Just Hospitality

by Russell, Letty M.

• ISBN13: 9780664233150
• ISBN10: 0664233155
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-03-19
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Pr

Summary

n this, her last book, theologian Letty Russell redefines the commonly held notion of hospitality as she challenges her readers to consider what it means to welcome the stranger. In doing so, she implores persons of faith to join the struggles for justice. Rather than an act of limited, charitable welcome, Russell maintains that true hospitality is a process that requires partnership with the ¿other¿ in our divided world. The goal is ¿just hospitality,¿ that is, hospitality with justice. Russell draws on feminist and postcolonial thinking to show how we are colonized and colonizing, each of us bearing the marks of the history that formed us. With an insightful analysis of the power dynamics that stem from our differences and a constructive theological theory of difference itself, Russell proposes concrete strategies to create a more just practice of hospitality. With careful attention, she writes, we can build a network of hospitality that is truthful about our mistakes and inequities, yet determined to resist the contradictions that drive us apart. This kind of genuine solidarity requires us to cast off oppression and domination in order to truly welcome the stranger. Russell¿s lasting message is a highly practical theology for both the academy and the church. The book contains questions for study and reflection.

Author Biography

Letty M. Russell was one of the world's foremost feminist theologians and a longtime member of the Yale Divinity School faculty. She wrote numerous influential books, including Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretation of the Church, and served as coeditor of Hagar, Sarah, and Their Children; Dictionary of Feminist Theologies; and Inheriting Our Mothers' Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective. J. Shannon Clarkson directs the International Feminist Doctor of Ministry program of San Francisco Theological Seminary. Kate M. Ott is Associate Director of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing and a lecturer at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
From Many Parts, a Whole	p. xiii
In Honor of Letty Mandeville Russell	p. xv
Following the Clues	p. xvi
Why Hospitality?	p. 1
On Being a Misfit: Embracing Hospitality	p. 3
In But Still Out	p. 4
Making Sense of Myself	p. 5
Living on the Margins	p. 9
Becoming a Feminist	p. 12
The Gift of Not Fitting	p. 13
The Church Inside Out	p. 15
The Church in the Round	p. 16
One Call, Many Ministries	p. 17
Ministry of Hospitality	p. 18
Hospitality	p. 19
Difference	p. 20
Questions for Thought	p. 22
The New Hospitality	p. 23
Postcolonial Interpretation	p. 24
Postcolonial Subjects	p. 26
Postcolonial Theological Perspectives	p. 29
The Doctrine of Election in Postcolonial Interpretation	p. 38
When Election Is a Problem	p. 39
The Ambiguity of Chosenness	p. 41
Feminism and Hospitality in Postcolonial Interpretation	p. 42
A Feminist Hermeneutic of Hospitality	p. 43
Postcolonial Subjects Practicing Hospitality	p. 49
Questions for Thought	p. 50
Riotous Difference as God's Gift to the Church	p. 53
Biblical Views of Difference	p. 53
Babel's Gift of Difference	p. 54
Pentecost's Gift of Understanding	p. 59
A Different Kind of Unity	p. 63
Unity-in-Tension	p. 63
Unity in Hospitality	p. 65
A Community of Christ	p. 69
The Source of Unity	p. 69
Liberating Difference	p. 71
Questions for Thought	p. 74
Reframing a Theology of Hospitality	p. 77
Framing and Reframing	p. 78
Making a Change	p. 80
Steps to Reframing	p. 81
God's Hospitality: Reframing Safety in Biblical Tradition	p. 85
The Meaning of Safe Space	p. 86
Searching the Scriptures for Safe Space	p. 88
Reframing a Text: Ruth's Story	p. 91
Attending to Context	p. 92
Developing a Spirituality of Listening	p. 94
Questions for Thought	p. 100
Just Hospitality	p. 101
Unequally Yoked	p. 102
Justice in "Just" Hospitality	p. 106
Amos's Message	p. 107
Justice as Hospitality in Worship	p. 111
Hospitality in Just Hospitality	p. 113
Welcome as a Metaphor for Action	p. 113
Transforming God's Welcome	p. 114
Recognizing Just Hospitality	p. 116
Limits	p. 116
Essential Characteristics	p. 118
Questions for Thought	p. 124
Notes	p. 125
Index of Scripture References	p. 135
Index of Subjects	p. 137
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