Stanley Hauerwas

Interesting blog on Hauerwas and the Bible Gestapo. After reading Hauerwas in seminary and in the process acquiring a critical dislike for the contents of his writing, this critique comes as a breath of fresh air. The inconsistencies of Hauerwas are equally invisible to his disciples and obvious to his critics.

Hauerwas is an advocate of Virtue Ethics. While this system has much to commend it, it is also not without problems. The interesting quote in the blog is:

I do not believe, in the Church’s current circumstance, that each person in the Church thereby is given the right to interpret the Scripture

For Hauerwas, only those who have developed the virtues are capable of understanding the Bible rightly.

This begs a question in the case of Hauerwas. To make such a claim and have the claim not self-stultify, Hauerwas must be making the claim that he, himself, has the necessary virtue to make this argument. At the very least, wouldn't the virtue that he lacks then be humility?

The Gospel is simple enough that a child can believe.