Category: Stanley Hauerwas

Comparing Stanley Grenz and Stanley Hauerwas

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.

March 4, 2009
Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer course with Stanley Hauerwas
I am taking a directed study course entitled “Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer” this semester with Stanley Hauerwas. Here are the books I am reading:

Bonhoeffer Books
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 5)
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Ethics (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 6)
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Letters and Papers from Prison (This has not appeared yet in the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works series. It will be volume 8.) Note from Fortress Press: Letters and Papers from Prison is the equivalent of vol. 8 in our DBW
  series; it won’t be published until 2010, so Mr. Rowell should use the
  translation widely available. Context and background for that whole period and
  documents are in our DBW 16, Conspiracy and Imprisonment, 1940-1945. http://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/item.jsp?clsid=178012&productgroupid=0&isbn=0800683161
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Christ the Center Note from Fortress Press: Christ the Center is the translation of Bonhoeffer’s 1933 lectures on
  Christology. Here, too, the DBW translation is not yet available until this
  fall, in Berlin: 1932-1933 (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 12) (available now for pre-order)
Other courses I am taking

I have noted in other posts the other courses I am taking:

Books for Theology of Karl Barth course with Willie Jennings

What does Hauerwas’s course have to do with church leadership?

and the course I am precepting for:
Ken Carder’s course The Local Church in Mission to God’s World books
January 27, 2009
Aristotle on Facebook and Twitter

"To be a friend to many people in the complete kind of friendship is not possible . . . it is necessary to get experience and to come into intimate acquaintance with each other, which is of the utmost difficulty. But it is possible to be pleased by many people for usefulness and pleasure, since there are many people of those sorts, and their services are provided in a short time" (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book Eight, 1158a, (trans. Joe Sachs).

Aristotle is right. In order to have strong friendships, we need to spend significant time with one another. We need people who believe in us, tell us the truth, and support us. I think of small groups, phone calls, long walks, and long drives with friends.

But I admit that I have come to also really enjoy Facebook and Twitter. My Facebook friends are people I know from real life (high school, college, church, seminary, colleagues, etc.) On Twitter, I follow some Christian leaders, authors and pastors. My Facebook Status Updates and Posted Items tend to be more amusing and personal–about my kids, witty remarks, etc. My Twitter tweets are more thoughtful comments usually pertaining to church leadership and theology.

Interestingly I think I exchange what Aristotle calls "pleasure" through Facebook–joking around–seeing what my friends are up to. I exchange what Aristotle calls "usefulness" through Twitter.

I think the usefulness and pleasure of Facebook and Twitter
have to do with your particular life situation and personality. Because I am usually
either reading or watching my 3 and 1 year old boys and my laptop is nearby, it happens to fit
my lifestyle. My wife Amy
on the other hand neither blogs, nor has Facebook or Twitter. Instead she chats with people on
the phone and at her workplace–our church. Aristotle is on to something–we all need solid friendships of equality but we also all enjoy other relationships that bring us smiles (pleasure) and insight (usefulness).

Other info:

If you are someone who knows me from real life, you can find my Facebook account here.

If you are interested in church leadership and my blog, please follow me at my Twitter page. Or you can just go check it out anonymously without joining Twitter.

I am reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics for Stanley Hauerwas's course Happiness, the Life of Virtue, and Friendship. I have posted about that here.

There are lots of interesting comments from Aristotle about relationships in book 8 of the Nicomachean Ethics that I thought were relevant to Facebook and Twitter. You can access an old translation online for free. For example, Aristotle addresses the issue of power in relationships. In Twitter, power is obvious. If you follow someone but they don't follow you, they are in the power position. If they decide to follow you, you are equal. In Facebook, everyone is equal because you both have to agree to be friends. Now, there are people who accept everyone as a Facebook friend and follow everyone who follows you on Twitter, but this has some negative effects on the functioning of the applications–they are cluttered with people you really do not know.

January 21, 2009