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Coming Home: A Historical Assessment of Private Domestic Space as the Primary Locus of Christian Hospitality

ABSTRACT

Subject

Contemporary Christian individuals and institutions seeking direction in a post-Constantinian world have begun turning to the earliest communities of faith for guidance. Theologians, scholars, ecclesial leaders, and laity alike are finding that the concept of hospitality frequently surfaces as an integral dynamic of Christian communal identity, discipleship, and Gospel transmission. They consistently argue that hospitality is a necessary component of Christian life and that it represents a lost discipline worthy of reclaiming. This thesis builds on previous work by arguing that not just in the beginning, but in every epoch of Christian faith, private domestic space has provided the most suitable and effective environment for such practices. Therefore, if there is hope to be found in reclaiming the discipline of hospitality, the home must be restored as integral to the concept. If private domestic space as the primary locus of hospitality disappears from the Christian cultural landscape, the essential and most basic model of the dynamic will disappear with it. Evidence will confirm that throughout its entire history, although in varying degrees, hospitality has served as a central tenet, a consistent thread, and an ongoing leitmotif of Christian faith and witness. It will be established that its ultimate expression has consistently been found in the intimacy of the personal home, and it is this environment that has most effectively provided a recognizable paradigm for various manifestations of the dynamic. The image of hospitality being offered and/or withheld can be found in numerous areas of human endeavor. The concept emerges politically, socially, economically, and theologically. Thus the question is begged of Christians, “What are the implications of a diminished and weakened physical, incarnational, home-based hospitality, and how might history offer the help necessary in restoring its authenticity?”

Materials and Methods

Because readers are encouraged to rethink Christian hospitality as a lost legacy whose original potency has diminished over the course of history, each epoch will be deconstructed, examined and analyzed for clues as to when, how, and why this change occurred. What will emerge are clear and continuous patterns of activity and behavior, patterns that only a historical perspective can bring to light. The evidence, consisting of over one hundred books, peer reviewed articles, and primary sources will not be presented as a simple chronology of “proofs.” In some instances, literary metaphor is considered an acceptable form of persuasion whereas in others concrete models and paradigms are more effective tools. Whereas dozens of voices will enrich the conversation of some periods, individual life models will dominate the discussion of others. Early evidence will not necessarily represent Eastern or Western Christianity, but as the faith expands, geography will become more of a factor. Some evidence is historically accurate; some is ancient but venerated hagiography.

Conclusion

The conclusion of the paper is that although the centrality of private domestic space has clearly declined, there are signs of hope for the recovery of authentic home-based Christian hospitality, as communities of worship and individuals alike are encouraged to seek and find inspiration in successful past practices.

Background: Cardiovascular diseases form a large part of a growing pandemic of non-communicable diseases afflicting Sub-Saharan Africa(1–3) Heart failure is one of the most debilitating of these diseases. The global 5-year life expectancy of patients afflicted by heart failure is less than 50%(4–6). Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has been demonstrated to improve functional status, quality of life, and reduce depression in patients with heart failure(7,8). Even though CR is a simple and comparatively low-cost intervention, adherence rates of CR remains poor and are estimated at 20% in the US(9–11). In Western Kenya, CR is non-existent. We sought to establish the feasibility of two different models of cardiac rehabilitation for heart failure in Western Kenya and to identify potential barriers to participation.

Methods: This was a feasibility study using mixed methods to describe characteristics and changes in a cohort of patients with heart failure. Study participants were prospectively recruited and allocated by convenience into an institution based cardiac rehabilitation (IBCR) arm, a home based cardiac rehabilitation (HBCR) arm and an observational arm (OA). At completion of 3 month follow up period, participants were invited to take part in focus group discussions exploring perspectives on heart failure and cardiac rehabilitation. The primary measure of feasibility was the ability of study participants to attain a mean adherence rate of at least 25%, of prescribed rehabilitation sessions.

Results: This study found that cardiac rehabilitation is a feasible intervention for patients with heart failure in Western Kenya with an adherence rate of 46% for institutional based cardiac rehabilitation and an adherence rate of 28% for home based cardiac rehabilitation. All study arms demonstrated significant change in depression screening and quality of life scores. Participants in focus group discussions identified competing interests, distance to the facility and forgetfulness as barriers to cardiac rehabilitation.

Conclusions: Cardiac rehabilitation is a feasible treatment intervention for heart failure in Western Kenya. However, the barriers to delivery of care are similar to barriers in other health systems around the world(12). There is need for further research to evaluate the efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation and development of innovative ways to improve treatment adherence.

This dissertation explores the meaning and importance of migration and home for the Christian Life in the context of modernity and the colonial history of the Americas. In doing so, it offers a constructive theological proposal that addresses two interrelated questions. First, what does a truly flourishing human life look like in view of the realities of migration and home? That is to say, how are migration and home aspects of God's created order that are deformed by human sinfulness yet still caught up in the eschatological renewal of all things? Second, can Christianity, despite its role in the colonization of the Americas, offer a vision of migration and home that leads to the flourishing of all creatures? This dissertation addresses these questions by locating the realities and experiences of migration and home within the Triune drama of God's creative, reconciling, and redemptive work as enacted within the story of the Americas—its peoples, lands, and cultures, from the moment of colonization up to our current modern moment.This study makes a methodological contribution to the fields of Reformed and Latinx theology by engaging in a mode of ressourcement from the margins. In dialogue with the works of Karl Barth, George Tinker, Willie Jennings, and Latinx theologians, like Virgilio Elizondo and Ada María Isasi-Díaz, I demonstrate how Christianity's eschatological vision of all creation joined together in Christ by the Spirit provides an alternative to a colonial and modern vision of home grounded in the commodification of the land, the destruction of native cultures, and the segregation of peoples into racial and national enclosures. Moreover, I argue that the Virgin's appearance to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico in 1531 summons the Church to look for God's redemptive homecoming at the margins of society where the political, economic, and socio-cultural negotiations that displaced peoples make in order to make a home in the world become the site of the Spirit's reconciling and redeeming work in creation. The final chapter provides a theological account of what sociologist Paolo Boccagni describes as the "migration-home nexus" by arguing that a flourishing human life takes place at the nexus of migration and home and the forms of political, economic, and cultural negotiations and mestizaje that this nexus produces. I argue that through these, the Spirit works to transform creation into the eternal home of God. I conclude by drawing on the notion of ‘transplantation’ to describe wise ways of migrating and homing in anticipation of the Triune God's redemptive homecoming.