Dispatches from the Front
Theological Engagements with the Secular
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Duke University Press
Published:24th May '95
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
God knows it is hard to make God boring, Stanley Hauerwas writes, but American Christians, aided and abetted by theologians, have accomplished that feat. Whatever might be said about Hauerwas—and there is plenty—no one has ever accused him of being boring, and in this book he delivers another jolt to all those who think that Christian theology is a matter of indifference to our secular society.
At once Christian theology and social criticism, this book aims to show that the two cannot be separated. In this spirit, Hauerwas mounts a forceful attack on current sentimentalities about the significance of democracy, the importance of the family, and compassion, which appears here as a literally fatal virtue. In this time of the decline of religious knowledge, when knowing a little about a religion tends to do more harm than good, Hauerwas offers direction to those who would make Christian discourse both useful and truthful. Animated by a deep commitment, his essays exhibit the difference that Christian theology can make in the shaping of lives and the world.
"Ingratiating theology is always boring. This book is exciting just because it displays an uncompromising Christian who thinks about matters of great general concern. Stanley Hauerwas’s extraordinary intellectual energy constantly jolts one into reconsidering what one had previously taken for granted. He illustrates how a vigorous theology can participate in the common conversation."—Robert N. Bellah, author of Habits of the Heart
"Stanley Hauerwas is one of the few prophetic voices of our time—idiosyncratic, cantankerous, and challenging."—Cornel West
"Stanley Hauerwas’s criticisms of the American pieties are unanswerable. His alternatives are likely to be considered an outrage. Hooray for Hawerwas! There’s no one I’d rather be reading."—Frank Lentricchia
ISBN: 9780822317166
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 408g
248 pages