The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics

I bought Hauerwas' book after hearing him speak at Azusa Pacific University last week, and have been since ferociously reading through the book (though I am not sure Hauerwas would appreciate my ferocity as it tends towards violence). The basic thesis of Hauerwas' book is the possibility of the church being a social ethic (rather than "having" a social ethic) through an understanding of Israel as the story of God and Jesus' life, death, and resurrection as the primary means by which we live within a peaceable (pacifist) kingdom. The first four chapters are a kind of groundwork for the last four chapters. The first chapter, "Christian Ethics in a Fragmented World," explores why many Christians try to universalize their particular social ethic as one that applies to all people. He speaks of the difficulty as well of having a Christian ethic when religion has been so privatized in the west. In the second and third chapters, he spends a significant amount of time speaking to a qualified Christian ethic - one that is not universalized, but qualified by the particular life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Freedom for Hauerwas in the Christian ethic is one that "derives from having a well-formed character" rather than being in control or the ability to make free choices. For Hauerwas, there is no "self" that a person has separate from our environment and community. In other words, there is no sense in searching for our "true self" or "unconscious I" because none such self exists abstractly from the environment around us. In this case, character can only be defined as "a gift from others which we learn to claim as our own by recognizing it as a gift." Hauerwas goes on in later chapters, after laying this foundation, that Jesus gives us an example of the ultimate dispossession of one's life. That is to say, Jesus gave up all control over his life when he did not accept the temptations of the devil in the famous temptation narrative. Rather than taking on the notion of "hero" by taking on the power of a political kingdom, he took on the role of first martyr by giving himself up powerlessly to the Empire. It was in Jesus' refusal to take on coercion or violence that the church is a social ethic. We are not to have a social ethic, but be a social ethic. In the latter chapters, Hauerwas tries to explain how all this might "work" in the church. He tries to move away from an unhelpful talk on making "right" decisions, and rather discusses how such `decisions' are not really decisions at all, but rather the natural outgrowth of our character (as it has been formed by others above). Thus, he spends a long time talking about the sociological character of community, boundary markers, and how all of this plays into the communities' self understanding in its basic practices and behavior. He ends the book comparing the Neibuhr brother's now famous theological argument on how to respond to Japan's invasion of Manchuria. While the actual situ

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.

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.

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.