"In this splendid little book, Elizabeth Newman offers a thick theological account of Christian hospitality. Over against our culture''s impoverishing reliance on thin notions of tolerance and diversity and inclusiveness, she demonstrates how Christians might yet show the world its true Host by providing it a true home in the household of God."--Ralph C. Wood, Baylor University"In an extraordinary first book, Elizabeth Newman recovers a theologically rich vision of God''s hospitality that is the gift that makes Christian hospitality possible. In beautifully written prose that takes no prisoners, Newman not only challenges safe, domesticated, and comfortable distortions of this central Christian practice, but she also demonstrates step by step how cultural assumptions about religion, politics, economics, and science undercut the faithful practice of the hospitality of God. Equally, she reconstructs the strange, vigilant, and unifying practice of ecclesial hospitality rooted in Christian participation in the divine life--worship. A wonderful book for undergraduate courses and for those concerned about Christian higher education and faithful Christian living, and a powerful contribution to the conversation on theological ethics."--M.

Therese Lysaught, University of Dayton"If we open our hearts to the stranger, we will open our hearts to what is strange within us. This precious book shows a way to peace and to unity inside us and around us, for the church and for the world."--Jean Vanier, founder of L''Arche "In Untamed Hospitality Elizabeth Newman has rescued us from flabby and incoherent notions of tolerance that sanctify the status quo, and provided us with a theologically astute understanding of the role that the practice of hospitality should play in the life of the Christian community and of the individual believer. She does a masterful job of showing how this practice ties together politics, economics, sacraments, and the basic doctrinal and moral convictions of the church to constitute our lives as faithful disciples who can speak meaningfully in and to this time and place. A theological work of the first order!"--Barry Harvey, Baylor University"This is a lovely book, so well researched and eminently readable. Newman draws us in as a gracious host and opens doors that both welcome and astound. The author embodies her message by allowing us into her own life and, in the process, challenges us by unmasking many of the things that we thought made us feel comfortably at home in our own lives. Indeed, hospitality is untamed because it is rendered as something other than squishy sentimentality and individual manners, but rather as constitutive of a people called church whose worship is participation in a Triune God''s own hospitality.

By accepting God''s gifts, we become God''s guests, and we learn to interact in graced ways befitting that station. This form of hospitality confers a sense of place (yearning for the home of the beckoning kingdom) that, ironically, may make Christians strangers in a land of markets and ''boutique multiculturalism.''"--Joseph M. Incandela, Saint Mary''s College "In the face of church trivialized as ''inclusivity,'' and of worship reduced to ''entertainment,'' Elizabeth Newman here invites us into the classical liturgy of the household of God, where people learn to embody true hospitality. She shows how participation in the life of the Triune God--as both reception and gift--then shapes and calls for parabolic and transformative enactment in the social worlds of the sciences, medicine, economics, politics, and education. The author''s criticisms of contemporary culture and her display of a Christian alternative are equally grounded in wide scholarship and enlivened by engaging examples. A book to savor and enjoy!"--Geoffrey Wainwright, Duke University"This is a brilliant book. Elizabeth Newman translates complex theological and philosophical issues into the flesh and blood reality of lived-out Christian disciples.