The Little Friar

Christians among the Virtues: Theological Conversations with Ancient and Modern Ethics is a collection of essays that Hauerwas and Pinches put together to challenge the rise of "virtue ethics" that became popular in the 80s and 90s.  I remember, as a student in Hauerwas' "Theological Ethics" seminar, hearing so many of the ideas put forward here, and found the book after its publication to be an influential defense of the distinctive ways in which Christian faith articulates "virtue".  The book is divided into three sections. The first section consists of three chapters of "theological reflections on Aristotelian themes".  The next section responds to contemporary exponents of virtue:  Alasdair MacIntyre, Martha Nussbaum, and John Casey.  The final section, which the authors consider most crucial to their case, is devoted to examining particular Christian virtues. It's this final section of the book that I think poses some of the mos...

War and the American Difference is a book which offers some of Hauerwas' most developed discussion of war and violence, especially in the context of America.  The first section demonstrates how closely war is embedded in American history, experience and identity.  The second section includes his appeal (co-written with Enda McDonagh) and reflections to abolish war, a discussion of sacrifice in the context of war, and essays on CS Lewis and Martin Luther King.  The final section explores the role of the church in terms of justice (comparing Daniel Bell and Nicholas Wolterstoff), Pentecost as a language of peace, the common good, the future of parish ministry (be interesting to see some Baptist reflections on this) and mission (this paper includes a response to Nathan Kerr's criticisms of Hauerwas' ecclesiology). The book hangs together much better than so many of Hauerwas' other essay collections, making it perhaps one of the most accessible for Hauerwas' thou...

Karl Barth's son, Christoph, prepared a theological introduction to the Old Testament, God with Us , this is perhaps one of the most neglected -- but one of the most fruitful -- introductory texts on the theology of the Old Testament. Next to Brueggemann's introduction , Barth's is my favorite. For Christoph Barth (as with his father), the incarnation forms the climactic turning point of sacred history. The high point in the grand biblical drama of redemption involved the self-emptying descent of God in Jesus. For many, the incarnation may seem like a 33-year anomaly in the life of God. The God who is otherwise transcendent or at least invisible became visible, imminent and incarnate for a short while. He completed the job and promptly re-ascended to the Father. Phew! Otherwise, it was an unusual -- though necessary -- phase. We all have phases, and so did God. Now he's over it. But this way of conceptualizing God is problematic for at least two reasons. First,...

Today is the First Sunday of Advent. The new day of the Church’s year.    When all the rest of the world is rushing to sing Christmas carols, the Church resists.    That's because Advent is the Church's exile. Advent isn't Christmas. Advent is exile. Waiting, hoping God will act in the future. We are slaves in Egypt. We are exiles in Babylon. We are sad friends mourning the the sufferings and deaths of a fallen world. Places like a synagoge in Pittsburgh or a shopping mall in Alabama, capture our attention and imagination. Where is God? We are waiting. That is Advent. Learning to be patient, learning to wait on God. Which is why I think the Church should do more with the Book of Job during Advent. Up until the Book of Job, the story has been governed by a theology of retribution, the "blessings and curses" of Moses (Deuteronomy 11). Do good and stay faithful to God and you will be blessed. Turn to wickedness and idolatry and you will get p...

American Christians are a people of hope. But according to Hauerwas, they're inclined to misplace it. They look for salvation in capitalism, in democracy, in postmodernity and in their practical progeny:  Modern medicine, seeker-sensitive worship and "ethics" (divorced from theology). This little volume offers some of Hauerwas' most positive arguments in favor of the church that offers a better hope and provides resources to resist the idolatrous assumptions that underlie these Enlightenment-bred systems of thought and action. Written in his classic style -- sweeping, engaging and provocative -- this book does not necessarily break any new ground, but Hauerwas is typically unapologetic about that. ("Given the entrenchment of the position against which I am arguing, I can only say again what I have said before in the hope of establishing new habits.")  Since this is a collection of essays written at other times for other purposes, no easil...

