A Review of Invited, a Book that Explores Hospitality
As author Leslie Verner contends, hospitality is about keeping it real.
In her book Invited, Leslie Verner offers many provocative answers to the question, “what is hospitality?” A self-described goer who is learning to stay, Verner defends hospitality as a Biblical command. According to Verner, hospitality is for everyone, and it involves “unearthing people’s stories.” Hospitality is not only playing host, but it also honors others when we depend on them as their guest. Hospitality is even “the marrow of community, the life source that produces the very cells our collective humanity needs to function.” So what is hospitality? As Verner powerfully demonstrates, hospitality is a reality best explored through multiple lenses.
What kind of book is Invited? Like the concept of hospitality, Invited is also multifaceted. Invited is partly a theological treatise, deeply steeped as well as wide reaching in its Biblical landscape. As an MDiv graduate and candidate for pastoral ordination, I’m impressed with Verner’s ability to weave together Barbara Brown Taylor, David Gushee, Paul Tillich, Rosaria Butterfield, Soong-Chan Rah, and Thomas Merton as conversation partners! Verner’s diverse and erudite endnotes certainly strengthen her defense of hospitality.
In a sense, Invited is also a how-to book that serves up sage advice. Verner offers a crucial perspective as someone who has not only lived on multiple continents, but also in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Indeed, her many years of practicing hospitality as guest as well as host have given Verner plenty of creative invitation ideas, which she shares at the end of Invited. Under “general tips for uncertain hosts,” for example, Leslie Verner recommends keeping “frozen food, such as cookies, banana bread, or lasagna” on hand for last-minute hosting.
While such stashed away fare may be store bought, Verner’s vignettes are made from scratch. Part memoir, Invited also shares pleasingly sticky stories, such as the yeasty comparison of her husband’s sourdough starter with friendship, or Verner’s encounter with Mr. Les Sundae, a vivacious Colorado artist and host par excellence who lives in a school bus in his back yard. Invited is a book that invites us to “linger longer:” not only in the book’s pages, but also in the wonders and mysteries of our own local communities.
I salivated for the “dates dipped in honey” and “lentils stewed in tomatoes and onions over rice” that Verner enjoys with Iranian friends. Invited deftly stirs up a hunger for more: more hospitality, more friendship, and more opportunity to know and to be known by those around us.
After I finished Invited, I sensed Verner’s book, her first, is just the beginning. Though Invited does offer some proper boundaries around hospitality, I’d love a sequel that responds to the very real risks and challenges of welcoming others into our homes. As someone who has managed as well as lived in intentional communities, I’ve discovered the need to address irritations and abuses that can take place in shared spaces.
I’d also love more exploration of how communities can, and do, practice hospitality on a macro scale. While Verner cites a study of cohousing as a successful model, I nonetheless ache to examine where hospitality may lead as it becomes a strengthened practice.
Perhaps, however, I’m getting ahead of myself. As Verner reminds us, we practice hospitality best when we start where we are now, among the people right next to us. In response to Jesus, who invites all of us to the wedding banquet, Invited calls us to dine on a topic and text that is indeed delicious.
I thank Herald Press and author Leslie Verner for sending me a complimentary copy of Invited. My opinion, as well as the decision to review this book and to recommend it as a helpful exploration of hospitality, are my own.
