Christian Hospitality in Light of Twenty-First Century Migration

295 Pages·2012·1.45 MB·English

by  Becker Sweeden, Nell

Boston University
OpenBU http://open.bu.edu
Theses & Dissertations STH Theses and Dissertations
2012-05-04
Christian Hospitality in Light of
Twenty-First Century Migration
https://hdl.handle.net/2144/3733
Boston University
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

Dissertation

CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY IN LIGHT OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
MIGRATION

By

Nell Becker Sweeden
(B.A. Point Loma Nazarene University 2002; M.Div. Nazarene Theological Seminary,
2007)

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2012
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Copyright © 2012 by Nell Becker Sweeden
All Rights Reserved
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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………….….....…...iv

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………….………….….....…...v

CHAPTER 1. Introduction………………………..………….………..……..….....…1

CHAPTER 2. Mapping Christian Hospitality: Place and Performance.…….…..…..30

CHAPTER 3. Understanding the Complexities of Migration: Contextual
Considerations in Hospitality……………………………………..………..…...…...87

CHAPTER 4. Objections to Hospitality and Possibilities for New
Ecclesial Imagination ……………………………………………….…......122

CHAPTER 5. Re-imagining Hospitality and Ecclesiology: Practical
Theological Embodiments…………………………………………………168

CHAPTER 6. Eucharistic Formation of a Hospitable Community………….....….216

CHAPTER 7. Conclusion…………………………………………………..……...255

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………….……..….277

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank the community that led me toward this dissertation and the
community that has supported me throughout. This dissertation would not be possible
without the loving support and encouragement of my family, friends, professors, mentors,
and colleagues. I am grateful to my colleagues at Nazarene Compassionate Ministries
who shared this journey with me and helped to support me financially. I particularly wish
to thank Larry and Lynne Bollinger, Cort and Karen Miller, Erin and Stella Stillion, as
well as the NCM international team who continue to inspire me and bring me much hope
and joy in my work: Helmer Juarez, Trino Jara, Luis Mesa, Hermann Gschwandtner, Rod
Green, David Harris, Cosmos Mutowa, Althea Taylor, and Jose David Acosta. I also wish
to thank my professors who inspired my theological imagination and encouraged me to
go on to further studies, particularly Michael Lodahl, John Wright, Ron Benefiel, John
Knight, Doug Harrison, Jacque Mitchell, Herb Prince, and Jamie Gates as well as my
pastors Steve Rodeheaver, Brian Postlewait, Matt Jenson, Tim Kauffman, and Kaza
Fraley. I am grateful for my colleagues at the BU School of Theology, particularly
Xochitl Alvizo, Krishana Zuckau, Jeff Barker, Montague Williams, Adam Wallis,
Andrew Tripp, Kathryn House, and the theology students I have the privilege of learning
from as a student and teaching assistant. I am indebted to my friends both near and far
who continue to cheer me on, particularly Kelly Becker Tirrill, Karen Marshall, Cheryl
Stone, Jeff and Meredith Purganan, Julie Hefner, Bill and Erin McCoy, Tim and Shawna
Songer Gaines, Rusty and Lauren Brian, Tim and Crystal Stephens, and Cheryl Mittan. I
wish to thank Dr. Claire Wolfteich for her guidance in teaching and in the field of
practical theology and Dr. Roberto Goizueta at Boston College for how his teaching and
theology inspired this dissertation and also for his serving on my dissertation committee.
I also wish to thank my other committee members, Dr. Anjulet Tucker and Dr. Rady
Roldan-Figueroa. Thank you especially to my second reader, Dr. Shelly Rambo, who
continually inspires and challenges my theology and is an invaluable conversation
partner. I wish to thank my advisor and friend, Dr. Bryan Stone, whose teaching
continues to inspire me and who graciously guided me along this process in ways that fit
who I am. Finally, I am thankful for my family—especially Doug and Diana Becker,
Sarah Becker Carrera, and Russell Sweeden—who were constant encouragement during
this process. Finally, thank you to my partner in life, Josh, who brings me joy in the
journey.

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ABSTRACT

CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY IN LIGHT OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
MIGRATION

(Order No. )

Nell Becker Sweeden

Doctor of Philosophy
Boston University School of Theology, 2012

Major Professor: Dean Bryan P. Stone, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; James K.
and Eunice Matthews Chair, E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism; Co-Director of
the Center for Practical Theology

