This dissertation seeks to deepen understandings of hospitality and its place within the Christian tradition by examining the tensions that both constitute and limit its practice, as well as to encourage its practice by highlighting its connection to spiritual life. Drawing upon the work of Jacques Derrida, I argue that the concept and practice of hospitality are shaped by the tensions between a “spirit” of unlimited or unconditional welcome and the limits and conditions that make a particular welcome possible. Because of the need to maintain this tension in specific situations, it is not possible or appropriate to offer a universal rule that can determine the limits of hospitality in a given context. Rather, individuals and communities must cultivate virtues and engage in practices that facilitate both the ability to discern limits wisely and to form such limits in accordance with a spirit of unlimited welcome. I argue that practices that cultivate receptivity to the Spirit of God are particularly important to the formation of a hospitable character. I examine the limits formed by the tensions between identity and indeterminacy, between possession and gift, and between security and risk, as they play out in several Christian contexts. In the final chapter, I address the issues raised by undocumented Mexican immigration to the United States in light of the dissertation's treatment of hospitality and limits, and argue for the importance of a public spirit of hospitality in political as well as private life.