Hauerwas and Narrative

In the previous chapters we have sought to place Hauerwas’s project within the wider philosophical and theological discussion evoked by the Enlightenment Project. In particular we have argued that Hauerwas exposes the carceral character of this ‘liberalism’ and, in contrast, offers a vision of Christian freedom which attempts to transcend these limitations through attention to the sort of character correlative to theological convictions embodied by the church. Liberalism, according to Hauerwas, is therefore not simply a deceptive philosophy but is in fact a narrative and tradition which refuses to recognize itself as such. It therefore presumes universality when it actually represents a particular tradition whose claim to attention lies in its capacity to exhibit the convictions it claims to embody more convincingly than its rivals. Given the emancipatory proclamation of this tradition and its consequent narrative form, Hauerwas’s ecclesial ethics must not only escape the shackles of liberal anthropocentricity and imperialism, but offer a quality of narrative which, as ‘embodied apologetics’, displays the truthfulness of Christian freedom in the community of pilgrims called church. ¹ Without an adequate apology for the truthfulness of the Christian story, Hauerwas cannot present it as a genuinely liberating narrative.