Classes begin again in a couple days... this quarter I'm taking a Christian Ethics course... as a sort of "preparation" for that, I've started reading "The Peaceable Kingdom" by Stanley Hauerwas (though it isn't one of my textbooks). Here are some of the excellent observations that have stood out to me so far:
"There is an inherent relation between truthfulness and peacefulness because peace comes only as we are transformed by a truth that gives us the confidence to rely on nothing else than its witness."
"In the upsurge of religious conservatism... Christianity is defended not so much because it is true, but because it reinforces the "American way of life." Such movements are thus unable to contemplate that there might be irresolvable tensions between being Christian and being "a good American"... But this strategy avoids the most essential question. We should not want to know if religious convictions are functional; we should want to know if they are true."
2 comments:
too bad you don't have to read hauerwas in the ethics class. i took theological ethics a couple of semesters ago and we read a community of character and dispatches from the front- both hauerwas books. he has had a profound influence on me since then.
i hope the class goes well.
shalom,
stPhransus
Geoff, could you share where you're downloding Haurewas talks from?
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