Stanley Hauerwas: Time Magazine’s Choice for America’s Best Theologian

Stanley Hauerwas, preeminent theologian and Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School, is one of the best-regarded theologians alive today. A protégé of John Howard Yoder, Hauerwas takes his theological platform into the interdenominational conversation. Engaging with the theologies of Karl Barth and Hans Wilhelm Frei, Hauerwas brings lively discourse into the realm of contemporary theology. If you’re interested in cutting-edge theological trends, you can’t afford to be unaware of Stanley Hauerwas.

A Nonviolent Faith

John Howard Yoder’s influence can be found throughout Hauerwas’ theology. Hauerwas’ political-theological ideology, as well as his call for peace in a warlike nation, will challenge your ideas about war and nationalism. In Performing the Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence, Hauerwas presents Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a voice for nonviolence. In War and the American Difference: Theological Reflections on Violence and National Identity, Hauerwas shows how American national identity is often at odds with American faith. How did C. S. Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. live out their faith in days of social upheaval and war? How did they distinguish between national identity and their identity in Christ?

Postliberal Theology and You

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this collection is Hauerwas’ investigation into the emerging postliberal theology (or narrative theology). At the forefront of this theology is Hauerwas himself, whose work draws from, and identifies with, many interdenominational perspectives, challenging those who walk all manner of Christian disciplines to consider the ecclesiology of a cross-centered church. Is there a harmony between evangelical Protestantism and Roman Catholicism? How has this theology arisen from Lutherans, Methodists, Catholics, and Anglicans, and what does this mean for the rest of us? With the Grain of the Universe is where Hauerwas brought this discussion to the table; now see how it has advanced with Hauerwas’ latest, Postliberal Theology and the Church Catholic.

Discover for yourself why Time magazine named Hauerwas “America’s Best Theologian. Snatch up this excellent collection.