Description
In our troubled world, protective hospitality is tragically necessary, and requires informed shared action and belief on behalf of the threatened other. In Safeguarding the Stranger, Jayme R. Reaves argues that protective hospitality and its faith-based foundations, as seen in the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, merit greater theological attention. Reaves suggests that the practice of protective hospitality in Christianity can be enhanced by a better understanding of Jewish and Muslim practices of hospitality, as well as of their codes and etiquettes related to honour. Safeguarding the Stranger draws on a contextual and political theological approach, informed by liberation and feminist theologies, through the lens of a co-operative and complementary theological view, informed by inter-religious, Abrahamic, and hospitable approaches to dialogue, which forecasts the positive role that religions can play in resolving conflicts.
About the Author
Dr Jayme R. Reaves is a public theologian based in the United Kingdom. Originally from the American South, she has worked in post-conflict former Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland and focuses on bridging the gap between theology, peacemaking, and reconciliation. She has a MDiv from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Virginia, an MPhil in Reconciliation and a PhD in Theology from Trinity College, University of Dublin.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Hospitality, Ethics, and Theology
1. Locating the Theological Approach
2. Extending Hospitality: Hospitality as Ethical Practice
3. Hospitality and the Abrahamic Traditions
Part Two: Protective Hospitality
4. Hospitality and Protection
5. Protective Hospitality as a Religious Practice
Conclusion
Bibliography
Subject and Author Index
Scriptural Index
Endorsements and Reviews
Safeguarding the Stranger is an immensely important addition to the literature on hospitality, notably protective hospitality as practiced in the Abrahamic faith traditions. The work reflects extraordinarily deep research and years of interfaith and cross-cultural experience, as well as time logged in some of our world’s most conflicted regions. The author combines fluency in feminist and liberationist Christian thought with competence in Hebrew Bible and Quranic studies – and more than a bit of continental philosophy as well. A major contribution by an important new voice, both in its substance and in its method. Highly recommended.
David P. Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics; Director, Centre for Theology & Public Life, Mercer University; President-Elect, Society of Christian Ethics
