Who is a Guest?

Tensions in the Idea of Hospitality from an Anthropological-Sociological, Biblical and Patristic Perspective

Abstract

In my article, I examine the concept of hospitality from an anthropological-social perspective, on the one hand, (making use here of some ideas from Derrida’s university lectures on this topic) and, on the other hand, from the perspective of the biblical-patristic tradition. The relational difference and the essential unity of the Persons of the Holy Trinity illustrates the need to distinguish between the other and oneself in the case of persons created in the image of God and constituted in community in order that a non-merging unity may be realised. Entering creation from his own world, God awaits reception as a “Holy Guest”, while it turns out that we, by belonging to God’s world, are only guests here, and so “ontological foreignness” belongs to our essence.