ABSTRACT

Hospitality is the act or practice of receiving and entertaining guests, visitors, or strangers, with liberality and goodwill. In Antiquity and through the Middle Ages, hospitality was commonly understood as a cultural and religious obligation. Of course, a good reception might have material as well as spiritual consequences. Abraham greeted and served three strangers at Mamre because he was a just man (Genesis 18), not because he expected in exchange to receive a son and the promise of tribal superiority. In modernity, the mask of liberality and goodwill must be maintained, but it does not fool anyone. Courtesy now is merely part of the package that the hospitality industry produces for sale. Courtesy has become a commodity.