Hospitable God: The Transformative Dream

Exploring the hospitality of God, and its implications for human thought and action, this book examines the concepts of hospitality as cognitive tools for reframing our thinking about God, divine action, and human response in discipleship. Hospitality is imagined as an interactive symbol, changing perspectives and encouraging stable environments of compassionate construction in society. Human rights are of crucial importance to the wellbeing of the people of our planet. But there is a sense in which they will always be an emergency measure, a response to evils as they are happening. The authors argue that a hospitable comparative theology reaches out to bring Christian hospitality into the dialogue of world religions and cultures. It will respect the identity of particular groups and yet will strive for a cosmopolitan sharing of common values. It will respect tradition but also openness to reform and re-imagining. It will encourage convergence and development in a fluid stream of committed hospitalities.

George Newlands is Professor Emeritus of Divinity in the University of Glasgow. His publications include The Transformative Imagination (Ashgate, 2004) and Christ and Human Rights (Ashgate, 2006). Allen Smith is a post-doctoral research scholar in the University of Glasgow and Minister of Kenilworth Presbyterian Church, Asheville, North Carolina. His publications include From Pulpit to Fiction: Sermonic Texts and Fictive Transformations (Peter Lang, 2007) and, with David Jasper, A Reader in Christian Theology and Literature (SCM Press, 2010).