Rosaria Butterfield, Ph.D., Shares Powerful Message from Her Best-Selling Book with Regent University Students and Alumni

March 9, 2026

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (March 9, 2026) — On March 5, Regent University had the privilege of welcoming Rosaria Butterfield, Ph.D., bestselling author and speaker, to share her revolutionary testimony and spread a compelling message on the power of hospitality to reach others, a key theme in her book, The Gospel Comes With a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World.

Drawing from her own remarkable story, Butterfield, a former tenured professor of English and Women’s Studies at Syracuse University, urged students to see their homes and dinner tables as catalysts by which to spread the gospel. She led the message by asking one question: “How can dinner change the world?” The answer was found in her tale of Christ’s redemption in her life.

“The gospel — a singular clarion call, a cleft of light in a cavern of darkness, shattered and beckoned me all at once,” Butterfield said. “I knew the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus was true, objectively, extrinsically, and it would be true, whether I believed it or not.”

Butterfield shared how her journey to faith began after meeting a kind pastor and his wife, who welcomed her into their home regularly for honest conversation, Bible reading, and meals, despite their profound differences. Her challenge to the Regent community was clear: in a culture increasingly marked by loneliness and spiritual drift, Christians are called to open their doors, set their tables, and trust the Lord with the results — even when doing so involves risk, challenge, or stigma.

“When Christians throw their lot in with Jesus, we lose the right to protect our reputations,” Butterfield said. “When we care for the stranger, we become strange,

and there is simply no way to love the stranger without losing a little skin in the game.”

Yet, she urged the audience, the world desperately needs this kind of love. “Who else but Bible believing Christians can make redemptive sense of tragedy?” Butterfield asked. “Who else can help us see hope and the promises of God when the real-life circumstances look so dire?”

Find out more about Butterfield’s testimony by watching a recording of Thursday’s UnChapel service.

About Regent University

Founded in 1977, Regent University is America’s premier Christian university, with nearly 14,000 students studying on its 100-acre campus in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and online worldwide. The university offers associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in more than 150 areas of study, including business, communication and the arts, counseling, cybersecurity, divinity, education, government, law, leadership, nursing, healthcare, and psychology. Regent University has been ranked the #1 Best Online Bachelor’s Program in Virginia for 14 years in a row (U.S. News & World Report, 2026) and the #1 Best Christian College in America (Bible College Online, 2025).

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