Dialogue with Christine Pohl

Dr. Christine Pohl addresses questions related to hospitality, her own experiences with it, and how it functions to strengthen communities. Hospitality is offering a space into which someone would not be welcome apart form an invitation, whether in the home, church, or civic sphere. She points out that showing hospitality is simply an act of replicating the invitation for inclusion that God has given us in Christ, so that there are theological implications for not showing hospitality. Finally, she talks about the importance of community for hospitality and some practices that make or break community including making and keeping promises, truth-telling, and expressing gratitude.

Biography

Christine Pohl is Associate Provost and Professor of Church and Society/Christian Ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary. She received a B.S. in Special Education at Syracuse University, 1972; a M.A. in Theological Studies, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 1986; and a Ph.D. in Ethics and Society at Emory University, 1993. Dr. Pohl is the author of several books including Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. She has recently completed a book entitled Living into Community: Cultivating Practices that Sustain Us (Eerdmans, 2011).