RECEIVING THE OTHER AS A STRANGER: ON THE ETHICAL AND RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF HOSPITALITY

Abstract

The purpose of the first part of the paper is to explore the ethical and religious significance of guest friendship and hospitality in the ancient Greek tradition. In contradistinction to the Hebrew tradition of the Old Testament, in which God manifests himself in the guise of three strangers, the gods tend to withdraw and become more and more distant in the Greek tradition, where they are most often said to merely observe humans. In a critical reinterpretation of Emmanuel Levinas’ understanding of hospitality in Totality and Infinity, the second part of the paper will study how Levinas attempts to reconcile Greek ethics and Hebrew religion through the figure of the stranger. Although he may not fully succeed in his reconciliation of the two traditions, his attempt points to an under-theorised aspect of human existence which the paper will shed some light on in a final discussion of Hannah Arendt’s thoughts on being received when born.