Stanley Hauerwas Quotes about Church

The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it

The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers.

Stanley Hauerwas

Creative, Church, World

Another hallmark of Christianity is that salvation is not individualistic-it's not something one person receives for himself or herself. Salvation is the reign of God. It is a political alternative to the way the world is constituted. That's a very important part of the story that has been lost to accounts of salvation that are centered in the individual. But without an understanding that salvation is the reign of God, the need for the church to mediate salvation makes no sense at all.

Stanley Hauerwas

Political, Understanding, Church

Stanley Hauerwas (2001). “The Hauerwas Reader”, p.533, Duke University Press

The church doesn’t have a social strategy, the church is a social strategy.

Stanley Hauerwas

Religion, Church, Christianity

The church is constituted as a new people who have been gathered from the nations to remind the world that we are in fact one people. Gathering, therefore, is an eschatological act as it is the foretaste of the unity of the communion of the saints.

Stanley Hauerwas

People, Unity, Church

Stanley Hauerwas (1995). “In Good Company: The Church as Polis”, p.139, University of Notre Dame Pess

Consider the problem of taking showers with Christians. They are, after all, constantly going on about the business of witnessing in the hopes of making converts to their God and church. Would you want to shower with such people? You never know when they might try to baptize you.

Stanley Hauerwas

Christian, People, Church

Stanley Hauerwas (2001). “The Hauerwas Reader”, p.521, Duke University Press