The Hauerwas Reader

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by Stanley Hauerwas,

Edited by Michael Cartwright and John Berkman

Duke University Press

Due/Published June 2001, 744 pages, paper

ISBN 0822326914

Hauerwas has been at the forefront of key developments in contemporary theology, ranging from narrative theology to the "recovery of virtue." Yet his work has never before been collected in a single volume that provides a sense of the totality of his vision.

The editors, therefore, have compiled and edited a volume that represents all the different periods and phases of Hauerwas's work. Highlighting both his constructive goals and penchant for polemic, the collection reflects the wide variety of subjects he has engaged, the different genres in which he has written, and the range of audiences he has addressed. It offers Hauerwas on ethics, virtue, medicine, and suffering; on euthanasia, abortion, and sexuality; and on war in relation to Catholic and Protestant thought. His essays on the role of religion in liberal democracies, the place of the family in capitalist societies, the inseparability of Christianity and Judaism, and on many other topics are included as well.

Review

Many regard Stanley Hauerwas as one of the most important theologians writing today and others see him as the "king of the theological one-liner." The latter judgment is an unfair reaction to Hauerwas's engaging and decidedly unstuffy style in many of his writings. What is not denied by both Hauerwas's supporters and detractors is the challenging, provocative, and influential nature of his work in theological ethics, ecclesiology, social ethics, and medical ethics. This reader is an excellent introduction to the breadth and development of Hauerwas's ideas over the last twenty-five years. It offers Hauerwas on ethics, virtue, medicine, and suffering; on euthanasia, abortion, and sexuality; on the Christian community and on war in relation to Catholic and Protestant thought. The collection also includes his critiques of liberal democracies and his arguments of how Christians must sometimes resist the moral habits that follow from the assumptions of political liberalism. Hauerwas offers a great deal to think about, question, and argue with and his willingness to challenge conventional assumptions makes him one of the most compelling commentators on the practice and the place of religion in contemporary life. For an introduction to the range of his thought, you can't do any better than this superb reader.

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