Hannah's Child Quotes

“I fear that much of the Christianity that surrounds us assumes our task is to save appearances by protecting God from Job-like anguish. But if God is the God of Jesus Christ, then God does not need our protection. What God demands is not protection, but truth.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“As long as it is assumed that war is always an available option, we will not be forced to imagine any alternative to war.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“Peace is a deeper reality than violence."
p. 231”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“Whatever it means to be a Christian, it at least involves the discovery of friends you did not know you had.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“My father was a better bricklayer than I am a theologian. I am still in too much of a hurry. But if the work I have done in theology is of any use, it is because of what I learned on the job, that is, you can lay only one brick at a time.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“When you are trying to change the questions, you have to realize that many people are quite resistant to such a change. They like the answers they have.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“Gentleness is given to those who have learned that God will not have his kingdom triumph through the violence of the world, for such a triumph came through the meekness of a cross.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“When Christianity is assumed to be an "answer" that makes the world intelligible, it reflects an accommodated church committed to assuring Christians that the way things are is the way things have to be.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“God knows why God has made some of us ecclesiastically homeless, but I hope and pray that our being so may be in service to Christian unity.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“You learn who you are only by making yourself accountable to the judgment of others.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“I do not like Southern Baptists, which is only fair because most Southern Baptists do not like me.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“Daniel Dennett, who, it is reported (I have no idea if the report is true or not), after having given a lecture to a department of philosophy on personal identity, was not given his honorarium. The department refused to give him his honorarium because, given Dennett’s arguments about personal identity or lack thereof, the department was not confident that the person who had delivered the lecture would be the same person who would receive the honorarium.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“For many years, however, I did use the language of the job in contexts of school and church. I did so in part, I think, because I did not want to lose my bearings —my sense of where I had come from. That said, I suspect my use of profanity was more complex than simply an attempt to stay connected with my working-class roots. I also used the language of the job in school and church because I discovered that speaking this way upset the pious, and I took delight in that result. I hated the hypocrisy that niceness cloaks. As I grew older, however, I found my reputation for having a foul mouth to be more of a burden than a blessing, so I did my best to let such language return to being that of “the job.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“I am not interested in what I believe. I am not even sure what I believe. I am much more interested in what the church believes.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“As theologians, we must say more than we can be in the hope that others will make us more than we are. What is crucial is that we not write to justify the limits of our lives.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“That I have something to say is not a personal achievement. I have something to say because I am a Christian.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“He explained, however, that the Eucharist is about the unity of the church. If a majority vote determined the matter, then the unity would be betrayed. He noted that some people in the church might not be ready to make this move. He would call a meeting, inviting those who might have reservations to come and express their worries … If they strongly dissented, we would have to wait.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“To be a Christian means you do not have to marry or have a child. The church is constituted by a people who grow through witness and conversion, not through biological ascription. A church in which the single rather than the married bear the burden of proof is one that inexorably legitimates violence in the name of protecting "our" children from those who think they need to kill to protect "their" children. The problem is not children, but the possessive pronouns”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

“The problem with most pastors and theologians was that the way they went about their business did not require the existence of God.”
― Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir