Product Description

A Hauerwas "reader", this book is aimed at undergraduate students of ethics. The author characterizes non-violence as the cornerstone of Christian ethics.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #358533 in Books
• Published on: 1984-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 179 pages

Review
'Hauerwas is contemporary theology's finest intellectual provocateur' -Time 'Hauerwas's explorations and arguments combine - to a degree quite unusual in contemporary theology - clarity, frankness, firmness, and compassion. The Peaceable Kingdom established him beyond doubt as a major voice in English-speaking theology' - Nicholas Lash Hauerwas has written a deeply challenging book that anyone seriously concerned with the authenticity of Christian ethics must read." - The Christian Century, USA

About the Author
Stanley Hauerwas is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University. His many books include the SCM publications With the Grain of the Universe (2002) and Wilderness Wanderings (2001)

Customer Reviews

A viable ethic for our post-ethics era.
For four weeks I resisted the professor who had assigned Hauerwas; I battled Hauerwas on narrative's value and on his "obvious" lack of appreciation for the Brothers Niebuhr. I'd take Augustine's "just war" or Mouw's Divine Command ethics any day. Then it happened. I started doing ethics in the middle; I pitched three fourths of Kant and most of the consequentialists. I saw peace as the singular Christ trait, and I was ashamed and penitent. I read on through more and more Hauerwas to find how to "do church" as just such an authentic--albeit alien community. I don't know if I'm ready to walk over hot coals to march on Kosavo, but if Hauerwas left, I'd follow. To read Hauerwas changes Christians. Others probably won't "get" him because it takes a hefty amount of divine intervention to trust God that much. In the year since I first read this book I have had to re-think and/or re-tool everything about being a Christian. This is authentic Christianity--not the accommodationist Warrior-Christianity of Constantine, Belfast and Belgrade--and dare I say most American "chump-morality" preaching. Go ahead, fight with Hauerwas. I double dare ya! Watch the tools of peaceableness metamorphose you. I know.

If you want to understand Hauerwas, this is the book to read
This book is the best introduction to "Christianity according to Hauerwas." This is not a general survery of different ideas about Christian ethics. But rather a presentation of a distinct way of doing "Christian ethics" (which really means a distinct way of doing Christianity). Hauerwas rejects both "liberal" and "conservative" versions of Christianity because both are ultimately based in the thought patterns of the classical Liberalism, which falsely presents itself as religion based on universal reason. In reality, all reason and religion is based on particular truth claims, embodied in the narratives that shape different communities. Hauerwas presents the truth of the Christian narrative, emphasizing how it must be embodied in the Church, if any one is ever to see that it is true. Particularly important in the demonstation of Christian truth claims is the Church's commitment to peace (a very particular form of Christian non-violence). To grasp the significance of what Hauerwas is saying in this book, is to have commonly accepted understandings of the Church and Christian "ethics" radically challenged, and possibly to have them replaced by a wonderfully compelling account of what it means to be a Christian.

An excellent Intro
The Peaceable Kingdom is subtitled "A Primer in Christian Ethics". However, unlike most introductory ethics books Hauerwas' book is not issue based offering a chapter on say abortion, war or any other issues). Instead however invites the reader to gain a insight into a christian ethics based not issues but the Christian story and the Community of God. This book is an excellent introduction to Hauerwas' thought that unlike his other essay based books reads very well.

One of the advantages of this edition is the helpful postscript Hauerwas has written marking the twenty years since the book's initial publication. Twenty years on Hauerwas still claims this is the most helpful introduction to his thought, I tend to agree.