And You Welcomed Me: A Sourcebook on Hospitality in Early Christianity

And You Welcomed Me: A Sourcebook on Hospitality in Early Christianity

This volume provides an anthology of about 40 primary source documents that describe the work of religious communities that took care of pilgrims and the sick in the late antique and early medieval world. The project identifies letters, diary accounts, instructions, sermons, travelogues, and community records and rules that give us a window into a world of early communities that saw it as their duty and their privilege to care for the sick, to safeguard the pilgrim, and to host the stranger. Each document is placed in historical, geographical, and social context as it contributes to an emerging picture of these communities. The volume addresses the motivations and practices of communities that risked extending hospitality. Why did these communities take great risks for the socially vulnerable? What stake did they have in pilgrims and the sick? What communal experiences supported and sustained both the communities and their audiences? How was hospitality cultivated? Amy G. Oden is Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality at Saint Paul School of Theology at Oklahoma City University and the author of In Her Words, And You Welcomed Me, and Right Here Right Now, all published by Abingdon Press. Find out more at www.amyoden.com And You Welcomed Me A Sourcebook on Hospitality in Early Christianity By Amy G. Oden Abingdon Press Copyright © 2001 Abingdon Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-687-09671-8 Contents Acknowledgments, Preface, Chapter One Hospitality and the Early Christian World, Chapter Two For You Were Strangers in Egypt: Remembering Who We Are, Chapter Three Having Eyes to See: Recognizing the Stranger, Chapter Four And We Shall All Be Changed: The Spiritual Dynamics of Hospitality, Chapter Five Unbending Oneself: The Practices of Hospitality, Chapter Six Building a Place of Hospitality: Forms of Institutionalization, Chapter Seven The Communion of Saints: Models of Hospitality, Appendix: Conversations for Communities, Primary Sources, Index, CHAPTER 1 Hospitality and the Early Christian World They had come to listen. Time had gotten on, and the people were hungry. Rather than sending them away, five fish and two loaves were passed around. Everyone ate. All were filled. There was food left over to fill twelve baskets. In the oft retold story of the feeding of the five thousand, there is no mention of the term hospitality, but it is amply evident. Jesus and his disciples become hosts to the thousands crowding around for a look or a touch or a word. As makeshift hosts they offer hospitality to these strangers with whatever they have on hand, and, in the end, receive more food in the twelve baskets of leftovers than they started out with. The Christian tradition has much to say about hospitality, and among Christians today there is renewed interest in hospitality as a virtue and a practice within the Christian life. Conversations, scholarship, and conferences on hospitality in the last few years have brought attention to the ways a developed notion of hospitality might contribute to Christian community and identity, as well as to mission, spiritual growth, and even contemporary worship. As the conversation broadens, it is important to bring historical voices to the table, listening to how our ancestors learned and lived hospitality. Like grandparents, aunts, and uncles at a family reunion, these voices remind us of who we are as the Christian family, what we have lived, and how God has moved among us. This collection contributes to the conversation, garnering the wealth and wisdom of early Christian voices on hospitality. What Is Hospitality? At the very least, hospitality is the welcoming of the stranger (hospes). While hospitality can include acts of welcoming family 13 and friends, its meaning within the Christian biblical and historical traditions has focused on receiving the alien and extending one's resources to them. Hospitality responds to the physical, social, and spiritual needs of the stranger, though, as we shall see, those of the host are addressed as well. Early Christian texts pay attention to each of these areas. On the face of it, hospitality begins with basic physical needs of food and shelter, most powerfully symbolized in table fellowship, sharing food and drink at a common table. Sharing food together enables more than getting nourishment. Eating together is symbolic of partaking of life itself. Jesus' own table fellowship with sinners and socially marginal people witnesses to the power of the hospitality of the realm of God. Hospitality might entail meeting physical needs beyond food, such as a foot washing or bath, medical treatment, shelter, clothing, supplies for the journey, and even care of animals. Jesus' final meal with the disciples (Matthew 26:17-30; Luke 22:14-28; Mark 14:12-25) illustrates several of the material features of hospitality, namely, washing feet, a servant host, food and drink. Hospitality includes