Hauerwas' Unleashing the Scripture was released in 1995, my first year at Duke.  It made its appearance in my life like Barth's Romerbrief appeared to European theologians:  Like a bomb on my theological playground.  I had already read quite a bit of Hauerwas' work, and went to Duke partly because Stan was there (though, to be honest, it was really Fred Herzog who got me there).  The book begins with an alarming sentence:  "No task is more important than the Church to take the Bible out of the hands of individual Christians in North America".  Stan proceeds to lay out how the Church has lost its Scripture to an over-reliance upon either the historical-critical method or literal approaches.  These methods assert -- as did nearly all my education to that point -- that if you just had the proper training and the "common sense" that goes with it, you could understand and find meaning in the biblical text. In contrast, Hauerwas insists that without th...

August Turak's Brother John describes a time -- a moment, really -- when a successful business man experienced a life changing experience at the Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina.  It was a simple act of kindness that changed the entire focus of his life.  He wrote about the experience for the Templeton Prize competition, an annual award granted to a living person who "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works".  He won the competition in 2004 with an essay to answer the question, "What is the purpose of life?" The essay, telling of his ongoing relationship with the Trappist monks at Mepkin Abbey and especially his brief encounter with Brother John, has become an adult picture book with illustrations by artist Glenn Harrington.  Both the writing and the illustrations are profound.  It's easy to be distracted by the glorious illustrations and not focus on the powe...

Rev. Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo together share a dialogue in The Lotus and the Rose:  A Conversations Between Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity that reflects a 12-year friendship.  It is a conversation that has allowed two spiritual leaders, over the years, to explore and compare their personal experiences, perspectives, and practices.  These two come from totally different arenas. On one hand, Matthew Fox is an Episcopal priest who blends his Roman Catholic roots with a deeply mystical perspective and an urgent social justice agenda; he is a prolific theologian, having written 35 books and been translated into 60 languages. His exploration of Creation Spirituality has offered millions of Christians a way to affirm and live their faith, seeking to reform rather than endorse or abandon religious institutions. On the other hand we meet Lama Tsomo, one of a very few Americans ordained as  'lamas', a term for venerated spiritual leaders in Tibetan ...

Connie Tuttle's A Gracious Heresy:  The Queer Calling of an Unlikely Prophet is a memoir of living life with God against the grain of a culture that would, at nearly every turn, deny her vocation to ministry -- even prophetic ministry. Tuttle recounts her life as ab out lesbian who seeks to become an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the unexpected way that she was called to God. " If anyone tells you they have 'the answer,' run in the opposite direction", Tuttle advises her daughter at one point in this memoir after an unpleasant experience involving members of the Unification Church.   It's an unexpected sentiment in a book about one woman's call to the ministry, but none better describes Tuttle's unconventional life path.  The author was raised as an "army brat" by religious parents with a keen sense of justice.  In 1969, she became pregnant and rushed into a doomed marriage.  Her time supporting her actor husb...

Chris Kratzer's Leatherbound Terrorism:  Crucified by Conservative Evangelicalism, Resurrected by Jesus is an absolute challenge to all who regard Conservative Evangelicalism as the final, God-given version of Christian faith.  Here, Kratzer speaks in real, raw, and honest truths exposing how far Christianity has moved from its source.  Through his own experiences serving as a conservative pastor for 23 years, Chris shares stories from his journey of disillusionment and the nagging questions that eventually awakened him to the depths of God's grace.  Chris is a brave truth-teller and a unique voice.  This book is a great read. If you've also found yourself disillusioned by the church, this is the book for you.  It holds no punches, but it's also hopeful as it offers an alternative to a faith that has long been hijacked, institutionalized, and monetized.  As someone who grew up in the realm of conservative Christianity, I was blown away by ...

Sarah Williams' Perfectly Human:  Nine Months with Cerian recounts the heartbreaking story of her decision to take her pregnancy to term even though her child had skeletal dysplasia.  When her doctors told her the birth would "certainly result in [the child's] death", Williams, already raising two daughters and teaching history at the University of Oxford, remained firm in her decision to go to term with her pregnancy.  She was supported by her husband, family, and community.  She also felt compelled by her belief that God wanted her to love this daughter, whom she named Cerian, which is Welsh for "loved one". For Williams and her husband, the medical advice was unimportant because the child had a slim chance of survival, and they felt a great sense of responsibility to "ensure that all provision is made should that 1 percent chance come about".  During her pregnancy, Williams questioned assumptions about prayer (of God as wish-grant...

