Performing the Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence

by Stanley Hauerwas

Overview

September 11, Afghanistan, Iraq--more than ever, this is a time for the church to be taking up the question of what, as Christians, our response to violence should be.
In Performing the Faith, Stanley Hauerwas revisits the familiar territory of political nonviolence through discussion of the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer-Christian ethicist, theologian, and by some definitions, martyr. This book is an intriguing commentary on Bonhoeffer's bold claim that if our common life rests on lies and injustice, we cannot be a community of peace.
Pastors, seminarians, and those interested in Christian ethics are among the many who will be interested in this new word from an unwavering, faithful voice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441241931
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/01/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,285,159
File size:	738 KB

About the Author

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University. His previous books include With the Grain of the Universe, A Better Hope, and The Peaceable Kingdom.
Stanley Hauerwas (PhD, Yale University) professor emeritus of divinity and law at Duke Divinity School. He is the author of over forty books, including Cross-Shattered Christ, A Cross-Shattered Church, War and the American Difference, and Matthew in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible.

Table of Contents

	Preface	9
	Introduction	13
I.	Bonhoeffer on Politics and Truth
1.	Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Political Theology	33
2.	Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Truth and Politics	55
II.	Truthful Performances
3.	Performing Faith: The Peaceable Rhetoric of God's Church (with James Fodor)	75
4.	Connections Created and Contingent: Aquinas, Preller, Wittgenstein, and Hopkins	111
5.	The Narrative Turn: Thirty Years Later	135
6.	Suffering Beauty: The Liturgical Formation of Christ's Body	151
III.	Performing Nonviolence
7.	Explaining Christian Nonviolence: Notes for a Conversation with John Milbank and John Howard Yoder	169
8.	Punishing Christians	185
9.	September 11, 2001: A Pacifist Response	201
10.	September 11, 2001: A Sermon a Year Later	211
	Postscript: A Response to Jeff Stout's Democracy and Tradition	215
	Index	243

Editorial Reviews

Widely regarded as one of America's preeminent theologians, Hauerwas (The Peaceable Kingdom; With the Grain of the Universe) succeeds again with this fine collection of new essays. Even those familiar with his large corpus of writings will discover new insights and creative ideas in this work, particularly in the early chapters dealing with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and performative faith. The subtitle is a bit misleading, as only the first of the book's three major sections deals with Bonhoeffer. Here, Hauerwas persuasively presents Bonhoeffer's political theology as arising from his commitment to a church located in the midst of the world. The second section, "Truthful Performances," covers such topics as narrative theology and theological insights from Victor Preller and Wittgenstein. The third section, addressing nonviolence, has chapters on such ethical issues as the Christian understanding of prison incarceration and the Christian response to 9/11. One can sense the inner tension Hauerwas experiences as a pacifist trying to address these difficult issues, and it makes for fascinating reading. Recommended for academic libraries.-John Jaeger, Dallas Baptist Univ. Lib., TX Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal