How do we treat the stranger? The question is hardwired into our very language. In Greek, the word xenos has the dual meaning of ‘stranger,’ and/or ‘foreigner.’ Xenos the root of our English word xenophobia, meaning fear of the stranger. Conversely, xenophilia, a much rarer word in English, is the transliteration of the Greek word for ‘hospitality.’ The French language carries the same ambiguity of stranger/foreigner with éstranger.

In Of Hospitality, twentieth century philosopher Jacques Derrida explores these issues with Anne Dufourmantelle. Specifically, this volume contains two seminars Derrida gave entitled, “Foreigner Question: Coming from Abroad / from the Foreigner, and “Step of Hospitality / No Hospitality.” The slashes in each title convey the ambiguity that the French terms carry when translated into English.

The question of hospitality begins with language.

[M]ust we ask the foreigner to understand us, to speak in our language, in all the senses of this term, in all its possible extensions, before being able and so as to be able to welcome him into our country? (15)

In reflecting on the church, do we expect the world to speak our language to welcome her into our community? For a philosopher typically vilified by Christianity for his theory of deconstruction (with James K. A. Smith’s Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism as the exception), his insight on the nature of hospitality is a surprisingly fruitful area for Christian reflection.

Derrida continues his reflections on language in the second seminar, arguing that “exiles, the deported, the expelled, the rootless, the stateless, lawless nomads, absolute foreigners, often continue to recognize the language, which is called the mother tongue, as their ultimate homeland” (88–9). It is this insight that fed Daniella Augustine’s reflections on the Tower of Babel and the event of Pentecost in Pentecost, Hospitality, and Transfiguration. At Babel, God confused human language to allow for a diversity in unity. Before language was confused, hospitality was an impossibility. At Pentecost, the mother tongues or homelands of a diverse collection of people were all honoured by the Spirit and the language which the Spirit inspired.

In a world of increasing division, Derrida’s reflections on hospitality deserve to be heard—especially by Christians who follow the one who asked us to extend love even to our enemies.

Derrida, Jacques and Anne Dufourmantelle. Of Hospitality. Cultural Memory in the Present. Translated by Rachel Bowlby. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.