Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition)
Only when the Church enacts its scandalous Jesus-centered tradition, will it truly be the Body of Christ and transform the world. Twenty-five years after its first publishing, Resident Aliens remains a prophetic vision of how the Church can regain its vitality, battle its malaise, reclaim its capacity to nourish souls, and stand firmly against the illusions, pretensions, and eroding values of today's world.
Resident Aliens discusses the nature of the church and its relationship to surrounding culture. It argues that churches should focus on developing Christian life and community rather than attempting to reform secular culture. Hauerwas and Willimon reject the idea that America is a Christian nation, instead Christians should see themselves as "residents aliens" in a foreign land. Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon maintain that, instead of attempting to transform government, the role of Christians is to live lives which model the love of Christ. Rather than trying to convince others to change their ethics, Christians should model a new set of ethics which are grounded in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
A vision of the Church as a colony, a holy people, a family standing for sharply focused values in a devalued world.
Gives a vision of how the Church can regain its vitality to accomplish its mission to transform the world. Gives a prophetic voice for change by making an ethical and theological case. Critiques Reinhold Niebuhr s classic book, Christ and Culture.
Readers can be guided by a plan for Church revitalization to help live out their mission. Readers will have greater understanding for what is at stake for the Church if it fails to model the love of Christ. Readers will have an alternative idea of how Christ and Culture are related.
Top Highlights
“We argue that the political task of Christians is to be the church rather than to transform the world” (source)
“This church knows that its most credible form of witness (and the most ‘effective’ thing it can do for the world) is the actual creation of a living, breathing, visible community of faith.” (source)
“What we got was not self-freedom but self-centeredness, loneliness, superficiality, and harried consumerism.” (source)
“In this chapter we argue that salvation is not so much a new beginning but rather a beginning in the middle, so to speak. Faith begins, not in discovery, but in remembrance.” (source)
“The theologian’s job is not to make the gospel credible to the modern world, but to make the world credible to the gospel.” (source)
Product Details
- Title : Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition)
- Authors:
- Hauerwas,Stanley
- Willimon, William H.
- Publisher: Abingdon Press
- Publication Date: 2014
- ISBN: 9781426788604
Stanley Hauerwas (Author)
Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at the Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He has written a voluminous number of articles, authored and edited many books, and has been the subject of other theologians' writing and interest. He has been a board member of the Society of Christian Ethics, Associate Editor of a number of Christian journals and periodicals, and a frequent lecturer at campuses across the country.
William H. Willimon (Author)
Feeling most at home behind a pulpit, Will Willimon’s deepest calling is to be a preacher and truth-teller of Jesus Christ. He is Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke University Divinity School and retired Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church, after serving for 20 years as faculty member and Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
Will Willimon has published many books, including his preaching subscription service on MinistryMatters.com, Pulpit Resource, and Fear of the Other: No Fear in Love, both published by Abingdon Press.