Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary: Conversations Between a Radical Democrat and a Christian

by Stanley Hauerwas, Romand Coles

In Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary, theologian Stanley Hauerwas and political theorist Romand Coles reflect about possibilities and practices of radical democracy and radical ecclesia that take form in the textures of relational care for the radical ordinary. They seek to shift political and theological imaginations beyond the limits of contemporary political formations (such as global capitalism, the mega-state, and empire), which they argue are based upon both the denial and production of death. Hauerwas and Coles call us to a revolutionary politics of "wild patience" that seeks transformation through attentive practices of listening, relationship-building, and a careful tending to places, common goods, and diverse possibilities for flourishing. Both authors translate back and forth across--as well as dwell in the tensions between--the languages of radical democracy and of trial, cross, and resurrection. Engaging each other through a variety of genres--from essays, to letters, to cowriting and dialogue--Hauerwas and Coles seek to enact a politics that is evangelical in its radical receptivity across strange differences and that cultivates power in relation to vulnerability. The authors argue that there is a strong relation between hope and imagination, as well as between imagination and the encounter with and memory of those who have lived with receptive generosity toward the radical ordinary. Hence, throughout this book they think extensively in relation to specific lives and from Ella Baker and the early Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizing efforts for beloved community and civil rights, to L'Arche communities founded by Jean Vanier, to contemporary faith-based radical democratic organizing efforts in dozens of cities by the Industrial Areas Foundation. Pushing and pulling each other into new and insightful journeys of political imagination, this conversation between a radical Christian and a radical democratic trickster spurs us toward a politics that acknowledges, tends to, and enacts the powers of the radical ordinary.

Genres: Theology, Politics

378 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Stanley Hauerwas (PhD, Yale University) is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He is the author of numerous books, including Cross-Shattered Christ, A Cross-Shattered Church, War and the American Difference, and Matthew in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible.

America's Best Theologian according to Time Magazine (2001), though he rejected the title saying, "Best is not a theological category."

Reviews

[Brian Hohmeier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense, discontinuous, sometimes a slog of fine-grained theory to express relatively simple concepts, but this collection of essays and letters is worth the read if only for an astounding dialogue between Coles and Hauerwas that closes. The book truly is about a conversation more than a stand-alone contribution or a 'monograph' on radical democracy and Christianity, and in that sense it stands incomplete, but it is a conversation worth sitting for and listening to.

[Brian Gumm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early chapters are very strong, and begin to get a bit repetitious past the middle of the book. Still, a very important book and highly recommended for those seeking the path of radical discipleship in community and loving ones neighbors and enemies.