I'm at Duke this week doing continuing eduation through a Divinity School program called the Clergy Study Leave program. I'm here sitting in on classes, meeting with professors, catching up on reading and recharging my spiritual/physical/emotional batteries. I've completed an online course on pastoral care this week and will also be looking ahead to Thanksgiving Day's sermon, as well as my 11/27 and 12/11 Advent sermons.
This morning (and this week's blog post topic) I had the priveledge of meeting with Dr. Stanley Hauerwas. I must admit, I'm not one of his "followers." I don't disagree with the man, just haven't read much of his work. There are some people out there who would consider themselves "disciples" of his; I am not. But nonetheless, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to meet with one of the great theologians of our age.
I am interested in the topics he presents in books (which. I hav.e yet to read), namely "Working with Words" and especially "Resident Alien." Most observers of American Christianity will notice that cultural Christianity in America is no longer the religion of Moses, Jesus and Paul. Christianity has lost its edge, its eschatological tone, its place of primacy in our lives. Folks that live as true disciples of Jesus are strange and live in ways that differ from the majority, hence Hauerwas calls them the resident aliens. Ever since Constantine made Christianity legal and dominant, we have lost the counter-cultural witness which undergirds the message of Jesus.
How do we reclaim this? Hauerwas said that we need to stop using the word "we." He said that politicans say "we are fighting a war on terror." Who is the "we," he asks? Christians shouldn't be supporting war he would claim. Our culture and political system now speaks for us as people of faith. We also discussed what evangelism is about- namely witnessing to friends about the impact of faith in our lives.
Christianity is certainly changing. Hauerwas said that he thought that there would be fewer Christians, but that hopefully God is forming us to be "meaner and leaner," or more dedicated even if there are fewer of us.
Do you ever feel like a resident alien?
Do you feel the strain between true discipleship and American "Christianity?"
Have you witnessed by inviting a friend to church?
How do you think Christianity might change/thrive/struggle in the future?
Back to studies and reading, see you all on Sunday.
