Quotes by Stanley Hauerwas

That which makes the church radical and forever new is not that the church tends to lean toward the left on most social issues, but rather that the church knows Jesus whereas the world does not. In the churchs view, the political left is not noticeably more interesting than the political right; both sides tend towards solutions that act as if the world has not ended and begun in Jesus.

In fact, even Tillichs socialism was accommodationist because it continued the Constantinian strategy: The way to make the church radical is by identifying the church with secular radicals, that is, socialists.

The church is constituted as a new people who have been gathered from the nations to remind the world that we are in fact one people. Gathering, therefore, is an eschatological act as it is the foretaste of the unity of the communion of the saints.

The Church really does not know what [peace and justice] mean apart from the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth. After all, Pilate permitted the killing of Jesus in order to secure both peace and justice (Roman style) in Judea.

For example, when Christians discuss sex, it often sounds as if we are somehow against sex. What we fail to make clear is that sexual passion (the good gifts of Gods creation) is now subservient to the demanding business of maintaining a revolutionary community in a world that often uses sex as a means of momentarily anesthetizing or distracting people from the basic vacuity of their lives. When the only contemporary means of self-transcendence is orgasm, we Christians are going to have a tough time convincing people that it would be nicer if they were not promiscuous.

First of all, its friendship with God that makes possible friendship with one another in a manner that is not that we just like one another, but that were are joined by common judgments, by God, for the good of Gods church. Such friendship occurs not by trying to be each others friend, but by discovering you were engaged in common good work that is so determinative, you cannot live without one another. Now, if the church is that, it will talk about friendship in a way that avoids the superficiality of the language of relationship. Because relationships are meant to be spontaneous and short. Friendship, if it is the friendship of God, is to be characterized by fidelity in which you are even willing to tell the friend the truth. Which may mean you will risk the friendship. You need to be in that kind of community to survive the loneliness that threatens all of our souls.

The cross is not a sign of the churchs quiet, suffering submission to the powers-that-be, but rather the churchs revolutionary participation in the victory of Christ over those powers. The cross is not a symbol for general human suffering and oppression. Rather, the cross is a sign of what happens when one takes Gods account of reality more seriously than Caesars. The cross stands as Gods (and our) eternal no to the powers of death, as well as Gods eternal yes to humanity, Gods remarkable determination not to leave us to our own devices.

As a society of unbelief, Western culture is devoid of a sense of journey, of adventure, because it lacks belief in much more than the cultivation of an ever-shrinking horizon of self-preservation and and self-expression.

You learn who you are only by making yourself accountable to the judgment of others.

On the other hand, activist Christians who talk much about justice promote a notion of justice that envisions a society in which faith in God is rendered quite unnecessary, since everybody already believes in peace and justice even when everybody does not believe in God.

Mary-born Lord, humble us so that we also might say, Let it be with me according to your word.

Saints cannot exist without a community, as they require, like all of us, nurturance by a people who, while often unfaithful, preserve the habits necessary to learn the story of God.

We would like a church that again asserts that God, not nations, rules the world, that the boundaries of Gods kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price.

The church is not to be judged by how useful we are as a supportive institution and our clergy as members of a helping profession. The church has its own reason for being, hid within its own mandate and not found in the world. We are not chartered by the Emperor.

Never think that you need to protect God. Because anytime you think you need to protect God, you can be sure that you are worshipping an idol.

I fear that much of the Christianity that surrounds us assumes our task is to save appearances by protecting God from Job-like anguish. But if God is the God of Jesus Christ, then God does not need our protection. What God demands is not protection, but truth.

Peace is a deeper reality than violence.p. 231

The lives of the saints are the hermeneutical key to Scripture.

My father was a better bricklayer than I am a theologian. I am still in too much of a hurry. But if the work I have done in theology is of any use, it is because of what I learned on the job, that is, you can lay only one brick at a time.

Gentleness is given to those who have learned that God will not have his kingdom triumph through the violence of the world, for such a triumph came through the meekness of a cross.