Character and the Christian Life

Stanley Hauerwas

Description

Some fourteen years after its initial publication, this important and influential book, with a new, substantial, and candid introduction by the author, is available in a reasonably priced paperback edition. In this volume Hauerwas assesses recent interest in the “ethics of character” and suggests areas in his own work that now call for some corrective and/or further work.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Religion
• Christianisme
• Protestant
• Calvinist
• Christian Theology
• Spiritual Growth
• Christian Living
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Protestantism
• Catholic moral theology
• Catholicism
• Ethics
• Calvinism
• Protestantisme

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 1989
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268088132
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

CHARACTER AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE: A STUDY IN THEOLOGICAL ETHICS
CHARACTER AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE:
A STUDY IN THEOLOGICAL ETHICS
by
Stanley Hauerwas
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
Notre Dame
Copyright 1975 by Trinity University Press
Introduction, Copyright 1985 by Stanley Hauerwas
University of Notre Dame Press edition 1994
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
Reprinted in 2001, 2009
Printed with permission of Trinity University and Stanley Hauerwas
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hauerwas, Stanley, 1940-
Character and the Christian Life : a study in theological ethics / by Stanley Hauerwas.
p. cm.
Originally published: San Antonio : Trinity University Press, 1975. With new introd.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 13: 978-0-268-00772-0 (alk. paper)
ISBN 10: 0-268-00772-1 (alk. paper)
ISBN 13: 978-0-268-08812-5 (hardback)
1. Character. 2. Christian ethics. I. Title.
[BJ1521.H355 1994]
241-dc20
94-11853
CIP
ISBN 9780268088132
This book is printed on acid-free paper .
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail] .
To
My Mother and Father
PREFACE
The longer we live, the more we owe. To list the many people who need to be thanked for the support and help I have received since this book was first published would make this Preface far too long. But I must thank Lois Boyd, the director and editor of Trinity University Press, for her continued support over the years. She has been a marvelous editor, but I am even more blessed to be able to claim her as a friend. William O. Walker, Jr., general editor of the Trinity University Monograph Series in Religion, made very helpful editorial suggestions for the new Introduction.
I am also indebted to the many students who have studied with me, for they have never ceased trying to educate me. I am particularly grateful to those in my first seminar in theological ethics at Duke University who read through Character and the Christian Life with me at the end of a course on the writings of Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, and Barth. Compared to these works, my little book cannot help but appear just that, a little book. They helped me see better, however, what I needed to say in the new Introduction.
Finally, I need to thank those who have been present throughout. Anne and Adam, while always remaining constant, have never ceased to grow, thus making my life richer. This book is dedicated to my mother and father, Joanna and Coffee Hauerwas, now of Carthage, Texas. My mother taught me never to quit, and my father taught me that you get somewhere by laying one brick at a time. Inadequate as this book is, I hope it at least honors to some extent their spirit and grit.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
I
THE IDEA OF CHARACTER: A THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL OVERVIEW
A. Theological Issues
B. Philosophical Issues: A Conceptual Analysis
C. Character, Self-Agency, and the Nature of the Self
D. Character As the Agent s Point of View
II
ARISTOTLE AND THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE ETHICS OF CHARACTER
A. Character: Ethical and Anthropological Presuppositions
B. Thought and Action: The Determinants of Character
(1) The Relation of Desire, Reason, and Choice
(2) The Nature of Practical Reason
(3) Aquinas on Thought and Action
C. Character as the Qualification of the Self
III
THE IDEA OF CHARACTER: A CONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSAL
A. The Self as Agent
B. The Primacy of the Agent s Perspective for the Determination of Action
C. Agency, Intention, and Sociality
D. Explanations and Causes
E. Character as the Qualification of Self-Agency
F. Character as Orientation of the Self
IV
A CRITIQUE OF THE CONCEPT OF CHARACTER IN THEOLOGICAL ETHICS
A. The Problematic Nature of Theological Ethics
(1) Bultmann: The Ethical Denial of Ethics
(2) Barth: The Theological Denial of Ethics
B. The Nature of the Self
(1) Bultmann: The Self as History
(2) Barth: The Self as Freedom
C. Character and the Normative Form of the Christian Life
(1) Bultmann: The Ethics of Discontinuity
(2) Barth: The Continuity of Christ
D. Barth, Bultmann, and Situation Ethics
V
SANCTIFICATION AND THE ETHICS OF CHARACTER
A. Justification and Sanctification
B. Sanctification, Works, and the Ethics of Character
C. Sanctification as the Formation of Character
D. Sanctification, Character, and Growth
