Bøger af Stanley Hauerwas

How can we make the gospel central to our lives?For decades, Stanley Hauerwas has been provoking Christians with his insistence that if they would only follow their Master, it would impact all areas of life, from the personal to the societal.The lanky Texan whom Time magazine dubbed “America’s theologian” for his zinging insights into today’s ethical questions says Christians should stop bemoaning their loss of cultural and political power and instead welcome their status as outsiders and embrace the radical alternative Jesus has had in mind for them all along.These accessible readings selected from Hauerwas’s seminal books will introduce a timely, prophetic voice to another generation of followers of Jesus tired of religion as usual.

How are Christians to live in a violent and wounded world? Rather than contending for privilege by wielding power and authority, we can witness prophetically from a position of weakness. The church has much to learn from an often-overlooked community-those with disabilities. In this fascinating book, theologian Stanley Hauerwas collaborates with Jean Vanier, founder of the worldwide L'Arche communities. For many years, Hauerwas has reflected on the lives of people with disability, the political significance of community, and how the experience of disability addresses the weaknesses and failures of liberal society. And L'Arche provides a unique model of inclusive community that is underpinned by a deep spirituality and theology. Together, Vanier and Hauerwas carefully explore the contours of a countercultural community that embodies a different way of being and witnesses to a new order-one marked by radical forms of gentleness, peacemaking, and faithfulness. The authors' explorations shed light on what it means to be human and how we are to live. The robust voice of Hauerwas and the gentle words of Vanier offer a synergy of ideas that, if listened to carefully, will lead the church to a fresh practicing of peace, love and friendship. This invigorating conversation is for everyday Christians who desire to live faithfully in a world that is violent and broken. This expanded edition now includes a study guide for individual reflection or group discussion...

Stanley Hauerwas presents an overall introduction to the themes and method that have distinguished his vision of Christian ethics. Emphasizing the significance of Jesus' life and teaching in shaping moral life, The Peaceable Kingdom stresses the narrative character of moral rationality and the necessity of a historic community and tradition for morality. Hauerwas systematically develops the importance of character and virtue as elements of decision making and spirituality and stresses nonviolence as critical for shaping our understanding of Christian ethics.

Wilderness Wanderings slashes through the tangled undergrowth that Christianity in America has become to clear a space for those for whom theology still matters. Writing to a generation of Christians that finds itself at once comfortably ?at home? yet oddly fettered and irrelevant in America, Stanley Hauerwas challenges contemporary Christians to reimagine what it might mean to ?break back into Christianity? in a world that is at best semi-Christian. While the myth that America is a Christian nation has long been debunked, a more urgent constructive task remains; namely, discerning what it may mean for Christians approaching the threshold of the twenty-first century to be courageous in their convictions. Ironically, reclaiming the church's identity and mission may require relinquishing its purported ?gains which often amount to little more than a sense of comfort, the seduction of feeling ?at ease in Zion to take up again the risk and adventure of life ?on the way.? Accordingly, this book gives no comfort to the religious right or left, which continues to think Christianity can be made compatible with the sentimentalities of democratic liberalism.Such a re-visioned church will not establish itself through conquest or in a reconstituted Christendom, but rather must develop within its own life the patient, attentive skills of a wayfaring people. At least a church seasoned by a peripatetic life stands a better chance of noticing the changing directions of God's leading. The wilderness, therefore, ought not to appear to contemporary Christians in America as a foreboding and frightening possibility but as an opportunity to rediscover the excitement and spirit, but also the rigorous discipline, of faithful itinerancy. At such a crucial time as this, Hauerwas challenges Christians to eschew the insidious dangers that attend too permanent a habitation in a place called America and to assume instead the holy risks and hazards characteristic of people called out, set apart, and led by God. Wilderness Wanderings is a clarion call for Christians to relinquish the impermanent citizenship of a home that can never be the church's final resting place and confidently take up a course of life the horizons of which are as wide and expansive as the God who promises to lead.The book engages, often quite critically, with major theological and philosophical figures, such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Martha Nussbaum, Jeff Stout, Tristram Engelhardt, Iris Murdoch, John Milbank, and Martin Luther King Jr. These interrogations illumine why theology must reclaim its own politics and ethics. Intent on avoiding abstraction, Hauerwas intervenes in current debates around medicine, the culture wars, and race.