Caleb Wilde's Confessions of a Funeral Director:  How Death Saved My Life is an autobiographical account of Wilde's ascension to funeral director and also an intimate glimpse into the funeral industry as a whole.  He offers various perspectives on both living and dying well, and recounts stories and experiences with people who have died and their families. Interestingly, both sides of Wilde's family were in the funeral home business.  Based in Parkesburg, PA (roughly an hour outside Philadelphia), both of Caleb's grandfathers were funeral home directors, and his father became the fifth-generation director of the Wilde Funeral Home.  In fact, Wilde's grandfathers were competitors in the Parkesburg region before his mother and father met.  Wilde's maternal grandfather was director of the Brown Funeral Home.  Despite the business competition, everything worked fine between the families. Wilde details his struggles in coming to grips with join...

Hayley Morgan's Preach to Yourself:  When Your Inner Critic Comes Calling, Talk Back with Truth helps the reader to how to renew our minds to renew our lives.  This book will show you how to identify the toxic loops and replace them with the truth of God.  It is not a suggestion to "try harder", however.  It is an invitation to "believe better" by putting all your thoughts into submission to Jesus Christ through the activity of the Holy Spirit. Hayley Morgan encourages the reader to take God at God's own Word when the Spirit tells you who you are.  To find your identity in Christ, and to preach that to yourself. I recommend this book to anyone who struggles with negative self-talk.  This book made me recognize some very toxic loops that I had going on in my life.  It also made me recognize ways that I was talking to myself, that were very negative and destructive.  Because of this book, I feel like I am now replacing those negat...

Christopher Hutchinson's Rediscovering Humility:  The Way Up is Down is one of the rare books that tackles an important theological virtue and practice for the modern church:  Humility. "Humility" Hutchinson writes, "is the chief of virtues, the best paradigm of all proper Christian thought, word, and deed -- the very foundation of what it means to have a Christian worldview".  The book is arranged in three sections, according to the Pauline matrix of "faith, hope, and love" (1 Corinthians 13.13).  Each section contains a handful of chapters that unwrap the gift of humility and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. Rediscovering Humility is a blessing to be sure.  It is a solid offering which will encourage many people in the days to come! _______________________ I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

Jared Mellinger's A Bright Tomorrow:  How to Face the Future Without Fear is written to "push back fear and unbelief and to awaken our souls to the boundless comfort and hope we have in Jesus Christ" (p. 1).  By the time you turn the last page you will find it has hit its target of cultivating "confidence as we look to the future" (p. 127). Mellinger takes this Gospel-hope and probes our multi-layered fears about the future, showing us that "our need is not so much to be delivered from the presence of trials as it is to be delivered from our fears of the future" (p. 10).  The book is not a long pamphlet offering a trite psychology of triumphalism, but a rich resource wrapped in hope.  In fact, Mellinger never shies away from the reality that we will face suffering at times.  Nevertheless, as the author asserts, the grace "by which we are saved prepares us for suffering by waging war on fear and unbelief, and by implanting an unshak...

Lauren Gaskill's Into the Deep:  Diving into a Life of Courageous Faith , with warmth and authenticity, shares how Gaskill learned to swim with Jesus in the deep waters of life.  Those waters can be tumultuous and threatening.  Even our baptismal imagery speaks of dying with Christ and being borne and refreshed in the Spirit. Whether it's anxiety or depression or even chronic illness, enduring with with Jesus can be tossed about in those waters.   In addition to examining the character of God and the lives of women and men of the Bible who chose to dive deeper with God, she provides practical examples and tools that help us take our faith to the next level by learning to make decisions by faith alone, control our reactions to overwhelming situations, and live a life rooted in love. Get ready to exchange fear and frustration for the boldness, courage, and holy confidence that lead to a life of deep faith and joy!   _______________________ ...

