Stanley Hauerwas

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at the Divinity School of Duke University. Though he is often identified as an ethicist, his work is more properly described as theology. Certainly his work involves questions many associate with ethics, but his primary intent is to show in what way theological convictions make no sense unless they are actually embodied in our lives. To that end, he was among the first to reclaim the importance of character and the virtues for the display of Christian living. He has also drawn attention to the importance of narrative for explicating the interrelation of practical reason and personal identity, and correlatively the significance of the church as the necessary context for Christian formation and moral reflection. Accordingly, his work draws on a great range of literatures -- from classical, philosophical, and theological texts to contemporary political theory. He also works in medical ethics, issues of war and peace, and the care of the mentally handicapped.

A graduate of Yale Divinity School (B.D. 1965) and Yale University Graduate School (M.A., M. Phil., Ph.D. 1968), Hauerwas did his undergraduate work at Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas. He taught for two years at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois before joining the faculty of the University of Notre Dame, where he taught from 1970‑1984. He joined the faculty of Duke University in 1984 where he served as Director of Graduate Studies from 1985-1991.

He is a member of the Society for Christian Ethics, the American Academy of Religion, and the American Theological Society. He has delivered lectures world-wide and was invited to give the prestigious Gifford Lectures at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in the year 2000-2001. He has received honorary degrees from DePaul University (1988), University of Edinburgh (1991), and University of Virginia (2006).

Prof. Hauerwas has been co-editor with Alasdair MacIntyre on the Revisions Series published by the University of Notre Dame Press and associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Bioethics. His publications include Vision and Virtue: Essays in Christian Ethical Reflection (Fides, 1974); Character and the Christian Life: A Study in Theological Ethics (Trinity University Press, 1975); Truthfulness and Tragedy (University of Notre Dame Press, 1977); A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic (University of Notre Dame Press, 1982); The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (University of Notre Dame Press, 1983); Against the Nations: War and Survival in a Liberal Society (Winston‑Seabury Press, 1985); Suffering Presence: Theological Reflections on Medicine, the Mentally Handicapped and the Church (University of Notre Dame Press, 1986); Christian Existence Today: Essays on Church, World and Living In Between (Labyrinth Press, 1988); Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, with Will Willimon (Abingdon Press, 1989); and its sequel of 1996, Where Resident Aliens Live; Naming the Silences: God, Medicine and the Problem of Suffering (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990); After Christendom (Abingdon Press, 1991, 1998); Preaching to Strangers, with Will Willimon (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992); Unleashing the Scripture; Freeing the Bible from Captivity to America (Abingdon Press, 1993); Dispatches from the Front: Theological Engagements with the Secular (Duke University Press, 1994); In Good Company: The Church as Polis (University of Notre Dame Press, 1995); Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life, with Will Willimon [also with Scott C. Saye] (Abingdon Press, 1996); Christians among the Virtues: Theological Conversations with Ancient and Modern Ethics, with Charles Pinches (University of Notre Dame Press, 1997); and Wilderness Wanderings: Probing Twentieth -Century Theology and Philosophy (Westview Press, 1997) ; Sanctify Them in the Truth: Holiness Exemplified (Nashville and Edinburgh: Abingdon Press, T&T Clark, 1998); Prayers Plainly Spoken (Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999) ; The Truth About God: The Ten Commandments in Christian Life, with Will Willimon (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999); A Better Hope; Resources for a Church Confronting Capitalism, Democracy, and Postmodernity (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2000); The Hauerwas Reader, eds. John Berkman & Michael Cartwright (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2001); With the Grain of the Universe; The Church’s Witness and Natural Theology, being the Gifford Lectures delivered at the University of St. Andrews in 2001 (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2001); Performing the Faith; Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2004); Disrupting Time: Sermons, Prayers, and Sundries (Eugene OR Cascade Books, 2004); Cross-Shattered Christ: Meditations on the Seven Last Words (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2004); Matthew: A Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2006); The State of the University: Academic Knowledges and the Knowledge of God (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007); Christianity, Democracy and the Radical Ordinary with Romand Coles (Cascade, 2008); Cross-Shattered Church: Reclaiming the Theological Heart of Preaching (Brazos Press, 2009); and Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir (Eerdmans, 2010).