Hospitality As Holiness

We live amid increasing ethical plurality and fragmentation while at the same time more and more questions of moral gravity confront us. Some of these questions are new, such as those around human cloning and genetics. Other questions that were previously settled have re-emerged, such as those around the place of religion in politics. Responses to such questions are diverse, numerous and often vehemently contested. Hospitality as Holiness seeks to address the underlying question facing the church within contemporary moral debates: how should Christians relate to their neighbours when ethical disputes arise? The problems the book examines centre on what the nature and basis of Christian moral thought and action is, and in the contemporary context, whether moral disputes may be resolved with those who do not share the same framework as Christians. Bretherton establishes a model - that of hospitality - for how Christians and non-Christians can relate to each other amid moral diversity. This book will appeal to those interested in the broad question of the relationship between reason, tradition, natural law and revelation in theology, and more specifically to those engaged with questions about plurality, tolerance and ethical conflict in Christian ethics and medical ethics.

Hospitality and the Holy Spirit shares stories and perspectives by hotelier Denise Maiatico about what the Bible tells us about taking good care of people. The book draws from Denise's 20-plus-year-career in the hospitality industry, offering anecdotes that are sometimes funny, other times sad, but always fascinating. During her career, Denise has seen some crazy, wonderful, disturbing, and inspirational things. As a Christian, Denise wanted to explore the Bible on a deeper level and through the lens of her experience. Stories and advice about being a good host abound in the Bible. To create this book, Denise researched these Bible stories and married them to her own experiences. During this process, the lessons of the Gospel became both relevant and obvious to her. This book will support your own journey and desire to live a life that reflects hospitality--and the Holy Spirit.

I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Echoing Hosea, Jesus defends his embrace of the unclean in the Gospel of Matthew, seeming to privilege the prophetic call to justice over the Levitical pursuit of purity. And yet, as missional faith communities arewell aware, the tensions and conflicts between holiness and mercy are not so easily resolved. In an unprecedented fusion of psychological science and theological scholarship, Richard Beck describes the pernicious (and largely unnoticed) effects of the psychology of purity upon the life and mission of the church.

God is a missionary God. God is also hospitable in his nature. He makes his enemies friends and invites them to intimate communion. The mission of God in Scripture often occurs through hospitality when God’s people encounter the not-yet people of God at table or in hospitable environments and invite them to believe. This motif of mission as hospitality plays out through the Old and New Testament Scriptures, and through the Eucharist. It can also be observed through the witness of monks and contemporary missionaries who embraced a hospitable approach to mission. For the church to participate in God’s mission today, a vision to win, conquer, or change the world should be exchanged for a conviction to welcome the stranger and make room for others while proclaiming the gospel—that is, to imitate the hospitable God in mission.

In this book the author contends that communal holiness is the central theme of the vine metaphor in John 15:1-17. Illumination of the Johannine vine metaphor is illustrated by drawing on background information on the vine and its metaphorical usage in the Ancient Near East, Old Testament, and Second Temple Period and to suggest understanding in light of the communal holiness of the covenant people of God. Comparing the themes of holiness and corporateness pertinent to the covenant the book also reflects the covenant with Israel in relation to John’s understanding of the people of God. The notion of covenant, which embraces reference to the people of God as vine/vineyard in the Old Testament and Second Temple Period, underlies John’s vine metaphor. The book focuses research on ANE viticulture to determine the context(s) of when the vine was used to refer to Israel in a covenant relationship with God. In this historical context the Johannine vine metaphor receives fresh meaning and relevance for the people of God.

Throughout her academic career, Christine D. Pohl has helped the church rediscover practices that used to be central to its life, like hospitality, community, and friendship. Perhaps best known for her groundbreaking Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, she has also contributed significantly to discussions on Christian community, feminism and the academy, and the practice of friendship. Yet behind this lies a lifetime of “lived theology” that informs her life and her work, both inside and outside the academy. Containing biblical, systematic, and moral theology, these essays are scriptural and liturgical, multidisciplinary and missional. Several of them could be described as offering essays of “lived theology,” writing and reflecting from within years of action and contemplation. They build upon particularly fruitful aspects of Pohl’s work, through expansion, clarification, and occasional disagreement. A mix of scholars and practitioners, colleagues, former students, and friends, the contributors represent a wide variety of theoretical and practical expertise. This volume honors Pohl most when its readers choose to take the wisdom within its pages and embody that in life together.

Holiness Revival Study Texts are designed to teach and revive the doctrine of holiness in these last days in the Church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ worldwide. The goal is to prepare the reader and the Church for the imminent coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to take His spotless Church home (John 14:3; Ephesians 5:27). Volume 1 of the series explains: • Misconceptions concerning holiness • The doctrine of strategic components of holiness • Satan’s deadly strategic doctrines against holiness • The doctrine of strategic components of inner holiness • 20 strategic components of inner holiness • The doctrine of strategic components of outer holiness • 40 strategic components of outer holiness • 60 holiness tests Understanding the Doctrines of Strategic Holiness will help you repent and forsake unrighteousness and begin to serve our Lord wholeheartedly, in holiness, “without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14b).

In this book the author contends that communal holiness is the central theme of the vine metaphor in John 15:1-17. Illumination of the Johannine vine metaphor is illustrated by drawing on background information on the vine and its metaphorical usage in the Ancient Near East, Old Testament, and Second Temple Period and to suggest understanding in light of the communal holiness of the covenant people of God. Comparing the themes of holiness and corporateness pertinent to the covenant the book also reflects the covenant with Israel in relation to John’s understanding of the people of God. The notion of covenant, which embraces reference to the people of God as vine/vineyard in the Old Testament and Second Temple Period, underlies John’s vine metaphor. The book focuses research on ANE viticulture to determine the context(s) of when the vine was used to refer to Israel in a covenant relationship with God. In this historical context the Johannine vine metaphor receive fresh meaning and relevance for the people of God.

Hospitality has been practiced by the people of God dating back through the entire Old Testament (Consider Abraham and Lot). Today, many of those practices are still in place throughout much of the Middle East. God, however, has called the whole church to participate in Kingdom hospitality. In fact, it is an integral part of the culture of the Kingdom of God. Kingdom hospitality encompasses much more than simply hosting people out of the kindness of our hearts. This book is a journey into the heart, attitude and mindset of the hospitality of God and the beginning of a life of Kingdom hospitality. Through an exploration of Scripture, culture and calling, you'll discover the beauty of Kingdom hospitality and its importance in the expression of our Christian faith.

What did God use to draw a radical, committed unbeliever to himself? Did God take her to an evangelistic rally? Or, since she had her doctorate in literature, did he use something in print? No, God used an invitation to dinner in a modest home, from a humble couple who lived out the gospel daily, simply, and authentically. With this story of her conversion as a backdrop, Rosaria Butterfield invites us into her home to show us how God can use this same "radical, ordinary hospitality" to bring the gospel to our lost friends and neighbors. Such hospitality sees our homes as not our own, but as God's tools for the furtherance of his kingdom as we welcome those who look, think, believe, and act differently from us into our everyday, sometimes messy lives—helping them see what true Christian faith really looks like.