"Fully Alive uses the work of Karl Barth to develop a humanism that can produce a form of Christianity that gives people hope in a time of uncertainty. It is assumed that Christianity no longer has social and political power but that makes possible a church that may actually tell the truth. Besides Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr plays a prominent role in the book, and race is treated in a retrospective essay"--

"A refreshing feature of this kind of commentary is that comment is disciplined and shaped in relation to what is significant for Christian faith. In a relatively small book, there is substantial discussion of a whole host of issues that are of profound importance to Christians. . . . The commentary is the work of one capable of acute observation and profound thought. At his best Hauerwas shows some real sensitivity to Matthew's story-telling technique. . . . There is certainly much to challenge and inspire Christian readers."--John Nolland, Review of Biblical Literature "[Hauerwas] continually draws Matthean motifs together with similar features in the rest of the Bible and shows where subsequent generations found the basis for their doctrinal reasoning. . . . This commentary serves readers admirably by connecting the points that lie between the first and twenty-first centuries and by reminding readers that Matthew's Gospel has played a deep, broad role in centuries of theological reflection."--A. K. M. Adam, Christian Century"In this work, all of Hauerwas's strengths--his Christocentrism, his theological passion, his rigorous and demanding love for the gathered church--are amplified through the words of the evangelist to serve as a resource for preaching and teaching in the church. I for one am much more likely to turn here than to any more typically modern commentary for help in preaching."--Jason Byassee, Books & Culture"Hauerwas attends to the Gospel chapter by chapter, teasing out theological themes while resisting the temptation to create a systematic Christology. He draws on theologians like Barth, Augustine, Origen, and especially Bonhoeffer, whom he quotes and paraphrases often, as well as New Testament scholars and eclectic writers like Wendell Berry. Insightful and provocative, Hauerwas adds a valuable theological perspective to the Gospel of Matthew."--Publishers Weekly"The value of the commentary is its bringing Matthew into unity with the rest of the biblical witness to the Gospel as that witness has been expounded by the church. The soundness of the commentary lies in Hauerwas's own theology having been honed by the church. . . . This Brazos series can play an important role in reminding one of the community's indispensable role in understanding the Bible, and Hauerwas's contribution to the series is a formidable one indeed!"--Gene L. Davenport, Catholic Biblical Quarterly

"Packed with good theology. . . . I read Hauerwas's book slowly and, in the process, discovered a number of new ways of thinking about the Passion narratives. This book would make good reading during the Lenten season or a nice companion text for a retreat. An added advantage is handsome woodcuts by Rick Beerhorst."--Lawrence S. Cunningham, Commonweal"This slim volume provides some strong and salutary reading for the Lenten season. Famed theologian and writer Stanley Hauerwas takes up a time-honored and beautiful tradition of reflecting on the seven last words of Jesus in his Passion. Each of these meditations . . . deals powerfully with these evocative biblical texts and their implications for Christian life today."--Donald Senior, CP, The Bible Today"Hauerwas strips down the seven last sayings of Jesus to their barest essence, refusing to psychologize or proffer easy explanations for hard truths. . . . [This book] would make excellent devotional reading for all of Holy Week, using each reflection for a full day's rumination."--Publishers Weekly"A brief but intensely observed discussion of the theological issues that subtend the last utterances of Jesus on the cross. Hauerwas's theology and approach belong squarely in the mainstream tradition of Christian theology about Christ and redemption; many readers will gain profound insight from his deftly phrased, swiftly moving observations. Highly recommended."--Graham Christian, Library Journal

In this book Stanley Hauerwas explores the significance of eschatological reflection for helping the church negotiate the contemporary world. In Part One, "Theological Matters," Hauerwas directly addresses his understanding of the eschatological character of the Christian faith. In Part Two, "Church and Politics," he deals with the political reality of the church in light of the end, addressing such issues as the divided character of the church, the imperative of Christian unity, and the necessary practice of sacrifice. End, for Hauerwas, has a double meaning -- both chronological end and end in the sense of "aim" or "goal." In Part Three, "Life and Death," Hauerwas moves from theology and the church as a whole to focusing on how individual Christians should live in light of eschatology. What does an eschatological approach to life tell us about how to understand suffering, how to form habits of virtue, and how to die? -- Publisher

