Christian Guesthood
Reconstructing Ecclesial Identity for Hospitality Under Conditions of Hostility
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33550/3s6f9382Keywords:
Christian guesthood, Christian hospitality, hostility, dispositional formation, practical theologyAbstract
How can Christian communities sustain hospitality when their social existence is shaped by hostility rather than welcome? Existing scholarship offers compelling normative accounts of the church’s vocation to welcome the stranger, while giving comparatively less attention to the dispositions that sustain this vocation under persecution and social exclusion. Addressing this question, the article adopts a constructive practical theological approach, bringing Christian experiences of hostility in Indonesia into dialogue with theological traditions of hospitality and the biblical witness. It argues that grounding hospitality in ecclesial identity can sustain the church’s hospitable practice by giving this vocation a formative basis beyond ethical obligation. Its central constructive proposal is Christian guesthood, which understands the church as a community received by God and whose welcome of others flows from this prior reception. By locating ecclesial identity in participation in divine grace, Christian guesthood offers theological resources for cultivating humble presence, faithful witness, and generous welcome amid precarious access to social space. The article thus advances Christian guesthood as a dispositional framework for understanding and cultivating the church’s hospitable witness under conditions of marginalisation and exclusion.
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