Author Rosaria Butterfield

Several years ago I read Rosaria Butterfield’s autobiographical book entitled “Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert“. It describes her pre-Christian life as a feminist, lesbian, and English professor, and her subsequent conversion to Christianity. What a fascinating story! She came to faith gradually through conversations with a Christian couple, whom she agreed to meet with for her research into the ‘religious right’.

I have recently started reading Rosaria Butterfield’s book on hospitality, “The Gospel Comes with a House Key“. Its byline pretty well sums up what the book is about: “Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World”.

I haven’t got that far through it yet, but I have to admit I found the introductory chapters a little ‘holier-than-thou’. She seems to have an incredible capacity for people, and just reading her schedule left me feeling rather overwhelmed and exhausted! It didn’t exactly encourage me and I felt very tempted to just cast it aside, knowing I would never meet her impressive hospitality standards.

But in saying that, it did challenge me to make more effort with our neighbours and community. I find it’s easy as a homeschooler to just involve ourselves in the homeschooling and church community, while largely ignoring the local community. This is definitely something I want to work on!

I have moved into the part of the book that explains our post-Christian world, which has been interesting. But since I have plenty left to read I will reserve my final judgement until the last page!