Tag: Jean Vanier

  • Hauerwas on His “Frightening” Friendship with Jean Vanier

    Faith and Leadership have published a lovely piece by Stanley Hauerwas on his friendship with Jean Vanier.  The following is an excerpt in which Hauerwas recounts the first time he heard the L’Arche founder speak: (more…)

  • Jean Vanier and the Wounds of Jesus

    Earlier today, Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche movement, died at the Maison Médicale Jeanne Garnier in Paris.  The official announcement from L’Arche can be read here and reports from various new agencies are beginning to appear, including that of the CBC here. (more…)

  • The Need for Exemplification (Series on “Minding the Web”)

    This is the third 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 the essay “Why Jean Vanier Matters: An Exemplary Exploration,” Hauerwas draws upon the work of Alasdair MacIntyre to help us see why we cannot do without the exemplification of Jean Vanier and the L’Arche movement, if we are to reason and live well. While the just of the following paragraph could be distilled from many of Hauerwas’s earlier writings, the clarity of the following summary of MacIntyre’s tradition-based account of moral inquiry commends itself to those who are seeking to understand how MacIntyre has impacted Hauerwas’s own way of thinking about ethics and rationality. (more…)

  • On Feet and Forgiveness

    “With the basin, God’s people are schooled in the humility necessary to serve in Christ’s upside-down kingdom.[1. Reflecting on the practice of foot-washing, Jean Vanier writes, “It is always very moving for me when someone with disabilities washes my feet or when I see a person wash the feet of their mother or father. It is the world turned upside down.” Jean Vanier, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John (Ottawa: Novalis, 2004), 228.] The practice of foot-washing challenges our deeply held goals and aspirations by replacing popular conceptions of success with a vision of radical downward mobility. (more…)