Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition Paperback – August 3, 1999

Hospitality is often used to describe entertaining in one's home or as a reference to the hospitality industry. Pohl asserted, "Hospitality is a way of life fundamental to Christian identity" (p. x). To write this, Pohl interviewed over 50 practitioners and explored 8 communities of hospitality: L'Abri Fellowship, Annunciation House, L'Arche, The Catholic Worker, Good Works Inc., Jubilee Partners, The Open Door Community, and St. John's and St. Benedict's Monasteries. There are 3 sections:1. Remembering our Heritage2. Reconsidering the Tradition3. Recovering the PracticeIn Part 1, Pohl noted that "for the most part, the term 'hospitality' has lost its moral dimension" (p. 4). In essence, "hospitality was a qualification for leadership in the early Christian communities" (p. 5). Pohl lists some critical and poignant questions (see pp. 14, 15) such as how did hospitality get lost, what makes it potentially subversive, why is it easily distorted, etc.Part 2 was my favorite and was very thought provoking especially Ch4 Hospitality, Dignity, and the Power of Recognition. "Especially when the larger society disregards or dishonors certain persons, small acts of respect and welcome are potent far beyond themselves. . . . Recognition involves respecting the dignity and equal worth of every person and valuing their contributions" (p. 61). Pohl goes on to explore what it means to 'recognize' someone who is a stranger. She explored the notion of being a stranger, the roles of host/guest, risks associated with being a host, 'welcome' as a construct and the connection between marginality and hospitality.Part 3 describes limits, boundaries, and temptations - topics often not discussed in relation to hospitality. Discussed are things like practical limits (resources, energy, people, etc.), the intersection of identity, openness, and the connection to a physical place. Pohl noted, "The community will be transformed by the people it welcomes" (p. 141). I wanted to read more of her thinking. Pohl discussed a potential dark side of hospitality - the host using hospitality to gain advantage, the guest abusing the host's generosity. A favorite part of this section was Characteristics of Hospitable Places. I was reminded of placemaking ([...]) and Oldenburg's (2001) discussion of the importance of place.Who might be interested in this? People who are interested in:* Food, food practices (Pohl emphasizes the centrality of food)* Hospitality as a practice* Ethic of care - Pohl posits hospitality as a 'way of being' an orientation towards the other reminiscent of care ethics* Christian planners, community developers* Placemaking - the importance of physical space in creating a welcoming environment* Those interested in applied ethics* Those simply tired of a rhetoric that posits 'difference' against some ideal and are seeking alternative, more respectful ways of being togetherOldenburg, R. (2001). Celebrating the third place: Inspiring stories about the "great good places" at the heart of our communities. New York: Marlowe & Co.

This book is a treasure and I believe is a worthwhile read for any Christian wanting to understand and grow in the practice of hospitality. The author lays out the case for hospitality in the Old and New Testaments, and in church history. She also has studied various ministries of hospitality in the current age to glean what wisdom modern practioners have to share. Perhaps the most enlightening and instructive part for me was learning about the practice of hospitality in the early church, and reading the wisdom shared by the church fathers. This book is extremely well researched, and it is impossible not to learn from it. I put it down for a while after getting about 20% of the way through, afraid that it was just loading up the guilt over a standard that I couldn't live up to. But, after picking it up once again, I was able to see how she adeptly wrestled with how the ideal meets our finite resources. I have come away from this book with a much deeper understanding of the application of Biblical hospitality in modern times, with how to deal with the difficulties involved in the practice, and a deeper realization of what it means to serve as a finite human being.

As contemporary churches struggle with the fine line between generous evangelism and coercive proselytizing, Christine Pohl's Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition offers an alternative which focuses on practices within the Christian community and its relation to Pohl invites Christians to consider the virtue of hospitality as an evangelical center of Christian life. She asserts the Gospel's fundamental imperative for hospitality and examines biblical, ancient, and historical practices of evangelism for Christian hospitality traditions. After discussing these sources, Pohl conceives a new system for hospitality in the contemporary (American) church. Pohl's book offers many valuable insights for Evangelism in contemporary society, but dances between a truly hopeful exposition of the possibilities of God's grace and just another example of good practices every American church should consider. Had Christine Pohl used the sentence, "Hospitality is simply joy of life" and constructed her recommendations for evangelism around the joy of worship, the life of meals and the practices which will form Christians into people who seek God's love in their lives through the mutuality with one another, her book would have the lacking edge of radical-ness which would make it truly radical and empowering (102).

It is hard to know where to start. The book is elegantly written, it is full of interesting history of the early church. But more importantly, it speaks to a deadness in the church today. Often members of the church have learned to live distant from problems of their "neighbors" be they down the block or down the street in the challenged neighborhoods in our cities.In the early church, members were the challenged people, they reached out to each other, but now much of the church is isolated and distant from the needy stranger. Read Luke 14 - decide if you have responded to principles in those scenarios described by Jesus. If you come up short, then this book will help with a compassionate analysis of our dilemma in reaching out to "the least of these."In addition to setting the stage for individuals to learn to reach out to needy strangers, the book creates a context for the faith-based social service discussion. While members of congregations may not exhibit the skills of professional social workers, they have an important role to play in being present and responding to neigbors in their communities who need the touch of grace in their lives.The book is a good read, but it requires more than one pass. If you invest in the book deeply, you will be called to action.

"When you have more than what you need, build a longer table, not a higher fence." That was the quote a friend gave me a few weeks back as we discussed my reading of Making Room. Christine Pohl take us deep into the heart of hospitality as she inspires us to embrace the other. Deeply loved this read as it will forever speak into my community and our practice of Always making room!!

Sobre, exact, thorough, no hype, balanced, helpful. I feared the author may be calling us to join a bandwagon with little historical perspective. It is just the opposite. There is very little hype. It is balanced. Rather than an adolescent idealism, it offers real advice to us all in responding to the challenge of Jesus. As Pope Francis says to believers and atheists alike, let us meet together at the feet of the poor. Jurgen Habermas, one of the greatest living political philosophers and an atheist has called the Social liberal democracies to revisit their Judeo-Christian roots on which the concepts of justice, compassion and universal equality are founded. This book accomplishes just that. Non-offensive to atheists. Au contraire, they will be encouraged too. it is challenging to believers who also need to revisit their roots. Much has been forgotten...

Read this book if you want to be inspired and informed about hospitality to the poor the vulnerable and others. How inportant this is in these days. This is where it's happening, so get the book and move into action. A great and inspiring book.

It’s has taken me a few weeks to pick through this book, not because it’s dull and laborious, but because of the challenge it powerfully conveys. This is a fantastic study, and Professor Pohl presents a wonderful, stirring conversation on the mandate and vitality of hospitality to the Christian faith. It’s certainly given me much to dwell on and, in agreement with the author, I feel that making room for others is an important sacrament that Christians need to recover and cultivate.