Hauerwas provides some really piercing insights in The Peaceable Kingdom, many of which resonated for me. I love his understanding of prayer and the Eucharist. He convinced me about the importance of virtue ethics in working toward Christian formation. (The very fact that we use that word, formation, so often in the church suggests that virtue ethics might be a useful paradigm.) In the end, his vision of a non-violent religion patiently "doing one thing," witnessing to the truth of God's grace no matter whether it makes us effective or not is powerful, really expresses both the challenge and the joy of God's calling.

But there's a lot that cannot be taken lightly here. Where much of the best stuff in the book comes from a humble appreciation of the Christian calling, there are some awful, awful things in Hauerwas's primer that seem to come from an arrogant refusal to engage with hard realities. When in dismissing abortion he says "you learn about the value of life, and in particular human life that comes in the form of our children, because your community and your parents acting on behalf of your community, do not practice abortion," Hauerwas is willfully ignoring the reality that nearly all communities do practice abortion, from the most lily-white, affluent Christian communities, to the poor, to women of color, to atheists and Pagans. We just don't talk about it. He engages straw-feminists in arguing against the legality of abortion, never coming close to the trenchant criticisms real feminists have made of the coercive anti-choice agenda.

All in all, Stanley Hauerwas is a theologian who must be approached with significant suspicion. To the extent that he has let the Christian tradition inform a humble approach to ethics that seeks to live into God's kingdom as it exists now, and look toward its fulfillment in the future, he provides powerful tools for envisioning the Christian life. But too often he lets simple, powerful ideas get the best of him, and that leads him to disregard the very real challenges that face us when we can act effectively. Unless one is willing to struggle with the two Hauerwases, it is difficult to recommend this account of Christian ethics without reservation. ( )