The Making of a Barthian Postliberal

Résumé du livre

This dissertation is an investigation of the extent to which Stanley Hauerwas's theological ethics are influenced by Karl Barth. Over and against a number of scholars who argue that Hauerwas is not Barthian but a Protestant liberal, I argue that Hauerwas is Barthian in at least two senses. First, he learns from Karl Barth how to reject Protestant liberalism. This is most obvious in Hauerwas's insistence on keeping dogmatics and ethics together and in his rejection of Enlightenment notions of universalism. Second, he learns from Barth how to "theologize" in a manner that considers not just the content of one's theology but the actual theological act as a practice that bears witness. Where Hauerwas's theology does in fact resemble the theologies of Protestant liberals like Schleiermacher or Ritschl, he must be read as a postliberal, i.e. a theologian who returns to the questions of Protestant liberalism with Barthian presuppositions in mind.