Open tafelgemeenschap in de gelijkenis van het Feestmaal en het debat over religie en geweld

Abstract

We challenge the secular view in the Netherlands that religion is directly responsible only for violence. A different view arises when we focus on the concept of open commensality in the parable of the feast, as worked out by the New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan. The plot of this parable is that a person gives an unannounced feast, sends his servants to invite the guest who refrain from coming. The host then replaces these guests by anybody from the street corners in an open meal of radical inclusion and an equal sharing of food. This in its turn models the shift from hostility to hospitality. We are convinced that open commensality illuminates and evokes the non-violent dimensions of Biblical texts and gives a more nuanced view on religious violence.