Stan Hauerwas recently published Hannah's Child.
His work with John Howard Yoder has become a minor publishing industry.
Both men were my professors and on my dissertation committee.
Hauerwas is still alive, but I bought his theological autobiography anyway. I was working at the Augustana College library when I met him, around 1968. My sister-in-law babysat his son Adam when Hauerwas moved to Notre Dame. For that reason I met him to discuss the PhD program at Notre Dame. I was accepted there with a full scholarship, the same week our daughter Bethany was diagnosed with a terminal neurological disorder.
Hauerwas was head of the PhD program, so I saw him repeatedly as a professor, etc.
I also bought Carl Braaten's
On Account of Christ, another memoir. I may provide more details about both books later. The two men named just about everyone I knew in theology, including a few graduate students. Theology can be a small world, even in a large denomination. Braaten published a famous letter about
Pelikan and others leaving ELCA. Long ago, I met Pelikan's brother and father in Cleveland, and I saw Jaroslav regularly at church when we were at Yale. One of his doctoral students was LI's godmother.
A rooster crowing or a little girl's name can bring back many memories, all at once. The last 50 years seem to rush together at once, from the day I was confirmed at an Augustana Synod congregation to the present.
Among theologians, Hauerwas is clearly the one with the highest IQ and the broadest range of knowledge. When I mentioned his name to a committee of doctors at the Cleveland Clinic, they all gasped at once. I knew the Great One of medical ethics.
Braaten became known as the big shot who opposed the malignant trends in ELCA.
Both men exemplify the current trends in theology and church life. There is no connection between reality and their work. Here are some brief examples.
Hauerwas loves Karl Barth, but Karl was a Marxist fraud. Barth slept with Charlotte Kirschbaum, moved her into his home, and let her write most of the
Dogmatics. A little reading in Barth shows that he was an apostate who used religious categories to suit his need to overthrow the Christian faith. Robert Preus summed up Barth in a few words - read the intro and that is enough. Look up a few photos of Barth and family. His wife Nellie was a hausfrau. Charlotte was HAWT!
The Barth-Marxist-mistress connection has been known for decades, but one does not stay in the parlor with refined theologians after identifying Barth as a disgusting example of humanity. No, he is the official theologian of Fuller Seminary, whose graduates pursue hot babes to this day.
Braaten is even less connected with reality than Hauerwas. His chosen hero is Paul Tillich, who was famous for sleeping with the wives of his graduate assistants. Tillich pretended to fight with Barth, an old academic charade carried out by professors and grad students to fill journals and fuel dissertations. Hannah Tillich wrote about her wandering husband, whose theology was so far off that his own colleagues at Union Seminary (aka The Devil's Playground) were appalled at his
Systematic Theology.
Braaten is quite proud of editing the enormous Braaten/Jenson Dogmatics, a set so vile that ELCA denied using it while making it required reading at every seminary. The two-volume set is about 25 years old and still in print. The authors denied every article of faith in the Apostles' Creed, clearly and boldly, then began screaming
Apostasy! at the ELCA they helped create.
Braaten is clearly in love with himself and in awe of his great accomplishments. I doubt whether he will be remembered in a few years.
Hauerwas had to deal with severe personal trials. I do not agree with his theology at all. However, the photo above does a good job of portraying his character. He wrote about being self-absorbed in his book, but he was the most caring professor on the faculty, perhaps the only one. He looked out for his students and made some good things happen, without looking for recognition.
The Braaten book is great for inside dope about ELCA, but grating otherwise.
