In an age of terrorism, at least two inter-religious narratives prevail—and both may be true. First, tensions between religions has increased. Dialogue between religions is a complex and difficult process made more challenging by a culture that thrives on social media binaries. However, a second narrative provides hope. “[R]eligious terrorism ultimately takes a back seat to the kind of hospitality advocated by the world’s religions” (2). It is that second narrative that drives Hospitality and the Other.

Amos Yong’s work is an excellent example of practical theology. He begins by grounding his theological reflection in three concrete situations: Christian minority status in Sri Lanka, Islam and Christianity in Nigeria, and religious multiculturalism in the United States. His work is rooted in and returns to these concrete settings.

Hospitality, for Yong, is a bridge that spans religious traditions and is therefore a place where people can go for dialogue with the religious other. Writing from the Christian tradition, Yong argues that “the many tongues and many practices of the Spirit of God are the means through which divine hospitality is extended through the church to the world, including the world of the religious” (100). It is in these interactions that the church anticipates the coming kingdom.

One more crucial theme informs Yong’s work: the Christian’s position as perpetual guests.

[T]he Christian condition of being aliens and strangers in this world means both that we are perpetually guests, first of God and then of others, and that we should adopt the postures appropriate to receiving hospitality even when we find ourselves as hosts. (125)

This theme is evident throughout the Bible. Moses was a foreigner, and named his child to reflect that reality (Exodus 2:22). When Israel possessed the land, they were ordered to be kind to the foreigner precisely because they were foreigners in Egypt. This reality continues in the early church where believers were the persecuted minority. Have we lost sight of this reality in the rise of Christendom? Is this something we can recover as the world shifts toward post-Christendom?

Yong has written a pneumatologically rich theology of hospitality which is desperately needed in our post-9/11 world.

Yong, Amos. Hospitality and the Other: Pentecost, Christian Practices, and the Neighbor. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2008.