With the concept of socialism back in mainstream conversations and increasing numbers of Christians unhappy with ¿Sunday Christianity,¿ it¿s time to give the lifestyle of Jesus¿ first followers another look. This issue of Plough Quarterly does just that, profiling intentional Christian communities past and present and gleaning wisdom on the daily practicalities and pitfalls of communal living from those with years of experience in following Jesus together.Hear from Stanley Hauerwas, Rick Warren, Leonardo Boff, Chiara Lubich, C. S. Lewis, Jean Vanier, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Eberhard Arnold, and D. L. Mayfield. Then there¿s new poetry, book reviews, a children¿s story by Kwon Jong-saeng, and world-class art by Salvador Dali, Wassily Kandinsky, Juan Rizi, Marianne Stokes, Francisco de Zurbarán, Dong-Sung Kim, Christian Schussele, Gustave Caillebotte.Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus¿ message into practice and find common cause with others.

Featuring updates, revisions, and new essays from various scholars within the Christian tradition, The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, Second Edition reveals how Christian worship is the force that shapes the moral life of Christians. Features new essays on class, race, disability, gender, peace, and the virtues Includes a number of revised essays and a range of new authors The innovative and influential approach organizes ethical themes around the shape of Christian worship The original edition is the most successful to-date in the Companions to Religion series

Sermons from one of the country¿s best-known theologians.Stanley Hauerwas was named ¿Best Theologian¿ by Time magazine in 2001. His writings are controversial and well-read, including Hannah¿s Child, a memoir that ends about the time he became an Episcopalian. This collection includes 17 sermons, from ¿Saints¿ and ¿Letting Go,¿ to ¿Recognizing Jesus/Seeing Salvation¿ and ¿Clothe Your Ministers in Righteousness.¿ There are two bonus presentations on ¿Leadership¿ and ¿An Open Letter to Christians Beginning College¿ in the appendix.

""If anything, these prayers are plain. They are so because I discovered I could not pray differently than I speak. In other words, I thought it would be a mistake to try to assume a different identity when I prayed. I figured (Texans ''figure'') that God could take it, because God did not need to be protected. I think I learned this over the years by praying the Psalms in church. God does not want us to come to the altar different from how we live the rest of our lives. Therefore I do not try to be pious or use pious language in these prayers. I try to speak plainly, yet I hope with some eloquence, since nothing is more eloquent than simplicity.""So writes Stanley Hauerwas in the introduction to this collection of prayers, as inimitable as the widely respected (and argued with) theologian himself. Originally prayed in Hauerwas'' divinity school classroom - on a variety of occasions including war, births, Yom Kippur and the death of a beloved cat - they not only display an invigorating faith but demonstrate how late-modern Christians can pray with all the passion, turbulence and life of the ancient psalmists.

Stanley Hauerwas challenges contemporary Christians to imagine what it might mean to break back into Christianity in a world that is at best semi-Christian. He engages, often quite critically, with a range of prominent theological and philosophical figures.

Without conforming to Jesus, our colony and our faith will fail.

Narrative Theology is still with us, to the delight of some and to the chagrin of others. 'Why Narrative? is in reprint because it represents what is still a very important question. This diverse collection of essays on narrative theology has proven very useful in university and seminary theology classes. It is also of great use as a primer for the educated layperson or church study group. Jones and Hauerwas have done an excellent job of selecting representative essays that deal with appeals to narrative in areas such as personal identity and human action, biblical hermeneutics, epistemology, and theological and ethical method.

Intended for the clergy as well as academics and students to provide guidance in reading the Bible under the rule of faith, this title aims to recover classical theological commentary for the 21st century. It demonstrates the intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible.

