Fear Of The Other

Is there a distinctively Christian way to engage the so-called “outsider” and “stranger”?

In this simple, no non-sense book, reliable spiritual guide, Will Willimon, invites readers to consider the Gospel command to love (and not merely tolerate) those considered to be “Other” or outside mainstream Christian culture. Rooted in the faith of Israel and the Christian story and vision, Willimon brings a non-technical, Wesleyan perspective to bear on what may be the hardest thing for people of faith to do: keeping and loving the Other as Other.

Emphasizing the biblical mandate to receive Others in their particularity and difference as gifts and mysteries bearing the grace of God, Willimon also offers a strong critique of the privileged who all too often rush to language of reconciliation and evade the huge inequalities surrounding conversations and practices dealing with xenophobia and injustice. Willimon eschews “the imperialism of liberalism’s sweeping embrace” and identifies concrete, everyday ways persons are formed in welcoming others without annihilating their differences.

Rooted in the New Testament understanding of Gentile outsiders grafted into the covenant community, Willimon invites readers to an on-the-ground faith that hearkens to a soliciting and revealing God – the God who comes to us again and again through so-called outsiders, strangers, immigrants, and those without status. Beyond welcome, Christians must become “other” to the world, shaking off the dominant culture’s identity and privilege through practices of listening, humility, and understanding. Here they might discover that Christians go with the grain of the universe God is redeeming when they yield to the Holy Spirit’s work of welcome and embrace of all “Others.”