“For unless a people exist who have a narrative more determinative than the story shaped by the politics of the day, I fear we will continue to produce politicians like Donald Trump, people who not only seem to be dangerous but are dangerous. They are, moreover, all the more dangerous because no people seem to exist who are capable of telling them the truth. Continue reading Losing the Plot in a Time Called Trump (Series on “Minding the Web”)
Category Archives: Books
On Growing Old in the United States (Series on “Minding the Web”)
“The substitution of technique for wisdom is one of the main reasons that we have no place for understanding the responsibilities and status of the elderly. In wisdom cultures the elderly are expected to remember the judgments made in the past about matters that can be other. Once a social order no longer depends on memory the old have no responsibility to younger generations. Continue reading On Growing Old in the United States (Series on “Minding the Web”)
Do Not Lie! (Series on “Minding the Web”)
The following is an excerpt from a delightful Graduation Address Stanley Hauerwas delivered at the University of Aberdeen in June 2017. The address to the graduates was shaped around one simple piece of advice: “Do not lie.” Continue reading Do Not Lie! (Series on “Minding the Web”)
The Failure of the Triumphant Church (Series on “Minding the Web”)
This is the sixth in a series of posts highlighting captivating, provocative, or simply entertaining quotes from the forthcoming book Minding the Web: Making Theological Connections by Stanley Hauerwas with Robert J. Dean (Cascade).
“In contrast to the triumphant church, the early church was a militant church. The militant church, moreover, alone is the church. The triumphant church, as well as the very concept of Christendom, is but vain conceit. Nowhere is that vanity more apparent than the triumphant church’s inability to produce martyrs. Continue reading The Failure of the Triumphant Church (Series on “Minding the Web”)
Kierkegaard and the Loss of Truth in Christendom (Series on “Minding the Web”)
This is the fifth in a series of posts highlighting captivating, provocative, or simply entertaining quotes from the forthcoming book Minding the Web: Making Theological Connections by Stanley Hauerwas with Robert J. Dean (Cascade).
Søren Kierkegaard has long lurked in the background of Stanley Hauerwas’s work. In this forthcoming volume, we are finally treated to a direct engagement with the “Great Dane,” as Hauerwas consults Kierkegaard to help think through what it would mean to teach theology as theology in the modern university. Here is the first of several quotes from this provocative essay. Continue reading Kierkegaard and the Loss of Truth in Christendom (Series on “Minding the Web”)
Bonhoeffer on “Stolen Words” (Series on “Minding the Web”)
This is the fourth in a series of posts highlighting captivating, provocative, or simply entertaining quotes from the forthcoming book Minding the Web: Making Theological Connections by Stanley Hauerwas with Robert J. Dean (Cascade).
“To find the proper words” strikes me as the great challenge for the recovery of the church’s visibility. Consider, for example, Bonhoeffer’s reflections in the Ethics—tellingly in the section “Ethics as Formation”—in which he describes how Hitler, the one who tyrannically despises humanity, makes use of the meanness of the human heart by giving it other names. Continue reading Bonhoeffer on “Stolen Words” (Series on “Minding the Web”)