According to Christine D. Pohl, a professor of Christian social ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary, "Hospitality to strangers remains a highly valued moral practice, an important expression of kindness, mutual aid, neighborliness, and response to the life of faith." In this salutary work, she discusses the importance of this spiritual practice in the Christian community — both past and present. Jesus was dependent on the hospitality of others and was himself a gracious host in his words and deeds. The early Christian church tried to emulate St. Paul's injunction to welcome others as Christ had welcomed them.

Pohl argues that Christian hospitality has a subversive and counter-cultural dimension that is foreign to today's "hospitality industries" (hotels, etc.). Welcoming the "other" can mean risk and danger. Look at Dorothy Day and the hospitality ministry of the Catholic Worker. Pohl presents illustrative material from eight contemporary communities in the Christian tradition where welcoming the stranger is viewed as a skill, a gift, and a regular practice. The author also examines some of the limits, boundaries, and temptations of trying to transcend societal differences.