Author A Distant Echo
Climbing onto a favored spot on the couch, stretching the legs on the patio under the glow of the afternoon sun, opening a magisterial text on the dining room table alongside toast and coffee, or raising the screen of a… Continue Reading →
As most of the world finds itself in lockdown, many are forced to get acquainted with an old friends, including isolation and boredom, having run out of activities to do. Daily work and rituals have been interrupted and life has… Continue Reading →
In recent days, regular church gatherings, liturgies, masses, and services have ceased in, at least, their normal weekly (or daily) operations. Churches have proven flexible, and are finding alternative means of congregating and worshiping, whether outdoors separated by several paces,… Continue Reading →
Plagues and pests have become increasingly foreign to the modern world, though in our current conditions, I suspect that the general reactions of fear, terror, madness, loss, and loneliness reflect comparable receptions in previous eras. While famine and disease do… Continue Reading →
We have come along ways in this brief consideration of the themes of hospitality across the scriptures, from Abraham and Lot to Jesus and the early Christians. We have used examples from the Odyssey and other Hellenistic literature to help… Continue Reading →
For this second-to-last post in our brief consideration of hospitality, we will continue our analysis of Jesus’ disciples (and, more broadly, Christians) as the commissioned ambassadors, representing Jesus (and, by extension, god) to the world. Previously, we reflected on their… Continue Reading →
In the previous sections, we first saw Jesus as the divine visitor, rejected by some and accepted by others. Then, we considered him as the host, after the pattern of Abraham and centered on the eucharist/Passover meal. In these next… Continue Reading →
We looked previously at the different receptions Jesus received during his itinerancy, comparing those who showed hospitality (e.g., the sinful woman, Zacchaeus) with Abraham and Lot in the Jewish tradition, as well as with Baucis, Philemon, and Eumaeus in the… Continue Reading →
In studying the theme of hospitality in the Jewish Scriptures, we were particularly invested in considering Abraham as the host of angels – and, in some sense, of Yahweh himself. And, as we turn to the New Testament, we find… Continue Reading →
Although not written until the first century AD, Ovid’s ‘Baucis and Philemon’ provides us with a new perspective on hospitality, extending beyond the mandate to provide for the needs of a stranger. First, the stranger at your door might be… Continue Reading →