Stanley Hauerwas, the grain of the universe, and the most ‘natural’ natural theology

Abstract

Any suggestion that in his new book, With the Grain of the Universe: The Church's Witness and Natural Theology, Stanley Hauerwas might at last be presenting a precis of a systematic theological project would likely be met with skepticism. The seemingly ad hoc manner in which his books have emerged over the years indicates that he is not working on anything that resembles a project. And as Hauerwas himself would be the first to declare, he is definitely not engaging in what might even remotely be deemed to be systematic theology. In fact, in his opening Gifford Lecture he admits that he is not even ‘a proper theologian’, but instead is ‘a member of an even more disreputable field called Christian ethics’ (p. 9). Yet, if the accolades that adorn the back cover of the book are not merely promotional hype, this volume is indeed the definitive statement of the Hauerwas program. For example, Robert Louis Wilken asserts that With the Grain of theUniverse is ‘a book we have long awaited’. And Peter Ochs announces that it ‘offers the comprehensive theological argument we have long requested’.