Stanley Hauerwas

From System to Story: An Alternative Pattern for Rationality in Ethics

In the interest of securing a rational foundation for morality, contemporary ethical theory has ignored or rejected the significance of narrative for ethical reflection. It is our contention that this has been a profound mistake, resulting in a distorted account of moral experience. Furthermore, the attempt to portray practical reason as independent of narrative contexts has made it difficult to assess the value which convictions characteristic of Christians or Jews might have for moral existence. As a result, we have lost sight of the ways these traditions might help us deal with the moral issues raised by modern science and medicine.1

Dissent from the Homeland: Essays after September 11

Dissent from the Homeland is a book about patriotism, justice, revenge, American history and symbology, art and terror, and pacifism. In this deliberately and urgently provocative collection, noted writers, philosophers, literary critics, and theologians speak out against the war on terrorism and the government of George W. Bush as a response to the events of September 11, 2001. Critiquing government policy, citizen apathy, and societal justifications following the attacks, these writers present a wide range of opinions on such issues as contemporary American foreign policy and displays of patriotism in the wake of the disaster. Whether illuminating the narratives that have been used to legitimate the war on terror, reflecting on the power of American consumer culture to transform the attack sites into patriotic tourist attractions, or insisting that to be a Christian is to be a pacifist, these essays refuse easy answers. They consider why the Middle East harbors a deep-seated hatred for the United States. They argue that the U.S. drive to win the cold war made the nation more like its enemies, leading the government to support ruthless anti-Communist tyrants such as Mobutu, Suharto, and Pinochet. They urge Americans away from the pitfall of national self-righteousness toward an active peaceableness—an alert, informed, practiced state of being—deeply contrary to both passivity and war. Above all, the essays assembled in Dissent from the Homeland are a powerful entreaty for thought, analysis, and understanding. Originally published as a special issue of the journal South Atlantic Quarterly, Dissent from the Homeland has been expanded to include new essays as well as a new introduction and postscript. Contributors. Srinivas Aravamudan, Michael J. Baxter, Jean Baudrillard, Robert N. Bellah, Daniel Berrigan, Wendell Berry, Vincent J. Cornell, David James Duncan, Stanley Hauerwas, Fredric Jameson, Frank Lentricchia, Catherine Lutz, Jody McAuliffe, John Milbank, Peter Ochs, Donald E. Pease, Anne R. Slifkin, Rowan Williams, Susan Willis, Slavoj Zizek

The Academic’s Handbook

This new, revised, and expanded edition of the popular Academic’s Handbook is an essential guide for those planning or beginning an academic career. Faculty members, administrators, and professionals with experience at all levels of higher education offer candid, practical advice to help beginning academics understand matters including: — The different kinds of institutions of higher learning and expectations of faculty at each. — The advantages and disadvantages of teaching at four-year colleges instead of research universities. — The ins and outs of the job market. — Alternatives to tenure-track, research-oriented positions. — Salary and benefits. — The tenure system. — Pedagogy in both large lecture courses and small, discussion-based seminars. — The difficulties facing women and minorities within academia. — Corporations, foundations, and the federal government as potential sources of research funds. — The challenges of faculty mentoring. — The impact of technology on contemporary teaching and learning. — Different types of publishers and the publishing process at university presses. — The modern research library. — The structure of university governance. — The role of departments within the university. With the inclusion of eight new chapters, this edition of The Academic’s Handbook is designed to ease the transition from graduate school to a well-rounded and rewarding career. Contributors. Judith K. Argon, Louis J. Budd, Ronald R. Butters, Norman L. Christensen, Joel Colton, Paul L. Conway, John G. Cross, Fred E. Crossland, Cathy N. Davidson, A. Leigh DeNeef, Beth A. Eastlick, Matthew W. Finkin, Jerry G. Gaff, Edie N. Goldenberg, Craufurd D. Goodwin, Stanley M. Hauerwas, Deborah L. Jakubs, L. Gregory Jones, Nellie Y. McKay, Patrick M. Murphy, Elizabeth Studley Nathans, A. Kenneth Pye, Zachary B. Robbins, Anne Firor Scott, Sudhir Shetty, Samuel Schuman, Philip Stewart, Boyd R. Strain, Emily Toth, P. Aarne Vesilind, Judith S. White, Henry M. Wilbur, Ken Wissoker

The Gesture of a Truthful Story

“Put simply, religious education is the training in those gestures through which we learn the story of God and Gods will for our lives…. It is ongoing training in the skills we need in order to live faithful to the kingdom that has been initiated in Jesus.”