A Community of Character was perhaps Hauerwas' most important collection of occasional essays.   The opening sentences of the "Introduction" reveal that his one concern is "to reassert the social significance of the church as a distinct society with an integrity peculiar to itself" (p. 1).  Indeed, the compelling characteristic of Hauerwas' ethic is its commitment to the particular narrative of Christian history as revealed and experienced in the church community.  However, I think we miss the fullness of the argument if we just focus on the community level of the Christian narrative.  What is needed is an understanding of the foundational beliefs that support that community; Hauerwas would agree, writing, "I contend that the only reason for being Christian ... is because Christian convictions are true; and the only reason for participation in the church is that it is the community that pledges to form its life by that truth" (p. 1).   With t...

Vision and Virtue was Hauerwas' first book.  Published over 40 years ago now, its opening words still capture so much of what Hauerwas has had to say in those 40 years: I have brought these essays together in the hope that they will prove to be useful for classes in Christian ethics. These essays develop a perspective that has been sadly lacking in much of recent Christian ethics. I wish, however, to make no exaggerated claims for the importance of this book as it is incomplete in many ways. The essays are placed under three headings:  "Theoretical and Methodological Issues", "The New Morality and Normative Ethics", and "Vision and Society".  Under the first heading Hauerwas discusses themes like "vision" (this is the Murdoch phase), ethics of "character", and the narrative notion of the self, further developed later on in his writings. The second heading treats themes like abortion and euthanasia, as well as the c...

I imagine readers will be surprised that Hauerwas and Willimon's Resident Aliens doesn't make an appearance on my list, or that I neglect mentioning Hauerwas' recent theological memoir, Hannah's Child , but both those -- while demanding in their own right -- really don't get at Hauerwas' important contributions for theology the way A Peaceable Kingdom:  A Primer in Christian Ethics is able to do.  A Peaceable Kingdom is unlike most of Stan's other books:  This is a full-length treatment of Hauerwas' understanding of "Christian ethics".  It's not a "primer" in the traditional sense.  There's no survey of the various ethical options Christians might make.  Instead, in inimical Stanley style, what readers are given is no less than a theological primer in "Hauerwasian" ways of thinking, if there is such a thing. What struck me most forcefully, when I first read this book in college, was undoubtedly Hauerwas' ...

Readers to my blog will know that not only did I study at Duke Divinity, but my thesis was written with Hauerwas as a reader.  Stan, for those readers who don't know, is a provocative, prolific Christian ethicist whose dozens of books and hundreds of scholarly articles range over a variety of topics.  Most of his published work is in the form of the occasional essay, in which he tries to argue for and display a new language for the church and for Christian ethics.  The ad hoc character of much of his work is indicative of his view that theology is an ongoing practice of the Church, explicating what the Church thinks and does, and is thus of a piece with the messiness of actual ecclesial life. By contrast, a desire for comprehensiveness is the legacy of a Christian ethics that mistakenly thinks itself responsible for American society.  The nature of Hauerwas' project and the volume of his work make the "reader" format especially welcome. That's why...

Writing in the Dust:  After September 11 is Rowan Williams', former Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual reflections in the days and weeks after the murderous tragedy of September 11th.  A notable theologian, he was set to tape a program on spirituality at Trinity Church Wall Street, just two blocks from the World Trade Center, on September 11, 2001.  Along with others from Trinity, he escaped downtown Manhattan as the Twin Towers were collapsing. In this profound work written several weeks after the tragedy, he tries to put into words his Christian responses to the grief and shock and loss of that moment.  The subjects covered here are complicated:  The use of religious language, the end of war, the tricky slopes of globalization, and the manipulation of symbols.  Williams measures his words carefully, well aware that these are not areas that can be summed up in a few words. Williams offers some trenchant observations about the United State...

Philip Turner's Money, Sex, and Power:  An Essay in Christian Social Ethics is much more nuanced than the more-popular book by Richard Foster of the same title.  Sadly, it's also old enough now that it's out of print as well.  There is light and darkness in each of us, and in each of our congregations.  Turner takes the three primary temptations of Christian life (three temptations that finally are enshrined in the monastic reformations' vows of the third century onward) -- money, sex, and power -- and builds a Christian social ethic upon the deep foundation of trinitarian theology. Turner's target audience is the Church.  He is convinced that in ignoring these three temptations, the Church has erred in a couple of ways.  First, we have failed to see the significant impact Christians can have on society around us through a witness to God in how we structure our social, economic and political lives.  And second, our evangelical mission in the world...

