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    Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics
    Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics
    Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics
    Ebook374 pages5 hours

    Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics

    By Stanley Hauerwas

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    Some fourteen years after its initial publication, this important and influential book, with a new, substantial, and candid introduction by the author, is available in a reasonably priced paperback edition. In this volume Hauerwas assesses recent interest in the “ethics of character” and suggests areas in his own work that now call for some corrective and/or further work.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Notre Dame Press
    Release dateJan 15, 1989
    ISBN9780268088132
    Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics
    Author

    Stanley Hauerwas

    Stanley Hauerwas is professor emeritus of ethics at Duke University where he held the Gilbert T. Rowe chair for more than twenty years. Among his numerous publications are Sanctify Them in the Truth: Holiness Exemplified (1998) and Living Gently in a Violent World, with Jean Vanier (2008). His latest publication is Fully Alive: The Apocalyptic Humanism of Karl Barth (University of Virginia Press, 2023).

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      Book preview

      Character and the Christian Life - Stanley Hauerwas

      CHAPTER I

      THE IDEA OF CHARACTER: A THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL OVERVIEW

      A. THEOLOGICAL ISSUES

      Since the idea of character has not played a prominent role in recent theological ethics, especially in the Protestant context, it seems wise in this first chapter to introduce the general problems with which any theory of character must deal. Such an overview should make clear why the kind of issues and detailed analysis of the later chapters are necessary for an intelligible account of the nature and ethical significance of the idea of character. A general account of the idea of character will aid in explaining the interrelation between the theological and philosophical foci of this essay.

      Every theological ethic involves a central metaphor that shapes its conception of moral existence and sets its general systematic orientation. Such metaphors determine which problems are treated, the weight and significance attributed to the various aspects of the moral life, and the systematic relation between the parts of the scheme. In the theological context these metaphors must both illuminate human moral experience and do justice to the nature of God. The adequacy of any one metaphor, therefore, depends on how well it enlivens the reality of God and the nature of man and his moral experience.¹

      The metaphors central to this work are virtue and character. I am concerned with explicating and analyzing how the self acquires unity and duration in relation to the Christian’s conviction that Christ is the bringer of God’s kingdom. Even though these metaphors are independent of any one theological position they tend to be associated with those theologies that are concerned with the Christian’s growth and sanctification. This essay tends to be in tension with traditional Protestant moral theology, especially in its Lutheran mode, for in a sense I am attempting to rethink Protestant theological ethics from the point of view of the traditional Catholic stress on virtue and character. One of the central theological issues of this essay is whether this can be done without abandoning the primary theological themes traditionally associated with Protestant Christianity.

      Protestant theological ethics has tended to shape its conception of the moral life around the metaphor of command. The Christian’s obligation, in the light of this metaphor, is obedience to the law and performance of the will of God. The object of the moral life is not to grow but to be repeatedly ready to obey each new command. Of course the status of the law and the content of God’s will and how it is known has been a matter of controversy within the Protestant tradition. Nonetheless, it has generally been assumed that God’s relation to man is fundamentally to be understood in terms of command and

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