Update March 27, 2009
The audio for the lectures is now available free online at the Carey Theological College website here.
Original post March 4, 2009:
Stanley Hauerwas is giving the Stanley Grenz lectures in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada this Sunday and Monday.
I had Pastoral Ethics and Systematic Theology C with Grenz at Regent College / Carey Theological College in 1999 and 2001.
I have Stanley Hauerwas for Happiness, the Life of Virtue and Friendship and Theology of Bonhoeffer right now.
I liked Grenz very much and spent time with him just weeks before he tragically died in 2005. I am also enjoying Hauerwas very much.
Here is a little comparison of the two:
[Update April 16, 2009–I have heard that neither Hauerwas nor Edna Grenz thought I got this right! I add some revisions below that complicate my generalizations. They didn't give me any specific criticism].
Grenz lectured for the person in the pew; Hauerwas for grad students [though Hauerwas's whole project is to speak to the Church and much of his teaching is transparent and influential on regular folks. See the Hauerwas Reader. The average person won't get everything but will get his main emphases].
Both could be boring but both could become animated! Grenz was pious
while Hauerwas is salty-mouthed. Both were wonderfully generous with
their students. Grenz really understood evangelicals–Hauerwas doesn't
get them at all [that said Hauerwas has diagnosed America incredibly well and many of those critiques apply to evangelicals]. Grenz loved the Bible; Hauerwas loves philosophy. [Again, this is not true. Both loved philosophy and the Bible. But when speaking and writing I think Grenz referred to Scripture more and Hauerwas to philosophers more.]. Both stressed the Triune God, the church and good theology. Grenz was
a bridge-builder; Hauerwas is polemical [Again of course this a carciature. Hauerwas has bridged between United Methodist and Catholics. Grenz had some folks who didn't like his work]. Both wanted to be liked but
also understood they were tempted to enjoy being liked. Grenz showed
Peanuts cartoons and played camp songs on his guitar to begin class;
Hauewas goes to morning prayer everyday and begins class with prayers
of saints. Both were prolific writers. Grenz wrote a systematic
theology; Hauerwas is known for his essays which resist
systematization. Grenz talked warmly about his Baptist pastor's kid
upbringing; Hauerwas tries to awaken Methodist churches so they
will not be like those of his childhood [I have heard Hauerwas read from his soon-to-be-released memoirs and this might not be the right way to characterize his upbringing. He often talks about the pressure to come forward at playing of 'Just as I am.'] Both were Americans–but
Grenz spent lots of time in Germany and Canada [Grenz might have become a Canadian citizen I'm not sure]; whereas Hauerwas still
thinks of himself as Texan. Both had their critics and their fans.
Both wanted their students to think for themselves. [This is not exactly true as both wanted to shape and train their students to think to some degree like they do!] Both spent most
of their careers at one place. Both wore jeans and running shoes.
4 replies on “Comparing Stanley Grenz and Stanley Hauerwas”
Dude, that’s so good and so right on. I had Grenz once and that actually for an independent study. I sat in on his Sys C class. I remember the cartoons and his love for the laity. I still find it weird that he’s dead; very much alive of course, but still dead to this world.
Sigh.
But thanks for the comparison. Very enlightening. I wonder what Stanley H. would think of your rendition.
I too had Stan for several courses at Regent (probably the same sys theo class as you). I’d completely forgotten about the Peanuts cartoons. His classes were like Pannenberg at a campfire!
I used to always wonder what Grenz thought about Hauerwas… both eschewed foundationalism and struggled against their own traditions. The personality distinctions probably explain as much as anything.
Little known facts: Stan was actually a dual citizen of Canada. A year after his death, Francis Fiorenza intimated at an AAR session that had Stan lived, he’d have been a frontrunner for the evangelical chair at Harvard Divinity School.
Andy,
Interesting comparison. Let me challenge one point. Hauerwas has stated publicly — to the consternation of many academics — that the last thing he wants students to do is to think for themselves, precisely because their minds are worthless until he has trained them to think like him. Of course, detractors fail to grasp that Hauerwas is making a point about the significance of Christian community and Christian tradition in that statement. One of the chief tricks of modernity, he argues, is to convince us that we are all individuals who are free to make up our own minds according to universal principles of reason apart from any larger community or story.
Steven, Ah yes. You are critiquing the point, “Both wanted their students to think for themselves.” You are right. Hauerwas regularly notes that the thinking is a habit and it needs to be trained by a master. I suppose I was merely pointing out my personal experience with him in class that he is a good listener and generous when responding to student comments. He had all of his teaching assistants do lectures in Happiness, Life of Virtue and Friendship this semester and he was effusive in praise about each one. Thanks for your thoughtful point. I will keep thinking about it.
andy