An atheistic sense to Stanley Hauerwas's theology. (February 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tran, Jonathan
• Is Part Of: Review and expositor. Volume 112:Number 1(2015:Feb.)
• Page Start: 119
• Page End: 132
• Publication Date: 2015-02
• Subjects: atheism -- Cavell -- Hauerwas -- Healy -- Kelsey -- language; Baptists -- Periodicals; Theology -- Periodicals; 286
• DOI: 10.1177/0034637314564550
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0034-6373

Abstract

This essay argues that Stanley Hauerwas' Christian ethics exemplifies a manner of speech that does not premise divine activity as necessary for theological judgment. An anti-constantinian reticence regarding divine activity sits at the heart of Hauerwas' work, giving it an atheistic sense emblematic of secularized cultural conditions, marking his theology as decidedly baptist. The essay takes the form of a sustained engagement with Nicholas Healy's incisive critique that Hauerwas disastrously joins together what should remain apart, what David Kelsey distinguishes as logics of belief and logics of coming to belief. After passing on a defensive response to Healy, the article advances a constructive response that would have theological speech take up residence between logics of belief and coming to belief, which the article re-imagines in terms of what Stanley Cavell calls "comedies of remarriage."