Approaching the End: Eschatological Reflections on Church, Politics, and Life. By STANLEY HAUERWAS.

Abstract

This is a collection of papers and addresses written over a period of years (we are not told what the provenance of each piece is) covering the range of topics we have come to expect from the author: war and politics, medical ethics, and the virtues. In the preface he tells us that eschatology will be a key theme and that those familiar with his work will nevertheless find some surprises. I didn't find either of these claims to be true but I did learn a great deal about what I ought to have read but have not (including the author's commentary on Matthew), and I did find what I have consistently found with Hauerwas, that he is never dull. Here and there, especially in the discussion of Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello, the cross-references of what x said about y in relation to z are positively Byzantine and make the argument difficult to follow, but on the whole Hauerwas's philosophically informed style and humour are ever present. Hauerwas writes as an Anabaptist Methodist who takes both Barth and Aquinas seriously: I cannot imagine a better basis on which to respond theologically to the present.