Concept
Stanley Hauerwas
Overview
Stanley Martin Hauerwas (; born July 24, 1940) is an American Protestant theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual.
Hauerwas originally taught at the University of Notre Dame before moving to Duke University. Hauerwas was a longtime professor at Duke, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School with a joint appointment at the Duke University School of Law. In 2014, he also assumed a chair in theological ethics at the University of Aberdeen. Hauerwas is considered by many to be one of the world's most influential living theologians and was named "America's Best Theologian" by Time magazine in 2001. He was also the first American theologian to deliver the Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in over forty years. His work is frequently read and debated by scholars in fields outside of religion or ethics, such as political philosophy, sociology, history, and literary theory. Hauerwas has achieved notability outside of academia as a public intellectual, even appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Though Hauerwas is most well known for his work related to ethics and political theology, he has written widely on a range of subjects, including philosophical theology, political philosophy, the philosophy of social science, law, education, bioethics, and medical ethics. Hauerwas is known for his fierce criticism of liberal democracy, capitalism, and militarism. He is also a critic of both Christian fundamentalism and liberal Christianity. He is commonly cited as a member of the evangelical left. Hauerwas's work draws from a number of theological perspectives, including Methodism, Anabaptism, Anglicanism, and Catholicism. Among his most important contributions to modern theology are his advocacy of and work related to virtue ethics and postliberal theology. Hauerwas's book, A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic, was named as one of the one hundred most important books on religion in the 20th century by Christianity Today. His most widely known book, however, is likely Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, which was co-written with William Willimon.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Upon this theological instinct I make war: I find the tracks of it everywhere. Whoever has theological blood in his veins is shifty and dishonourable in all things. The pathetic thing that grows out of this condition is called _faith_: in other words, closing one's eyes upon one's self once for all, to avoid suffering the sight of incurable falsehood. People erect a concept of morality, of virtue, of holiness upon…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Antichrist
States what Stanley Hauerwas is.
The fruits of religion, in other words, are, like all human products, liable to corruption by excess. Common sense must judge them. It need not blame the votary; but it may be able to praise him only conditionally, as one who acts faithfully according to his lights. He shows us heroism in one way, but the unconditionally good way is that for which no indulgence need be asked. We find that error by excess is…
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience
The author is tied to Stanley Hauerwas in the knowledge graph.
His self of one day would make demands on his self of another; and some of the demands might be urgent and tyrannical, while others were gentle and easily put aside. We call the tyrannical demands _imperatives_. If we ignore these we do not hear the last of it. The good which we have wounded returns to plague us with interminable crops of consequential damages, compunctions, and regrets. Obligation can thus exist…
William James, The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
The author is tied to Stanley Hauerwas in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Stanley Hauerwas
Related ideas
- Nicholas Wolterstorff
- Anglicanism
- University of Notre Dame
- Bachelor of Arts
- Philosophy of social science
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
- Language game (philosophy)
- Sociology
- Law
- Bioethics
- Militarism
- Methodism
- Doctor of Philosophy
- University of Aberdeen
- Thomas Aquinas
- Natural theology
- Karl Barth
- Master of Philosophy
- Political philosophy
- University of Edinburgh
- Medical ethics
- Virtue ethics
- Søren Kierkegaard
- Theology
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Virtue ethics.