Learning to Speak Christian by Stanley Hauerwas

Learning to Speak Christian by Stanley Hauerwas

The crucial challenge for theology is that when it is read the reader thinks, ‘This is true.’ Recognizing claims that are ‘true’ enables readers to identify an honest expression of life’s complexities. The trick is to show that theological claims – the words that must be used to speak of God – are necessary if the theologian is to speak honestly of the complexities of life. The worst betrayal of the task of theology comes when the theologian fears that the words he or she must use are not necessary. This new collection of essays, lectures, and sermons by Stanley Hauerwas is focused on the central challenge, risk and difficulty of this necessity – working with words about God. The task of theology is to help us do things with words. ‘God’ is not a word peculiar to theology, but if ‘God’ is a word to be properly used by Christians, the word must be disciplined by Christian practice. It should, therefore, not be surprising that, like any word, we must learn how to say ‘God’.

Anything by Stanley Hauerwas is going to be worth reading, and his new collection of essays, Learning to Speak Christian (SCM Press) is a real treasury, including both sermons and articles, reflections on some fundamental Christian issues (‘Why Did Jesus Have to Die?’) and engagements with figures who have marked Hauerwas’s thought in one way or another, including MacIntyre and Bonhoeffer' Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

Stanley Hauerwas is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Christian Ethics at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC. He is the author of many books, including The Peaceable Kingdom and Hannah’s Child.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780334044093
ISBN 10	033404409X
Title	Learning to Speak Christian
Author	Stanley Hauerwas
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	SCM Press
Year published	2011-08-31
Number of pages	324
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.