The Peaceable Kingdom

A Primer in Christian Ethics

Stanley Hauerwas

Stanley Hauerwas presents an overall introduction to the themes and method that have distinguished his vision of Christian ethics. Emphasizing the significance of Jesus’ life and teaching in shaping moral life, The Peaceable Kingdom stresses the narrative character of moral rationality and the necessity of a historic community and tradition for morality. Hauerwas systematically develops the importance of character and virtue as elements of decision making and spirituality and stresses nonviolence as critical for shaping our understanding of Christian ethics.

Stanley Hauerwas is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University. Among his books published by the University of Notre Dame Press are In Good Company, Vision and Virtue, A Community of Character, and Character and the Christian Life.

Reviews

“Hauerwas has written a deeply challenging book that anyone seriously concerned with the authenticity of Christian ethics must read.” — Christian Century

“A concise and provocative discussion of the nature of ethics. . . . Hauerwas speaks of the importance of testing our skills against the excellences of others. Reading his book provides just such a test.” — Journal of Religion

“Exciting, provocative, and challenging . . . the value of this excellent book can hardly be overstated.” — Review of Books and Religion

“The most systematic presentation yet of Hauerwas’s decidedly practical agenda. It is an excellent place to begin reading.” — Religious Studies Review

“In this brief book Stanley Hauerwas, one of the most prolific writers in Christian ethics of his generation, sets forth his clearest, most readable, and most cogent statement to date of his own perspective on how ethics should be done in a Christian context.” — Interpretation: A Journal of Bible & Theology