War and the American Difference: Theological Reflections on Violence and National Identity Paperback – October 1, 2011

I am a patriotic disabled vet and a Christian pastor. This book made me think about war in ways I had never considered. It is insightful, well written and a great read. I found it hard to put down which is not usual for a philosophy/theology book. No mater if you are a pacifist, just war theorist, or an advocate of preventive war, you will learn something if you read this book with an open mind.

Honestly, after reading this book, it is impossible for me, as a pastor to defend our wars from the aspect of Christianity any longer.

I enjoyed this book. Hauweras' central thesis is that in the death and resurrection of Christ war itself has been abolished. For Christians we are then called to live non-violently in the world as we follow Christ and seek to embody his Kingdom. This point was excellent and thoroughly biblical. I think Hauweras could have strengthened his case by discussing Revelation 5 where the Lion John hears is the slain lamb. Another major point is that war is a sacrificial system. Those who die in war make those for whom the have died feel obligated to accept their gifts and repay them in kind. For Hauweras America is a country that cannot live without war. It provides a common and cohesive story that binds the nation together. It also gives us a common enemy to fight against, and people are never so united as when they have a common enemy. However, I wasn't totally convinced by this point. A national identity can be forged in the furnaces of war, but I've always seen America's national identity as "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". Yet there are connections between that identity and War, especially if we are willing to go to war to protect, and in some cases enforce in other nations. American's have rarely been willing to die for Christianity or any other sectarian faith, but have regularly been willing to die for the nation. This gives us some idea of the religious power behind the nation state. These points are worked out in Parts 1 and 2. There is so much gold to be mined in these parts that I will no doubt re-read them soon.

In part 3 Hauweras focuses the difference that body of Christ makes to the world and war. His discussion on Jesus as the justice of God was excellent, rooting the idea of justice not as an abstract or external concept to which Christianity is accountable but something that cannot be understood apart from Christian theological concepts and practices. The last few chapters in this section were a bit too technical and philosophical for me to follow.

I did have two main concerns with the book. Hauweras repeatedly said that the gift Christians can give the world is the refusal to kill each other. This conclusion, which Hauweras reached on multiple occasions, often came out of nowhere and was not a valid conclusion from the arguments he was advancing. Note that he says "each other" not others. The implication is that Christians are out there actively killing other Christians. Evidently Hauweras felt no need to substantiate this with statistics, citations or research. I had to wonder if there was some epidemic of Christians killing each other that we needed to oppose? Secondly, even if you agree with him in regards to pacifism he doesn't answer two crucial questions that everyone will eventually ask or be asked: (1) Can a Christian serve in the Military? (2) What about war that is truly in self defence? One thinks of Hitler invading Poland or North Korea invading the South. I find pacifism works fine for me and my own life. It's gets very difficult to take to a national level. I kept wanting these questions to be answered but they never were. To be fair I think these questions were not the central focus of his book. I got the impression that he was trying to do some big picture stuff, and shift the discussion beyond the tradition Pacifist, Just-War or Crusade categories. However a little bit on these questions would no doubt have helped greatly.

On the whole, even with my concerns, I found the book to be excellent food for thought, especially parts 1 and 2.

Good explanation but a bit disjointed at times.

There's a lot here in this collection if essays. Hauerwas does a great job, as always, of reminding the church that it doesn't just have a story to tell, it is the story by the way it lives out the gospel of Jesus. His modest proposal is not anything new to those familiar with Hauerwas, but it bears repeating again and again that Christians need to stop killing in order to be a faithful witness of Jesus. A good place to start is for Christians to stop killing each other. This is Hauerwas at his best in my opinion. Read and reread these excellent essays.

As a Christian Theology major, I chose to write a paper about Christian Pacifism from the perspective of Stanley Hauerwas. I was unsure about his views prior to reading this book, but he certainly changed my perspective. He forces you to reconsider your allegiances to anything other than Christ himself. Definitely a must-read in this country, if you consider yourself a thinking Christian.

Perfect book for anyone interested in a deep exposition of Hauerwas' pacifism. Most of the "meat" of the book is found at the beginning and middle--the last section is a bit more academically saturated (i.e. addressing specific authors, claims, objections, etc). But overall, I would recommend this to anyone curious about America's ideological dependence on war and violence.

The book is packed with several useful insights, and I would have given it 5 stars if it weren't for the fact that the title is a bit misleading, as only the first third or so of the book deals with "the American difference". I was hoping to hear more from the author on this score.

He's a thoughtful and provocative writer, and well-worth listening to. I don't agree with everything he says, but I enjoyed learning what he thinks.