Understanding the stranger

This column presents teaching-learning processes involved in gaining an understanding of the stranger or the other--the one we see as so different from ourselves. A paradox concerning the stranger or the other exists in this 21st century. Never has the world been more dangerous, with terrorism continuing to spark suspicions of those that are different from us. And, never, at the same time, has the world been more in need of finding ways to embrace those that are different and those that are viewed as the stranger to the larger society. The concept of hospitality and the concept of true presence are explored, in light of human differences, as possibilities for engaging the stranger.