In Resurrection and Moral Order , O'Donovan argues that Christian ethics must be rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  He argues that the resurrection is the pivot point for assessing ethics in a Christian perspective.  Apart from God's revelation in Christ, we could not fully assess our present situations, anchoring our present in the event of the resurrection and the eschatological goal to which creation is moving.  O'Donovan maintains that Christian morality is a glad response to what God has done for us in Christ. To be Christian ethics, ethics must be rooted in the gospel of Christ.  Some Christians are ethical, without having a Christian ethic.   Some even want to separate their faith in Christ from a unique ethic, trying to operate on the basis of natural law and philosophical axiology.  To accept Christian ethics means to accept that the gospel makes moral claims and judgments.  Antinomianism and moralism are two dangers...

Being a Christian means learning to love in and with God's love.  But God's love isn't simply a feeling or even (especially?) a sentimentality.  It has a certain content to specific actions that one can only learn in submission to those who have developed its habits over a lifetime.  And that's why Bondi, in this deceptively little book, turns to the early Christian monastics for lessons.  The issues here are no where clearer than in the contemporary American political environment, with sisters and brothers in Christ who champion things God simply won't tolerate:  The hatred of others, exclusion, neglect, to name just a few.

Delores Williams is a first generation womanist theologian, and her book Sisters in the Wilderness is a major contribution to the canon of womanist theological ethics. In Sisters , Williams uses the story of Hagar, the Egyptian slave of Sarah and Abraham, as a metaphorical narrative to describe the lives of black women and their shared history in America under oppressive forces. The Hagar narrative represents a tradition of African American resistance derived from the same history as the African American liberationist tradition with two differences; first, the Hagar tradition is a black women's tradition (the liberationist tradition focuses primarily on the Exodus narrative and "the black man"); second, the Hagar tradition is not concerned with liberating the oppressed. Consequently, one may ask, does the religion of the Hagar narrative "set black women up to be de-humanized and exploited?" (p. 41).  Did religion confuse black women's understanding of suf...

Phil Kenneson is a recognized participant in the missional conversation.  He serves on the board of the Ekklesia Project, and has authored books and papers that address the missional philosophy over against popular church-growth marketing techniques.  (Phil has also been a friend of mine since grad school -- and we're both Blue Devil alums.) In this volume, he develops a core piece of his philosophy, that Christian communities, instead of "selling themselves" in the religious marketplace, should focus on positioning their communal and individual lives so that the Spirit can reproduce the life of Jesus in them.  This Christ-likeness is the "fruit of the Spirit", and is the key to the church's authentic witness.  In fact, "it is quite possible for the church to be growing and not bearing the fruit of the Spirit" (p. 11).  Kenneson suggests that when Christians concentrate on this "life on the vine", a transformation takes place...

After South Africa's stunning shift from apartheid to democracy in the mid-1990s, the work of creating a viable nation began.  South Africa's new leaders saw their nation not only as one composed of legislative, infrastructure, and commercial concerns, but one with a deeply wounded soul that needed to be healed. In No Future Without Forgiveness , Desmond Tutu tells the story of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), formed to address the countless crimes against humanity committed on all sides in apartheid's dark history.  Rather than burden the new nation with potentially endless criminal trials, wherein the accused are constrained to defend themselves against the threat of imprisonment and victims can only expect state-mandated retribution as a form of justice, the TRC gave victims and the accused the opportunity to simply tell their stories.  Tutu shows how letting victims and perpetrators face each other as humans fostered courageous acts of pen...

The New Catholicity:  Theology Between the Global and the Local suggests a theological response to the change of context and circumstances inherent in the phenomenon of globalization.  For Schreiter the concept of "new catholicity" is the appropriate paradigm or framework of which the Church might understand itself and its mission at the age of globalization.  Any theology needs to attend both its contextual and its universalizing dimensions.  Attending the new context of globalization gives a new shape to theology. I was introduced to The New Catholicity in grad school, in a course with theologian and missiologist Fred Norris, "The Church's Mission and Theology".  It's a powerful book that explores  the "increasingly interconnected character of the political, economic, and social life of the peoples on this planet" (p. 5).  Three processes have shaped the globalization phenomenon:  Political (with the fall of communism in 1989, the world has...