E. The Reality of the Christian Life
EPILOGUE
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
On the Alleged Popularity of an Ethics of Character
Ten years ago, when this book was first published, it was a shot in the dark. Character and/or the virtues were seldom discussed, much less considered central for understanding the moral life. There were glimmers here and there that suggested these might be fruitful themes to develop, but little sustained work was being done in that direction. For example, in philosophy, G. E. M. Anscombe and Stuart Hampshire were calling for renewed attention to moral psychology; in theology, H. Richard Niebuhr s concentration on the nature of the self and James M. Gustafson s sense of the importance of the dispositions at least suggested character and the virtues might be fruitful categories for investigation. But on the whole the matters with which this book deals were thought worthy at best of mention in footnotes in serious works in ethics and theology.
Now it seems everything has changed. Not only are character and virtue no longer ignored, they have even begun to be regarded with some suspicion. Thus Gilbert Meilaender in his recent book, The Theory and Practice of Virtue , suggests, before Christian ethicists latch too quickly onto an ethic of virtue, it is important to remember that an emphasis on character may sit uneasily with some strands of Christian belief. 1 Quite apart from the substance of Meilaender s claim, what is striking is that not only is it now assumed that something called an ethic of virtue exists, but it can also be seen as a threat.
What has happened is that what only ten years ago was a side issue in ethics now seems to command widespread attention. I certainly do not believe that the new interest in an ethic of virtue is the result of Trinity University Press taking the risk to publish an unknown author who had written on an even more obscure subject. I would like to think, however, that Character and the Christian Life has not hurt, and may even have helped in some way, this renewed interest in character and the virtues.
No doubt it is this renewed interest that has justified the third printing of this book with a new Introduction. As welcome as it is, however, I must admit I fear such attention. I fear it because I do not assume that an ethics of virtue or character is, as it is often characterized, an alternative to an ethic of obligation. Too often I find many, with the best will in the world, assume that the meaning and validity of an ethics of virtue has been established. As a result, they do not think they need to return to basic issues in moral psychology and theology that the emphasis on virtue requires. If Character and the Christian Life does nothing else, it should be a reminder that most of the work for understanding the moral life in terms of virtue and character is still to be done.
Yet the question still remains how to understand the renewed interest in character and the virtues. In some ways I suspect a Thomas S. Kuhnian-like explanation may be appropriate. For in effect the paradigm of ethics inherited from Kant has been burdened by so many anomalies, has died the death of so many qualifications, that a new alternative simply needed to be suggested. Thus some may well have been attracted to the emphasis on virtue and character because it offered a relief from boredom. Such reasons are not to be gainsayed if you believe, as I do, that at least one of the tests of validity in ethical reflection is whether it is interesting and even entertaining.
And, of course, Alasdair C. MacIntyre s After Virtue happened. 2 A book composed of such bold, erudite, contentious, and global insights and claims could not be ignored. With his virtuoso performance MacIntyre has changed the agenda of contemporary philosophers and theologians by an almost violent redirection of their attention. At least for philosophers the virtues can no longer be ignored because MacIntyre cannot be ignored. Of course I am sure MacIntyre would be the first to suggest that such is the case only because he has had many colleagues to help him along the way-particularly those who had continued to do the patient scholarly work on Aristotle. Yet it is MacIntyre s great achievement to have told the story of recent philosophy that makes intelligible why so little attention has been paid to virtue and character and why it is now imperative that they no longer be ignored.
No doubt MacIntyre s book helps explain the renewed interest in the virtues among philosophers and theologians, but I think this is not sufficient to understand the general interest in character and virtue among those less philosophically schooled. I confess I have no ready explanation, as I suspect it involves many of the complex historical and sociological factors MacIntyre developed in After Virtue . In an increasingly fragmented world one would expect a renewed appreciation for the virtues and the correlative sense of community. Yet such interest can also distort the renewed emphasis on character as our subsequent accounts can more be shaped by than shape the individualism that has occasioned the new interest in character and virtue in the first place. There are and should be no easy victories.
This is a reminder that in spite of the recent interest in virtue and character those who emphasize these notions remain