Synopsis:The crucial challenge for theology is that when it is read the reader thinks, "This is true." Recognizing claims that are "true" enables readers to identify an honest expression of life's complexities. The trick is to show that theological claims--the words that must be used to speak of God--are necessary if the theologian is to speak honestly of the complexities of life. The worst betrayal of the task of theology comes when the theologian fears that the words he or she must use are not necessary.This new collection of essays, lectures, and sermons by Stanley Hauerwas is focused on the central challenge, risk, and difficulty of this necessity--working with words about God. The task of theology is to help us do things with words. "God" is not a word peculiar to theology, but if "God" is a word to be properly used by Christians, the word must be disciplined by Christian practice. It should, therefore, not be surprising that, like any word, we must learn how to say "God."Endorsements:"The essays and sermons in Working with Words reveal that the vibrancy of Stanley Hauerwas arises from his single-minded, manic determination to learn from Jesus and the Scriptures to see and speak as a Christian, and to teach other Christians to do the same."--Peter J. LeithartNew St. Andrews Collegeauthor of Defending Constantine"Working with Words displays more clearly than ever before the basso ostinato that is Wittgenstein's imprint on the Hauerwasian dialect . . . This is vintage Hauerwas."--Jennifer A. HerdtProfessor of Christian Ethics, Yale University "Whether preaching or teaching, writing or conversing, Stanley Hauerwas serves the Word with words--careful words, bold words, nuanced words, provocative words. . . . Reading Working with Words is its own reward, as are the insights one receives upon its completion."--Michael L. Buddeauthor of The Borders of Baptism: Identities, Allegiances, and the Church (forthcoming in the Theopolitical Visions series of Cascade Books). "Thanks be to God that we are blessed with a God who loves us enough to say something substantial to us. And thanks for Stanley Hauerwas who is able to say so well what God says."--William H. WillimonBishop, The United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Alabama Area"Stanley Hauerwas is a word provocateur-but always in service to the Word that is our life and our hope."--Debra Dean Murphyauthor of Teaching That Transforms: Worship as the Heart of Christian Education"They range wide and deep, offering both priestly affirmation and prophetic critique. Writing as always in his distinctively Christian voice, Hauerwas helps his audience to cease mumbling and fumbling about the Gospel and the Church. Indeed, he leaves us without excuse for speaking anything other than Christian."--Ralph C. WoodUniversity Professor of Theology and LiteratureBaylor UniversityAuthor Biography:Stanley Hauerwas is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School. Publishers Weekly named his memoir, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir, one of the Best Religion Titles of 2010.

How does biotechnology touch on human destiny? What are its promises and challenges? In search for a response, the present volume turns to the thought of Hans Jonas, one of the pioneers and founding fathers of bioethics. The continued relevance of his ideas is exemplified by the way Jurgen Habermas applies them to the current debate. The chief promise of biotechnology is to increase our freedom by overcoming the limits of the human condition. The main risk of biotechnology, as both Jonas and Habermas see it, is to diminish or outright abolish our capacity for responsibility and morality. It is argued that the greater freedom is not simply freedom from constraints but freedom for our destiny: the freedom to be the benevolent, responsible, and spontaneous authors of our lives, capable of communion and love. The touchstone for evaluating any biotechnological procedure has to be this greater freedom.

Stanley Hauerwas begins this volume with a vigorous response to the charge of sectarianism leveled against his work by James Gustafson, among others. "Show me where I am wrong about God, Jesus, the limits of liberalism, the nature of the virtues, or the doctrine of the church," Hauerwas replies to his critics, "but do not shortcut that task by calling me a sectarian."The essays that follow explore in a lucid, compelling, firm, and provocative way the church's nature, message, and ministry in the world. Hauerwas writes on the church as God's new language, on clerical character, on the pastor as prophet, on the ministry of the local congregation, on grace and public virtue, and on the relation of church and university.Underlying Hauerwas's argument is his conviction that "the most important knowledge Christian convictions involve, and there is much worth knowing for which Christians have no special claim, requires a transformation of the self. Christianity is no 'world view,' not a form of primitive metaphysics, that can be assessed in comparison to alternative 'world views.' Rather, Christians are people who remain convinced that the truthfulness of their beliefs must be demonstrated in their lives. There is a sense in which Christian convictions are self-referential, but the reference is not to propositions but to lives."

In Sanctify them in the Truth Stanley Hauerwas provides an overview of the development of theology and ethics. He considers how the two disciplines interrelate, discusses the nature of sin, how any account of sin requires a more determinative account of moral law, the nature of sanctification, the body as a subject for Christian holiness, and the relationship between sanctification and truthfulness. The volume ends with sermons - Hauerwas emphasizes the freedom the sermons create, as they remind us that the words we use are not our words. The inclusion of sermons also underlines Hauerwas' point that the truth of the gospel cannot be discovered apart from its embodiment in specific communities of faith. The Christian life, he argues, is not about being in possession of "the truth," defined as a set of timeless and universal principles of belief and action. Rather, it is about learning and living the life of truthfulness toward God and one another.For this Cornerstones edition Hauerwas has provided a new preface that places the work in the present debate and brings this remarkable work to a new audience.

This work slashes through the tangled undergrowth which Christianity in America has become, to clear a space for those to whom theology still matters. The author engages, often critically, with the thought of major theological and philosophical figures such as Martin Luther King.