(Part 1)

JBTM Book Reviews
186
The Work of Theology. By Stanley Hauerwas. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015. 305 pages.
Paperback, $28.00.
Stanley Hauerwas is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke
University in Durham, North Carolina. He has written broadly in the disciplines of theology
and ethics. He holds degrees from Southwestern University (BA), Yale University (BD, MA,
MPhil, PhD), and the University of Edinburgh (DD). Among his other works are Approaching
the End, Living Gently in a Violent World, Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir, and Resident
Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony, which he co-authored with William H. Willimon.
In The Work of Theology, Hauerwas aims to explain the “how to” of theology. More
specifically, he sets out to do this by reflecting on how he came to think theologically. The
book is divided into thirteen chapters, plus an introduction and a postscript. Though the
book is divided into chapters, each chapter is more of an essay than a chapter. These essays
do not necessarily lead logically to the next essay in the book’s order; rather, they seem to
stand on their own as individual works. This does not mean that there is no logical coherence
to the book, but that the book is more of a collection of essays on topics that have a place in
theological prolegomena and are not structured in any particular order. Though The Work of
Theology is a work in the “how to” of theology, it does not provide an established theological
method. Again, it is primarily a collection of essays that deal with topics that come under
the umbrella of theological prolegomena. The essays in The Work of Theology cover a number
of topics. These topics include, but are not limited to, how the Holy Spirit works, how to
tell time theologically, the relationship of theology to ministry, how to write a theological
sentence, how to be theologically funny, and how to do (or not to do) Protestant ethics.
There are multiple strengths in Hauerwas’s text. For one, the reader will notice the book’s
accessibility. Though several of the topics that Hauerwas deals with are dense and difficult, he
does more than an adequate job of writing in such a way that an interested layperson should
be able to comprehend the book without excessive reference. For example, in his essay “How
to Tell Time Theologically,” Hauerwas discusses a theological understanding of the concept
of time. After discussing the contributions of several prominent theologians on the topic—
namely, Augustine—Hauerwas returns to a narrative understanding of time (100). In order
to avoid losing his readers in the different theories of time and God’s relationship to time,
Hauerwas reminds readers that humans exist in time (i.e., God’s time), and that this should
be the primary focus of how Christians tell time.
Another important contribution Hauerwas provides is his understanding of the role of
language in theology. He discusses this both in the introduction and in the essay, “How to
Write a Theological Sentence.” Hauerwas draws primarily from the work of Stanley Fish, who
might give the conservative reader some pause, since Fish is one of the major contributors
to contemporary reader-response hermeneutics. Many Evangelicals have naturally held
a disposition against reader-response hermeneutics due to their neglect of the role of the