Untamed Hospitality: Welcoming God and Other Strangers

by Elizabeth A Newman

Christian hospitality is more than a well-set table, pleasant conversation, or even inviting people into your home. Christian hospitality, according to Elizabeth Newman, is an extension of how we interact with God. It trains us to be capable of welcoming strangers who will challenge us and enhance our lives in unexpected ways, readying us to embrace the ultimate God.

In Untamed Hospitality, Newman dispels the modern myths of hospitality as a superficial commodity that can be bought and sold at The Pottery Barn and restores it to its proper place within God's story, as displayed most fully in Jesus Christ. Worship, she says, is the believer's participation in divine hospitality, a hospitality that cannot be sequestered from our economic, political, or public lives. This in-depth study of true hospitality will be of interest to professors, students, and scholars looking for a fresh take on a timeless subject.

Genres: Christian

236 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Timothy Braun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this is a good book that does a great job of interacting with the social, political, economic, etc implications of true Christian hospitality. However, I find this book difficult to rate.
In each chapter, Newman does her due academic diligence, resulting in what I found to be some pretty dull, dry reading. However, once she's set the table, the results are often thought provoking, exhilarating, and inspiring. A worthwhile read.

[Michael Swanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a struggle to get through. It felt unnecessarily verbose, although I quite resonated with the idea of couching Christian hospitality within the lens of Christian worship. It wasn't terribly dense, but it was more convoluted than it needed to be in my opinion.

[Frankie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent look at the theory of hospitality over and against modern concepts of tolerance, entertainment, or hospitality as consumerism. Newman incorporates an impressive range of sources from literature and philosophy.

[Lori Schwilling · Rating 3 out of 5]

A challenging read. I especially appreciated her depiction of how the practice of hospitality places us at odds with the secular world and her description of worship as an act of hospitality.

[VeeInNY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely on the short list of "most significant read in 2013"

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting thesis, which she fails to fully develop. Not sure that totally redefining "hospitality" is particularly helpful in trying to develop a theology of worship.