Hauerwas

Stanley Hauerwas ranks among the most influential and inventive theologians working today, and his writing has earned a wide readership and considerable esteem. Nicholas Healy, who shares much of Hauerwas's outlook, notes that his work has not yet faced the rigorous, extended scrutiny that a thinker of such weight deserves.

Approaching Hauerwas from the standpoint of systematic theology, Healy aims to remedy this in Hauerwas: A (Very) Critical Introduction. The book begins with an overview of Hauerwas's output, then examines three central areas of his thought: his method, his social theory, and his theology.

Healy's central claim is that Hauerwas's preoccupation with ethics and with the church's role in defending the faith to outsiders shapes his thinking so thoroughly that it distorts Christian doctrine. Healy sets out the weaknesses he finds in Hauerwas's theology and argues that it requires substantial revision.