Authority and the Profession of Medicine

To broach the subject of authority and medicine is for many an invitation to launch an attack against what they consider the paternalism and arrogance endemic to current medical practice. Patients are encouraged to reclaim their autonomy against the usurped authority of doctors and other health professionals. Though some of these claims may be valid, it is not the purpose of this paper to provide yet another variation on that theme. Instead, a constructive account of authority and medicine will be presented in such a way as to demonstrate why finding a balance between autonomy and paternalism is an inadequate moral goal. I trust the reader will realize that such a balance reveals a misunderstanding of the concept of authority with regard to medicine as a moral practice.

The Chief End of All Flesh

“In light of the scriptural witness that humans and other animals share in the ultimate end, which is Gods peaceable kingdom, we thus believe that each and every creature is created to manifest Gods glory. Animals will not manifest Gods glory insofar as their lives are measured in terms of human interests, but only insofar as their lives serve Gods good pleasure. Similarly, humans manifest Gods glory when we learn to see animals as God sees animals, recognizing that animals exist not to serve us, but rather for Gods good pleasure.”

September 11, 2001: A Pacifist Response

I want to write honestly about September , . But it is not easy. Even now, some months after that horrible event, I find it hard to know what can be said or, perhaps more difficult, what should be said. Even more difficult, I am not sure for what or how I should pray. I am a Christian. I am a Christian pacifist. Being Christian and being a pacifist are not two things for me. I would not be a pacifist if I were not a Christian, and I find it hard to understand how one can be a Christian without being a pacifist. But what does a pacifist have to say in the face of terror? Pray for peace? I have no use for sentimentality. Indeed some have suggested pacifists have nothing to say in a time like the time after September , . The editors of the magazine First Things assert that ‘‘those who in principle oppose the use of military force have no legitimate part in the discussion about how military force should be used.’’1 They make this assertion because according to them the only form of pacifism that is defensible requires the disavowal by the pacifist of any political relevance. That is not the kind of pacifism I represent. I am a pacifist because I think nonviolence is the necessary

Captured in Time: Friendship and Aging

This essay explores the general issues of aging—loneliness, vulnerability, dispossession, disempowerment, fear of death—from a Christian perspective. Drawing on Aristotle and Aelred of Rievaulx, we argue first that Christian stories transform these issues such that we see aging as a gift rather than a threat. Second, friendships among the elderly, and between the elderly and the young, are essential to the church; we need the elderly to tell the Christian stories, to embody the churchs memory, and to teach the young how to grow old and die. Finally, we make a few suggestions about how churches can approximate more closely Aelreds vision of a community of friendship.

Salvation and Health: Why Medicine Needs the Church

While it is not unheard of for a theologian to begin an essay with a text from scripture, it is relatively rare, especially for those who turn their attention to issues of medicine. However, I begin with a text, as almost everything I have to say is but a commentary on this passage from Job 2:11–13: Now when Job’s friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, then came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Na’amathite. They made an appointment together to come condole with him and comfort him. And when they saw him from afar, they did not recognize him; and they raised their voices and wept; and they rent their robes and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Remaining in Babylon: Oliver O'Donovan's Defense of Christendom

Western cultures. (The language of ’extinction,’ when applied to the church, is another way of saying, ’being totally assimilated into’ or ’engulfed by’ modern Western cultures.) In a sense, O’Donovan’s reclamation of a Christendom paradigm for re-imagining our present predicament is a salutary (one might even say, prophetic) gesture. It is salutary precisely to the extent that it is so unexpected. After all, who would think of defending, at such a time as this, the idea of Christendom that is, the notion that state legitimacy requires the legal privileging of Christianity? It almost borders on the absurd. In an era when theologians are trying to out-do one another at being novel, innovative, creative motivated largely by a fear of being out-of-date and thus irrelevant it is rare indeed to find someone