HAUERWAS AND POLITICAL THEOLOGY: The Next Generation

Author: Pinches, Charles

Source: Journal of Religious Ethics, Volume 36, Number 3, September 2008 , pp. 513-542(30)

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Abstract:

In this review essay, I consider the recent work of students of Stanley Hauerwas on matters related to political theology. Eight books (and scattered articles) are treated in two groups: one more theoretical, the other more practically oriented. Of special interest is whether and how Jeffrey Stout's concerns about Hauerwas's negative political “influence” apply. I suggest that while sometimes narratives of decline dominate overmuch, these works rightly and creatively seek to expand our political imagination beyond the narrowness of modern nation-state politics and its attending capitalist assumptions. Moreover, in all cases, Hauerwas's students stress a kind of political embodiment of Christ in the practices of particular communities, beginning with the Christian Church, but including also medicine, economy, and family. Spread out, this embodiment combats a pervasive modern Gnosticism, trains us in patience and hope, and gives room for a more truthful description of Church and world.

Keywords: Hauerwas's “influence”; nation-state; capitalism; political imagination; Church; practices; embodiment; patience

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9795.2008.00358.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of TheologyUniversity of ScrantonScranton, PA 18510570.941.4302, Email: pinchesc1@scranton.edu

Publication date: 2008-09-01