Reviews

Approaching the End: Eschatological Reflections on Church, Politics, and Life by Stanley Hauerwas

drbobcornwall's review against another edition

3.0

Stanley Hauerwas has his fans and his detractors. I'm not in the Hauerwas camp, but have begun to better understand him (I think). In Approaching the End Hauerwas addresses matters of church, politics, life and death from an eschatalogical perspective. The book is a series of essays that are interrelated in one sense, but don't build on each other. Thus, as the author notes, one can begin wherever one pleases. The essays are organized, however, according to three categories -- theology, church and politics, and finally life and death. It would be helpful, to start the reading with the first section on theology, especially if you're new to Hauerwas, so that you can get a sense of what he means by eschatology.

This is very much a collection of academically oriented essays -- that is, this isn't a book for beginners. There is much interaction with philosophy, especially Aristotle. At the core of Hauerwas' vision is the belief that the church is a social entity of itself, and that while not advocating disengagement from society -- it is from the context of the church that political action and even medicine should be engaged.

This is an interesting book, for it includes many of the areas that Hauerwas deems important. What was interesting for me was to see how he envisioned the relationship of medicine to faith -- reminding us that we are more than bodies, but we are also embodied beings.

timhoiland's review

3.0

“[Christians] believe that time has a narrative logic, which means that time is not just one damn thing after another. The story of creation is meant to remind us that all that exists lends witness to the glory of God, giving history a significance otherwise unavailable. Creation, redemption, and reconciliation are names that, Christians believe, constitute the basic plotline that makes history more than a tale told by an idiot.”