Theologian Stanley Hauerwas and political theorist Romand Coles explore possibilities and practices of radical democracy and radical church, shifting political and theological imaginations beyond the limits of contemporary political formations which, they argue, are based upon both the denial and production of death.
Hauerwas and Coles call for a revolutionary politics of “wild patience” that transforms societies through listening, relationship-building, and careful attention to places, common goods, and diversity. Engaging one another through a variety of genres—from essays, to letters, to co-writing and dialogue—Hauerwas and Coles present a political approach that is evangelical, inclusive, and challenging. Pushing and pulling each other into new and insightful journeys of political imagination, they spur the reader toward politics that acknowledges and enacts the powers of the radical ordinary.
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This book gives me hope. It takes the conversation over Christianity and democracy in a most welcome direction: away from ‘ism-mongering’ and abstractions, down to earth, where instructive and inspiring examples can be found.
—Jeffrey Stout, author, Democracy and Tradition
This book is indispensable for those seeking to animate democratic spirituality.
—William E. Connolly, author, Capitalism and Christianity, American Style
Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University. Prior to that, he was a professor at the University of Notre Dame. In 2001, he was named “America’s Best Theologian” by TIME Magazine. Hauerwas is the author of numerous books, including A Better Hope: Resources for a Church Confronting Capitalism, Democracy, and Postmodernity, With the Grain of the Universe: The Church’s Witness and Natural Theology, and A Cross-Shattered Church: Reclaiming the Theological Heart of Preaching.
Romand Coles engages in grassroots politics in Durham, North Carolina, and is associate professor of political science and germanic languages & literature at Duke University. His previous publications include Beyond Gated Politics: Reflections for the Possibility of Democracy, Rethinking Generosity: Critical Theory and the Politics of Caritas, and Self/Power/Other: Political Theory and Dialogical Ethics.