The crucial challenge for theology is that when it is read the reader thinks, ‘This is true.’ Recognizing claims that are ‘true’ enables readers to identify an honest expression of life’s complexities. The trick is to show that theological claims – the words that must be used to speak of God – are necessary if the theologian is to speak honestly of the complexities of life. The worst betrayal of the task of theology comes when the theologian fears that the words he or she must use are not necessary.

What difference does the virtue of patience make for our ability to engage deeply in the practice of patience? And how does patience help us grasp the something more that is at the heart of preaching excellence? Learning to Speak of God argues that the virtue of patience is vital to our faithful and deep preaching practice; that patience is a homiletical virtue. In doing so, this volume asks us to consider the role of character in preaching and the work of specific virtues as we go about our preaching practice. Along the way, it names the importance of patience as a long-acknowledged Christian virtue and considers anew how this virtue shapes and empowers the practice of those who desire to preach in ways that participate in God’s transforming work. For those who study, practice, or care about preaching, this volume identifies how any notion of what it means to preach well calls for those whose practice is infused with the virtue of patience.

This text focuses on the person and formation of the preacher, describing the kind of Christian wisdom and character that are essential to hearing and speaking the Word of God with authenticity.

In its various forms, speech is absolutely integral to the Christian mission. The gospel is a message, news that must be passed on if it is to be known by others. Nevertheless, the reality of God cannot be exhausted by Christian knowledge and Christian knowledge cannot be exhausted by our words. All the while, the philosophy of modernity has left Christianity an impoverished inheritance within which to think these things. In Speak Thus, Craig Hovey explores the possibilities and limits of Christian speaking. At times ethical, epistemological, and metaphysical, these essays go to the heart of what it means to be the church today. In practice, the Christian life often has a linguistic shape that surprisingly implicates and reveals the commitments of people like those who care for the sick or those who respond as peacemakers in the face of violence. Because learning to speak one way as opposed to another is a skill that must be learned, Christian speakers are also guides who bear witness to the importance of churches for passing on a felicity with Christian ways of speaking. Through constructive engagements with interlocutors like Ludwig Wittgenstein, George Lindbeck, Jeffrey Stout, Stanley Hauerwas, John Howard Yoder, Thomas Aquinas, and the theology of Radical Orthodoxy, Hovey offers a challenging vision of the church--able to speak with a confidence that only comes from a deep attentiveness to its own limitations, while also able to speak prophetically in a world weary of words.

Updated and revised, this book explores the essential foundations of Christian education that educators draw upon in their thought and practice.

In this book, controversial and world-renowned theologian, Stanley Hauerwas, tackles the issue of theology being sidelined as a necessary discipline in the modern university. It is an attempt to reclaim the knowledge of God as just that – knowledge. Questions why theology is no longer considered a necessary subject in the modern university, and explores the role it should play in the development of our “knowledge” Considers how theology is often excluded from the knowledges of the modern university because these are constituted by an understanding of time necessary to make economic and state realities seem inevitable Argues that it is precisely this difference that makes Christian theology an essential resource for the university to achieve its task - that is, to form people who are able to imagine a different world through critical and disciplined reflection Challenges the domesticated character of much recent theology by suggesting how prayer and the love of the poor are essential practices that should shape the theological task Converses with figures as diverse as Luigi Giussani, David Burrell, Stanley Fish, Wendell Berry, Jeff Stout, Rowan Williams and Sheldon Wolin Published in the new and prestigious Illuminations series.

2021 Catholic Media Association Award first place award in morality, ethics, christology, mariology, and redemption What does it mean to live and build up the Kingdom of God? In this book, professor and priest Alberto de Mingo Kaminouchi introduces the contemporary reader to Christian ethics by examining the New Testament through the three key concepts of Aristotle’s ethics: happiness, virtue, and love. In turn, the three affirmations orient this reflection through the Gospel. First, when the triune God appears on the horizon, it becomes easier to understand that existence has a purpose: namely, participating with the entire human family in this project of happiness called the Kingdom of God. Second, happiness is not something outside of us; it consists in the practice of the virtues that bring about a personal transformation. Third, the project of the Kingdom leads us to live in love with others. De Mingo Kaminouchi shows the reader a real model of this in the community we call the church, the “field hospital” for all those in need of hope. This book is accessibly written for readers not already well-versed in Christian ethics.

The role of witness is a recurring theme in the work of Stanley Hauerwas: it is through enacting the truth in a world of lies, through seeking peace in a world of violence, that witnesses show who God is, who we are, and what the world is like. The Necessity of Witness is a study of Hauerwas and his fascinating but complex understanding of witness. Ariaan W. Baan argues that Hauerwas's approach makes a significant contribution to current debates in systematic theology on the relation between truth and life. Reading Hauerwas can be a precarious adventure. His rhetoric is overwhelming, but his argument is not always crystal clear and carefully formulated. With the help of semiotic and philosophical analysis and biblical exegesis, Baan articulates Hauerwas's intuitions, fills some of the gaps in his argumentation, and discloses hidden biases. The results of this analysis sometimes surprise. Baan notes that unexpected pericopes in Scripture such as Isaiah and Revelation support Hauerwas's account of witness, and concludes that his work offers insight into how in our late modern society such diverse groups as martyrs and pop stars offer implicit witness through their lives.

The crucial challenge for theology is that when it is read the reader thinks, "This is true." Recognizing claims that are "true" enables readers to identify an honest expression of life's complexities. The trick is to show that theological claims--the words that must be used to speak of God--are necessary if the theologian is to speak honestly of the complexities of life. The worst betrayal of the task of theology comes when the theologian fears that the words he or she must use are not necessary. This new collection of essays, lectures, and sermons by Stanley Hauerwas is focused on the central challenge, risk, and difficulty of this necessity--working with words about God. The task of theology is to help us do things with words. "God" is not a word peculiar to theology, but if "God" is a word to be properly used by Christians, the word must be disciplined by Christian practice. It should, therefore, not be surprising that, like any word, we must learn how to say "God."