Christian practices of hospitality—theologically conceived as welcome of the
stranger or alien within Judeo-Christian tradition and scripture—often involve members
of an ecclesial community inviting an unknown person in need into a home or
congregation. In Christian communities in the United States, the practice often takes
shape as invitation into the community’s life and does not necessarily allow for a
reciprocal invitation by the person welcomed. The relationship, therefore, is limited to a
one-way exchange often excluding the full participation of marginalized persons. This
dissertation challenges Christian hospitality practices in light of twenty-first century U.S.
Latino/a migration. It does so by exploring new forms of spatial imagination that lend
themselves to a journeying hospitality of accompaniment with and among persons
migrating. This re-thinking of hospitality connects with practices within migrant
communities and border churches surveyed in the dissertation. I press ecclesiological
questions to a Christian theology of hospitality, moreover, by arguing for the nature and
mission of the church as uniquely oriented toward alternative understandings of place and
pilgrimage on earth.
The dissertation begins by introducing Christian hospitality practices and framing
the investigation in the fields of practical theology and ecclesiology. It surveys current
theological literature on hospitality practice and identifies common expressions of
hospitality in the United States’ context. Drawing upon the fields of cultural
anthropology and cultural studies, the study examines the global phenomenon of
transnational migration while focusing on U.S. Latino/a migration patterns and
identifying the particular challenges these migrants face in journeying to and residing in
the United States. Drawing upon U.S. Latino/a theologians and postcolonial theologians,
the dissertation critically analyzes hospitality, uncovering objections to traditional
hospitality practice and re-shaping hospitality toward new patterns of journeying and
ways of thinking about place, borders, and identity. The study explores constructive
expressions of hospitality practice in light of changing patterns of migration along U.S.-
Mexico borderlands and concludes with further ecclesiological implications.
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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The practice of Christian hospitality reaches back to the early centuries of
Christian life as well as deep into Jewish history, life, and scripture. This practice is alive
today in Christian churches and para-church organizations within the United States, but
new contextual realities – in particular twenty-first century global migration patterns –
have altered the conditions under which hospitality is practiced and in relation to which
the practice has had to adapt itself. The reality of migration and its affect on human lives
disrupts static conceptions of hospitality and challenges ecclesial communities toward
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contextual faithfulness. This dissertation explores Christian hospitality practice in light
of twenty-first century U.S. Latino/a migration and develops the notion of a journeying
hospitality of accompaniment with and among persons migrating that fosters deeper
relationships and formation. The new conceptions and expressions of hospitality I
propose also press ecclesiological questions arguing for the nature and mission of the
church to be uniquely oriented toward new ecclesial patterns and alternative forms of
residing on earth.
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I have employed the term “ecclesial communities” rather than “churches” or “congregations” to
encompass the wider range of hospitality practice within intentional communities, para-church
organizations, and/or multiple congregational groups gathering together all of which may or may not
identify themselves specifically as a “church” or “congregation.” I specifically address them as “ecclesial”
rather than “Christian communities” because I wish to investigate how hospitality practice contributes to
ecclesiology. By “contextual faithfulness” I mean that the shifting identities of persons ‘on the move’
challenges assumptions about what it means to welcome another in hospitality and ultimately what it means
to be church from within these new relationships.

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Christian practices of hospitality—theologically conceived as welcome of the
stranger or alien within Judeo-Christian tradition and scripture—often involve members
of an ecclesial community inviting an unknown person in need into a home or

congregation. This welcome often includes sharing a meal and an exchange of material
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assistance or providing care. For Christians, this hospitality is broadly recognized as an
ethical responsibility mirroring the welcome of God in Jesus Christ. Traditionally, this
practice has been understood and embodied as an invitation for the stranger to come in
rather than the community venturing out. In Christian communities in the United States,
the practice often takes shape as an invitation into a community’s own life and does not
necessarily allow for a reciprocal invitation by the person welcomed. This relationship,
therefore, is limited to a one-way exchange often excluding the full participation of
marginalized persons. The practice stops short of a mutual process of exchange allowing
for the ecclesial community itself to be formed by this new relationship.
Postcolonial and U.S. Latino/a theologians raise objections in light of global
migration to the above conceptions and embodiments of hospitality. Bodies displaced and
on the move through forced migration challenge traditional notions of home, belonging,
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Christine Pohl notes: “For most of the history of the church, hospitality was understood to
encompass physical, social, and spiritual dimensions of human existence and relationships. It meant
response to the physical needs of strangers for food, shelter, and protection, but also a recognition of their
worth and common humanity. In almost every case, hospitality involved shared meals; historically, table
fellowship was an important way of recognizing the equal value and dignity of persons.” In Making Room:
Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1999), 6. Amy
Oden writes: “While hospitality can include acts of welcoming family 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 response to the physical, social, and spiritual needs of the stranger, though, as we shall
see, those of the host are addressed here as well…On the face of it, hospitality begins with basic physical
needs of food and shelter, mostly powerfully symbolized in table fellowship, sharing food and drink at a
common table.” In And You Welcomed Me: A Sourcebook on Hospitality in Early Christianity (Nashville,
TN: Abingdon Press, 2001), 14.

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and identity as they pertain to hospitality. For example, persons who have migrated may
have complex and varying memories of the home(s) they have left. Many continue to
travel and are unable to settle into a new home. Some migrants may find that they have
multiple homes. In such a context, a sense of belonging and identity formation take on
complex forms depending on conditions such as a person’s reason for migration, her or
his journey to the United States, or her or his present residence and support community.
When migrants are welcomed into U.S. congregations, they encounter a variety of
familiar and unfamiliar ecclesiological formations. An invitation into a community is also
an invitation into this community’s own socio-cultural context. For this reason the
investigation of hospitality must take into account how cultural and socio-historical
factors, in addition to models of worship, denominational politics, and theological
differences, all contribute to this welcoming or non-welcoming environment.
Additionally, differences of race and ethnicity, gender, class, culture, language, etc.
within the congregation are factors that must be taken into account in how a community
offers hospitality and the degree to which the guest can participate in the life of the
community.
In this dissertation, I intend to focus on the ecclesiological dimensions of the
practice of hospitality and to construct a practical theology of hospitality that takes
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I play with the language of “bodies on the move” and below “bodies marked by wandering” to
signify the perpetual nature of migration and the mobile patterns of life that persons endure in transnational
migration. I specifically utilize the word “bodies” to indicate the negative consequences of displacement in
migration, in which persons out of their own control or will are forced to migrate in order to survive. I
understand bodies forced to move as signifying how human lives are determined by global market forces. I
employ this phrasing as a synonym to “migrants” or “migrations,” as well as “displaced persons,” as
indicative of the negative consequences of migration.