Approaching the End: Eschatological Reflections on Church, Politics, and Life

by Stanley Hauerwas

In this book Stanley Hauerwas explores the significance of eschatological reflection for helping the church negotiate the contemporary world.

In Part One, "Theological Matters," Hauerwas directly addresses his understanding of the eschatological character of the Christian faith. In Part Two, "Church and Politics," he deals with the political reality of the church in light of the end, addressing such issues as the divided character of the church, the imperative of Christian unity, and the necessary practice of sacrifice. End, for Hauerwas, has a double meaning -- both chronological end and end in the sense of "aim" or "goal."

In Part Three, "Life and Death," Hauerwas moves from theology and the church as a whole to focusing on how individual Christians should live in light of eschatology. What does an eschatological approach to life tell us about how to understand suffering, how to form habits of virtue, and how to die?

Genres: Theology, Politics, Church, Religion, Christian

271 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 31, 2013

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

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stanley Hauerwas has his fans and his detractors. I'm not in the Hauerwas camp, but have begun to better understand him (I think). In Approaching the End Hauerwas addresses matters of church, politics, life and death from an eschatalogical perspective. The book is a series of essays that are interrelated in one sense, but don't build on each other. Thus, as the author notes, one can begin wherever one pleases. The essays are organized, however, according to three categories -- theology, church and politics, and finally life and death. It would be helpful, to start the reading with the first section on theology, especially if you're new to Hauerwas, so that you can get a sense of what he means by eschatology.

This is very much a collection of academically oriented essays -- that is, this isn't a book for beginners. There is much interaction with philosophy, especially Aristotle. At the core of Hauerwas' vision is the belief that the church is a social entity of itself, and that while not advocating disengagement from society -- it is from the context of the church that political action and even medicine should be engaged.

This is an interesting book, for it includes many of the areas that Hauerwas deems important. What was interesting for me was to see how he envisioned the relationship of medicine to faith -- reminding us that we are more than bodies, but we are also embodied beings.

[M Christopher · Rating 1 out of 5]

I confess to skimming most of this book of essays. They were, for the most part, disconnected, despite the title's promise of a coherent theme of eschatology. Nor were they particularly theological, being more on the philosophical end and a very personal and private philosophy at that. I found very little that caught my attention.

[Lauma Lapa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is something every church person should read and think of. Shamelessly Christian. Logical and inspiring.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Approaching the End is Stanley Hauerwas' most recent book, although, as he hastens to add, not necessarily his own. Hauerwas has retired fairly recently, but this volume continues to show his intellectual vigour. What the essays in this volume are really about are a consideration of various topics from politics to human life from the point of view of eschatology- or consideration about what are the ends of these things. This isn't an unusual perspective for Hauerwas, but it is explicit in pretty much every essay in this collection.

Of course, in any collection of essay, it is difficult to outline the details of all the arguments and it is probably tedious to try to give the flavour of each essay. The themes which got my attention were, first, the interesting discussion about how the locus of sacrifice has shifted from the church to the state; thus, for me, making sense of things like the primacy of state over church in the loyalties of many Christians as well as why war continues to be encouraged even in this age when it should be patently obvious how destructive it is. A second theme is one that dominates the last few essays: that the mechanistic view of human sciences is something that a Christian should be working against. That is, that we should be considering each other not as a bioloical machine, but as bodies with unique stories and character. Both of these insights are needed challenges to prevailing opinions, both in and outside the Church.

The value in Hauerwas' Approaching the End is to start us on consideration of what does the final end look like in relation to the issues that we face today as Christians and as the Church. For that reason, he remains well worth reading.

[E. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a mixed bag of essays, both in quality and subject matter. They seem to be a bunch of previously uncollected essays that were lumped together. Two themes dominate--Hauerwas commenting again near the end of his career on topics that he has often written about and the eschatological nature of many of those reflections. Thus the "end" being approach is both Hauerwas' and the end of eschatology.

That apparent connection of themes sounded more fascinating than the actual execution. Many of the essays are redundant of Hauerwas' previous work. Some are not that well written.

However, some are excellent and pack great intellectual power. I read the essays "War and Peace" and "Bearing Reality" as Michael drove us to our family's events on Christmas day. They were intellectually overwhelming in the best sense of that idea.

So, I recommend a few of the essays but not the overall book.

[Timothy Hoiland · Rating 3 out of 5]

“[Christians] believe that time has a narrative logic, which means that time is not just one damn thing after another. The story of creation is meant to remind us that all that exists lends witness to the glory of God, giving history a significance otherwise unavailable. Creation, redemption, and reconciliation are names that, Christians believe, constitute the basic plotline that makes history more than a tale told by an idiot.”

[Brad East · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minor Hauerwas, but as always a pleasurable read with thoughtful essays and interesting engagements with recent literature and ideas.