The Difference Christ Makes

""The papers and responses in this volume were delivered, fittingly, on All Saints Day, 2013, as part of a day-long event to celebrate the career of Stanley Hauerwas, upon the occasion of his retirement from the faculty of Duke Divinity School. . . . [T]he central message of the day was encapsulated in the theme of the whole event: ""The Difference Christ Makes."" As the different speakers talked about Stanley's paradigm-changing impact on scholarship, one insight came ever more clearly into focus: the deepest theme of Stanley's work, the consistent thread running through all his thought, is his emphasis on the centrality of Jesus Christ. At the end of the day, his work is not defined by the ethics of character, or by pacifism, or by countercultural communitarian ecclesiology. All these elements play important roles in his writings, but they are reflexes or consequences of his more fundamental commitment to think rigorously about the implications of confessing Jesus Christ as Lord.""
--from the foreword by Richard B. Hays

Contents of The Difference Christ Makes

A Homily on All Saints, Stanley Hauerwas
1. ""The Difference Christ Makes,"" Samuel Wells
2. ""Truthfulness and Continual Discomfort,"" Jennifer A. Herdt
Response by Charlie Pinches
3. ""Anne and the Difficult Gift of Stanley Hauerwas's Church,"" Jonathan Tran
Response by Peter Dula
4. ""Making Connections: By Way of a Response to Wells, Herdt, and Tran,"" Stanley Hauerwas
Appendix: Service of Holy Eucharist, the Feast of All Saints, Goodson Chapel, Duke Divinity School


Charles M. Collier is an Editor at Wipf and Stock Publishers in Eugene, Oregon.