Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

by Stanley Hauerwas

WRITING IS HARD AND DIFFICULT WORK BECAUSE TO WRITE IS TO THINK. I DO not have an idea and then find a way to express it. The expression is the idea. So I write because writing is the only way I know how to think. I write, moreover, because I have something to say. That I have something to say is not a personal achievement. I have something to say because I am a Christian. I also have readers who are obligated to care about what I write. They are called Christians. What an extraordinary gift. Audience makes all the difference. I am an academic, but I do not have to write only for other academics. I write for a people who, no matter how ambiguous the identification “Christian” may be, think that what theologians say should matter. I believe that God has given me something to say. I have been given the work of trying to imagine what it means to be Christian in a world that Christians do not control.