Performing the Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence

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Summary: Living the Christian Faith (and answering his critics)
Review: As a person who has read a lot of Hauerwas's work, the themes in this book did not surprise me at all. What did surprised me was the responsive feel that many of the essays had. In this book, it seems like Hauerwas was very aware of the criticisms against his work and feels compelled to respond to them. Hauerwas has always been invested in Theological disputes. However, in most of his older work, he was the one who served as a critic of another's thought. Lately, though, much of his work has been defending his own ideas (which he would probably claim are not his own, but a faithful expression of the Christian faith). This book is no exception.

Hauerwas has been criticized for being anti-modern, anti-liberal democracy, and sectarian. In Performing the Faith, he seems to be saying "yeah, but so what" to the first two. He is against modernity and wants to move away from foundational ways of thinking becasue he sees it as harmful to the faith. He is against liberal democracy, particularly in its most typical recent defenses, because it replaces the Christian story with a new non-story (the story that you don't need a story). It seems, though, that it is the sectarian charge that he takes most offense to. In this book particularly, Hauerwas seeks to make clear that the distinction he draws between the church and the world is "permeable" and for the good of the world. You find a desire for the church's witness to the world to be such that the world knows it is the world and desires to be the church. His emphasis on Bonhoeffer is important because Bonhoeffer experienced the tension between the church and the world in unique and compelling ways.

Buyer beware: this is a book of Hauerwas essays not a book on Bonhoeffer. Only the first section deals with Bonhoeffer. Not surprisingly, Hauerwas's read of Bonhoeffer makes Bonhoeffer sound a lot like Hauerwas (and Yoder). That does not necessarily make it wrong, but it is worth noting.

I believe this is a wonderful defense of the ideas Hauerwas has fought so long for.

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Hauerwas Making New In-Roads
Review: In his latest book, Stanley Hauerwas does not disappoint his readers in offering an engaging selection of essays on the themes of nonviolence, truthfulness, faith and the importance of the ecclesial life.

As the title indicates, this volume is particularly concerned with Bonhoeffer. While only the first two chapters deal specifically with Bonhoeffer's life and thought, the themes that Hauerwas undeaths in Bonhoeffer are present throughout the book. Hauerwas's interpretation of Bonhoeffer, is (predictably) similar to John Howard Yoder and himself in terms of how Hauerwas sees Bonhoeffer's conception of the church and nonviolence. However, this is certainly not a demerit. Many would-be interpreters of Bonhoeffer focus on his alleged association with the botched (..) assasination at the expense of the total body of his writings when attempting to explicate Bonohoeffer's perspective on nonviolence. Hauerwas rightly surmises that it is wrong to assume a major shift between Bonhoeffer's work and his life. As such Hauerwas allows Bonhoeffer's work to speak on its own terms without making facil attempts to "harmonize" Bonhoeffer's life with his theology.

The essays following touch on a number of familiar themes, showing Hauerwas's most developed thought on issues such as narrative, ecclesiology and social ethics. Of particular import is the shift (that began to be pronounced in "With the Grain of the Universe") from a theology of the immanent to a trinitarian theology that is transcendent, yet connected. In Hauerwas's early work there was a strong focus on the immanent. All of his theologizing began and ended with the church in its local, earthly setting and mission. This was done with some neglect of the transcendent. In other words, in some of Hauerwas's earlier work there was a tendency for Hauerwas to focus on the church as the expense of focusing on the Triune God (from and through whom the church finds its meaning and defintion). This is changing in Hauerwas's recent works (although these shifts have been present all along [see for example, Creation, Contingency and Truthful Nonviolence in "Wilderness Wanderings" and The Church as God's New Language in "Christian Existence Today."], they are far more pronounced in Hauerwas's recent work).

The essays are too numerous and diverse to explore in-depth here. There are very helpful and eudite responses by Hauerwas to his critics (Stout, Milbank) and it is clear that his thought has developed in connection with his commentators (particularly Samuel Wells) and students (William Cavanaugh and Daniel Bell).

All-in-all this is an excellent collection from Hauerwas and deserves a wide reading.