Unsettling Arguments: A Festschrift on the Occasion of Stanley Hauerwas's 70th Birthday

"Good arguments sustain good friendships, and this volume bears witness to the extraordinary friendships that Hauerwas and his students have been drawn into. Yes, there's gratitude and devotion here, but it's the criticisms that stand out, that make this a particularly feisty festschrift.

His dependence on Yoder runs afoul of his devotion to Aristotle. He domesticates Wittgenstein's skepticism in order to discount his own individualism. He misconstrues the church as polis, makes a mess of practical reason, and gives metaphysics short shrift. He bungles the relationship between disability and grace, misunderstands how liturgy affects the moral life, and runs rough shod over the just war tradition. He is not yet a pacifist! He is an heir of the liberalism he despises! And he's a lousy dresser to boot!

Those concerned that Hauerwas's talk of tradition, community, and virtue encourages slavish emulation of authorities and exemplars will find little evidence of that here. Rather, what we find is appreciation mixed with complaint, confidence leavened with doubt, and loyalty expressed in conversation. That we might all have such students, such friends!"—John Bowlin Princeton Theological Seminary