thoughts in these pages, and
to Elizabeth Newlands for a critical reading of the final text. We want to thank
the anonymous reader whose sharp comments on an early draft were especially
helpful, and wentzel Van Huyssteen, bob maclennan, andrew Forsyth and Gretar
Gunnarsson for invaluable comments on the drafts. we alone are responsible
wherever we have not followed this wise counsel! it is at least as much from the
hospitality of others, of family, friends, communities and sometimes strangers, as
from reading books, that we learn something of the depths of hospitality, human
and divine.
princeton, Glasgow and asheville.
truth is to be found only in the practice of hospitality.
louis massignon (piere-Francois bethune,
L’Hospitalite sacree entre les Religions, 203)
when he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave
it to them. then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished
from their sight.
luke 24:30–31 (New revised standard Version)
