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Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. By Christine D. Pohl. Pp.xiii + 205. Grand Rapids, Wm. Eerdmans, 1999. 0 8028 4431 6.
The understanding of hospitality as an expression of care, respect, recognition, and equality has a central place in Christian life. However, within the last three centuries, as Christine Pohl points out, the term `hospitality' has lost its moral dimension and its real meaning. In her book, as the title suggests, Pohl proposes a restoration of the original depth of `hospitality'. This restoration takes place through the unfolding of three different sources of wisdom about hospitality: Scripture texts, ancient Christian writers and contemporary practitioners of hospitality.
The first part of the book is a short history of Christian hospitality. Here the author examines biblical images of hospitality. The most significant and unambiguously positive example of welcoming strangers in the Old Testament is the story of Abraham, Sarah, and the three guests (Genesis 18). Pohl points to two dimensions of hospitality in this story: a practical one (Abraham's warm welcome of his unexpected guests) and a spiritual one (a special connection with God - God's promise, warning and blessing). The story of Lot that immediately follows...