A Better Hope: Resources for a Church Confronting Capitalism, Democracy, and Postmodernity

Rating:
Summary: Solid Essays from Hauerwas
Review: Stanley Hauerwas, often called an essayist theologian lives up to his name once again offering yet another volume of hard-hitting, no nonsense essays on everything from homosexuality to murder mysteries. Readers of Hauerwas will not be disappointed with yet another provocative and insightful collection of essays that Hauerwas claims are his attempt to make his desire for the church to be a body that serves "for the nations" more determinative than his oft-characterized posture of being "against the nations." (p. 9) And he delivers on this attempt. Hauerwas grapples with significant issues of contemporary culture that the church in America currently faces.

His opening essay "On Being a Christian and an American" is yet another of his refutations of his common characterization as a "Sectarian, Fideistic Tribalist" (p. 23). He provides yet another reiteration of his message to Christians regarding the nature of their engagement with social and political issues in the public arena, again arguing that he does not seek to legitimate some sort of "withdrawal ethic." His second essay, "The Christian Difference, Or Surviving Postmodernism" is a splendid discussion of the postmodern situation and the resources that the church has in confrontation with postmodern culture. It is also an excellent corrective to theologians that have been all to eager to jump onto the postmodern bandwagon uncritically.

The remainder of the essays continue on the theme of Christian theology/ethics (see chapter 10) in America and the particular challenges that are presented to the church in this context. The only criticism to be made is that some of the essays lack cohesion with the rest of the book, for example, Hauerwas's chapter on murder mysteries, which he included "just for the hell of it" (p. 19). However, this is a solid collection of vintage Hauerwas with much that the American church desperately needs to hear. As such it is a must read for Christians that are concerned about the nature of the church and it's relationship to the strange world in which it finds itself.


Rating:
Summary: Diverse Application of Hauerwas' thought
Review: This collection of essays offers a great introduction to the thought of Stanley Hauerwas. The essays cover a variety of issues facing the Church today some of which are recognized by the wider Christian community and others that are not. Even those that are (i.e. the Church's response to homosexuality) Hauerwas offers a unique perspective that challenges the zealots in all camps. On the whole Hauerwas confronts the presupositious held by those of us in the West (in general) and in America (in particular) with typical ferocity and intellectual integrity.

Rating:
Summary: Diverse Application of Hauerwas' thought
Review: This collection of essays offers a great introduction to the thought of Stanley Hauerwas. The essays cover a variety of issues facing the Church today some of which are recognized by the wider Christian community and others that are not. Even those that are (i.e. the Church's response to homosexuality) Hauerwas offers a unique perspective that challenges the zealots in all camps. On the whole Hauerwas confronts the presupositious held by those of us in the West (in general) and in America (in particular) with typical ferocity and intellectual integrity.

Rating:
Summary: A great collection
Review: This collection of essays really gives some insight into Hauerwas' thought. Always provocative, Hauerwas expands on themes that he has touched on before, such as how Capitalism and the privatization of American life affect issues such as homosexuality (he deals with privatization and its affects on the Abortion debate in his essay ABORTION, THEOLOGICALLY UNDERSTOOD available in the Hauerwas Reader). Not content to rest on his laurels, Hauerwas dispenses irritation to anyone who us unwilling to think through the problems confronting the Church and society today, revealing that what we thought were the problems are merely symptoms and the solutions are both much more complicated than we can grasp and as simple as trusting in Jesus Christ.

Rating:
Summary: A great collection
Review: This collection of essays really gives some insight into Hauerwas' thought. Always provocative, Hauerwas expands on themes that he has touched on before, such as how Capitalism and the privatization of American life affect issues such as homosexuality (he deals with privatization and its affects on the Abortion debate in his essay ABORTION, THEOLOGICALLY UNDERSTOOD available in the Hauerwas Reader). Not content to rest on his laurels, Hauerwas dispenses irritation to anyone who us unwilling to think through the problems confronting the Church and society today, revealing that what we thought were the problems are merely symptoms and the solutions are both much more complicated than we can grasp and as simple as trusting in Jesus Christ.