The Quotable Hauerwas

"Wounded Healer, blah blah blah blah blah . . . "

November 6th, 2006, during a public lecture titled "Why North Americans Are Afraid to Die."

Hauerwas was making a point about the willingness of medical schools to intentionally form future doctors, and the willingness of seminaries to let their students make up their own curricula. Hauerwas says it best himself:

In our time it is not unusual for students in divinity school to say something like: "I'm not into Christology this year. I really am into relating." In response they are told: "Well, then, you ought to take some more courses in Clinical Pastoral Education. After all, that is what the ministry is really about today [i.e., relating]. So take some courses that will teach you better how to relate."
It is interesting to contrast that kind of response to someone who might enter medical school thinking, "I'm not really into anatomy this year. I'm into relating. I'd like to take some more courses in psychology." The response in medical schools is radically different from that in divinity schools. Such a student is usually told: "We're not really interested in what you're interested in. You either take anatomy or you can simply ship out!"

From Dispatches From the Front: Theological Engagements with the Secular, page 156.

Two excellent questions arise here. Firstly, why are medical schools so willing to form their students into particular moral agents, while seminaries are willing to buy into the idea that we are able, with very little experience, to decide how to best form ourselves into a particular kind of moral agent? I have no answer to this question, though I know the result. What the seminary is unwilling to take, the world is willing to keep, and our existing formation as makers of our own destiny keep consumer spirituality and syncretism alive.

Secondly, what does Christology have to do with moral formation? The answer to this question is easy: Christology has everything to do with moral formation. Further, our formation by Christological narrative has everything to do with our ability to be good pastors. Without knowing who Christ is, and what work Christ has done on our behalf, we will be formed according to the values of a world that values choice without formation. Further, without Christology and the proclamation inherent in Christian living, all we will have left is "relating." But relating to what end? Relating, without proclamation, is the tacit support of a personal truth. This personally derived destiny, without the interrogation of a narrative that tells the story of the whole world and our place in it, will fill the vacuum left by the absence of this particular proclamation, that of the living Christ in our lives.

Hauerwas' visit has made for some good blogging. Check back with Elliot, who has posted this and this. Paul has posted this and this. Catherine has responded to this post of mine. I also need to point you here; Hauerwas' visit meant I got a free gift from the generous folk at Sub Ratione Dei.

Perogys with Hauerwas

Stanley Hauerwas has been here in Winnipeg for a couple of days, to preach and to give a lecture titled "Why North Americans are Afraid to Die." I went to both, but by far the highlight for me was the opportunity to sit down with him, and four other people, for perogys at a local Ukrainian restaurant.

I'd been reading a fair amount of his writing in preparation for his visit, so I knew we were all in for a treat. Hauerwas is wonderfully cantankerous, outspoken, and a man who loves the church. This all comes through in his writing. And in person, he did not disappoint.

The conversation was all over the map. We started with homosexuality in the church and the mistake to bring rights language into the debate, as ordination is always a privilege; we then moved to the difficulty of ministering to people outside the church because of the lack of any shared narrative, and the subsequent tacit support of personal religious syncretism, at least in contexts where genuine sharing of faith is supressed (like in chaplaincy); following that we spoke about abortion, virginity and promiscuity; and then, to my surprise, we had at least nominal agreement that Christians can talk about just war, but that the best place to start was always local policing. More interesting was the thought that Christians might make the best police force, because our willingness to lay down our lives for our friends would mean that we would be willing to police without weapons or the threat of the violence needed to protect ourselves.

But what impressed me most about Hauerwas, besides his intellect, was his willingness to be truthful. I'm afraid this was not something I learned in seminary. I've probably bought into the idea that to be truthful is to not be pastoral. But Dr. Hauerwas was friendly, laughed a lot, joked, and truthfully told us what he thought about some very touchy subjects. His friendliness and truthfullness were not at odds with each other, at least around the lunch table.

Our conversation that day is leading me to think that not being truthful may actually betray a lack of respect and dignity in relationships, including pastoral ones. There is more dignity in a relationship that is truthful because we are not afraid to reveal ourselves to each other, while silence is to be content in being misunderstood. Speaking truthfully may be, in the end, far more pastoral than silence or evasion, because to be truthful is to bring what is in darkness into the light, and reveals faithfullness through the hope of reconciliation.

I'll write a little more on the lecture tomorrow, but for now you might want to visit Elliot at Claw of the Conciliator. He was at the lectures and another event that I didn't get to, and he has some interesting things to say about the Jehovah's Witnesses.