Why Must Hospitality be Messianic?

Why Must Hospitality be Messianic?

Clement Mook-Soo CHIA

In this paper, by referring to the tragedy of Rohingya migrants, I ask a question which is inspired by the Jewish thinker Jacques Derrida, “Why must hospitability be messianic?” First, I trace the ethics of hospitality back to Immanuel Kant's proposal of cosmopolitanism , in which I find that it gives the basic tenets for international migrant policy. Second, I refer to the critiques of the pro-Kantian welfare in modern welfare society offered by Zygmunt Bauman as to uncover the fundamental flaw of Kantian proposal. Third, I show the turn to a messianic vision of hospitality in Jacques Derrida's critiques of the Kantian idea of hospitality. However, I find Derrida has not carried on the idea of a messianic hospitality further enough and thus recourse to the pro-Kantian proposal of hospitality. Based on the backdrops above, I draw light from the messianic ministry of Jesus as to emphasize on the necessity of a messianic vision of hospitality.