About the Book:
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.
You can watch an interview with Hauerwas on this book here.
My Review:
Hauerwas wants readers to to take seriously what Jesus said. He is good at shaking us out of how we regularly think about what it means to be a Christian. “Jesus calls forth a people capable of living in accordance with God's new order in the midst of the existing one.” (531/1334) He has insightful comments on the church, marriage, wealth and politics.
For me, the most insightful part of this book was Hauerwas' comments on the Sermon on the Mount. Rather than instructions on what we are to do, it is a picture of who God is in the world. “The basic message of the Sermon on the Mount is not about what works but rather about the way God is.” (433/1334) Turning the other cheek shows us God is kind to the ungrateful and selfish, for example, rather than an instruction on how we are to act.
Hauerwas is thought provoking in these essays taken from his previously published materials. I recommend this book to readers who really want to think about what it means to follow Jesus in today's world. His ideas may certainly be controversial to some. He says, for example, Christians are citizens of a different kingdom. We do not have to be in control of society to live as Jesus lived. Comments like that one would make this an excellent book for a discussion group or a teaching class. There is much in the book for Christians to consider and think through.
My rating: 4/5 stars.
About the Author:
Stanley Hauerwas, a theologian and Christian ethicist, is professor emeritus of theological ethics and of law at Duke University. He is the author or editor of more than fifty books, including Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (1989), which he co-authored with William H. Willimon. His lower-middle-class upbringing informed his later approach to theological and ethical questions (at one point, he was apprenticed to his father, a bricklayer). In 2001, Time magazine named Hauerwas “America’s Best Theologian”; he replied that “best” is not a theological category.
(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)
1 comment:
Fabulous cover & title. Memorable books get picked up.
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