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Stanley Hauerwas is a name well

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known in many, many circles.

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But to some people who have been

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raised in Lutheranism,

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it might still be an

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unfamiliar name.

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Hauerwas teaches at the

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Duke Divinity School,

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and he's been there for a number

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of years and he is a

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prolific writer.

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He's written more books than

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I can keep track of,

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more articles than anybody could

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probably keep track of.

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And he continues to

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produce material.

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And he has been hugely

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influential within Christendom

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in the contemporary.

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world and even wider

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than Christendom,

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he has had an impact on

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the wider culture.

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So who is this guy,

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Stanley Hauerwas? Well,

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he's a little complicated

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to introduce,

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and I'm not going to pretend to

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give you a across the board

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complete biography of Hauerwas.

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I'm not even going

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to attempt that.

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Nor am I going to claim to give

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you the last word on who

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Stanley Hauerwas is.

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I want to give you enough

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to be able to say, okay,

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I'm a Lutheran,

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and I don't know this guy.

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What do I need to know

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about him? Well,

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Stanley Hauerwas grew up as a

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young boy as a Methodist in

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Texas, son of a bricklayer,

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and had interest in theology.

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And so he started studying

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theology,

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ended up going to Yale and was

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part of the Yale school taught

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by people like Fry and Lindbeck

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and ended up teaching for a

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little while at Augustana

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College and rubbed doubles

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with some Lutherans.

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Then he ended up at Notre Dame

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and then finally at Duke.

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And so along the way,

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he was influenced by

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significant forces.

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And one of those forces while he

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was at Notre Dame was

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a guy named Yoder.

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And Yoder taught him a lot about

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pacifism nonviolence.

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And about the whole consistency

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of actually living what he would

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call the politics of Jesus.

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So Hauerwas describes himself

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at times as a Methodist,

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Catholic, Anglican, mennonite,

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or various terms,

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take your pick.

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He loves the liturgy

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and the church.

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He has a high regard

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for the church.

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He is completely

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agreement with the idea

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of nonviolence,

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and he is still involved in a

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lot of Methodist circles and has

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Anglican connections now with

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his wife and has all these

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different influences going on.

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He is exceedingly conservative

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on many things,

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he's exceedingly radical

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on many things,

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and so he's quite confounding

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for a lot of people,

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and he's very difficult to

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neatly pigeonhole in

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any one category.

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So that's what Hauerwas is

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about. In his early career,

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he wrote a lot about community

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and virtue,

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and that's why I was

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interested in him.

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Now he's writing about so many

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different things, right.

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About academy and about

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the university.

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He's written a lot

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about the church.

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He is a strong advocate for the

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handicapped and very much a

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voice for pro life issues.

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And so he's an interesting

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individual who's had a

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significant influence on my

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thinking in many areas.

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Some would call him

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a neo anabaptist.

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That's the term that James

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Hunter uses for him,

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which is probably fairly

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accurate in many ways.

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And yet Hauerwas I think has much to

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teach us about what it actually

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means to be the church in a

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world that is not interested in

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learning from the church and

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what it means to faithfully

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confess the way that the church

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calls us to confess.

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So that's a little bit

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about Hauerwas,

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just to kind of give you a

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flavor of who he is and maybe

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where he fits into the

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spectrum of things.