Only when the Church enacts its scandalous Jesus-centered tradition will it truly be the body of Christ and transform the world. Twenty-five years after its first appearance, Resident Aliens remains a prophetic vision of how the Church can regain its vitality, battle its malaise, reclaim its capacity to nourish souls, and stand firmly against the illusions, pretensions, and eroding values of today's world. Resident Aliens discusses the nature of the church and its relationship to surrounding culture. It argues that churches should focus on developing Christian life and community rather than attempting to reform secular culture. Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon reject the idea that America is a Christian nation; instead, Christians should see themselves as "resident aliens" in a foreign land. According to Hauerwas and Willimon, the role of Christians is not to transform government but to live lives that model the love of Christ. Rather than try to convince others to change their ethics, Christians should model a new set of ethics that are grounded in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Without conforming to Jesus, our colony and our faith will fail. Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at the Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He has written a voluminous number of articles, authored and edited many books, and has been the subject of other theologians' writing and interest. He has been a board member of the Society of Christian Ethics, Associate Editor of a number of Christian journals and periodicals, and a frequent lecturer at campuses across the country. Will Willimon is a lifelong Methodist. He is Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke University Divinity School and retired Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church, after serving for twenty years as faculty member and Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. As Bishop, he led North Alabama's 157,000 Methodists and 792 pastors. He has authored roughly a hundred books and is widely recognized as one of Methodism's most insightful, inspiring, and challenging voices. Resident Aliens Life in the Christian Colony By Stanley Hauerwas, William H. Willimon Abingdon Press Copyright © 2014 Abingdon Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4267-8190-2 Contents Foreword, Preface, Chapter One, The Modern World: On Learning to Ask the Right Questions, A Changed World, The Right Theological Questions, New Understanding or New Living?, Chapter Two, Christian Politics in the New World, Mixing Religion and Politics, The Politics of Unbelief, The Church as a Social Strategy, Chapter Three, Salvation as Adventure, On the Road Again, The Virtues of Adventure, People with a Cause, Chapter Four, Life in the Colony: The Church as Basis for Christian Ethics, You Have Heard It Said ... But I Say, All Christian Ethics Is a Social Ethic, We Are What We See, The End of the World, Chapter Five, Ordinary People: Christian Ethics, People Who Follow a God Who Is Odd, Saints as Significant Examples, Faith Confirmed Through Example, Chapter Six, Parish Ministry as Adventure: Learning to Enjoy Truth Telling, Training in Ministry, Successful Ministry, The Service of God, Chapter Seven, Power and Truth: Virtues That Make Ministry Possible, Put On the Whole Armor of God, Boldly to Proclaim the Ministry of the Gospel, Empowerment for Ministry, By the Working of God's Power, Afterword, Index, CHAPTER 1 The Modern World: On Learning to Ask the Right Questions Sometime between 1960 and 1980, an old, inadequately conceived world ended, and a fresh, new world began. We do not mean to be overly dramatic. Although there are many who have not yet heard the news, it is nevertheless true: A tired old world has ended, an exciting new one is awaiting recognition. This book is about a renewed sense of what it means to be Christian, more precisely, of what it means to be pastors who care for Christians, in a distinctly changed world. A Changed World When and how did we change? Although it may sound trivial, one of us is tempted to date the shift sometime on a Sunday evening in 1963. Then, in Greenville, South Carolina, in defiance of the state's time-honored blue laws, the Fox Theater opened on Sunday. Seven of us—regular attenders of the Methodist Youth Fellowship at Buncombe Street Church—made a pact to enter the front door of the church, be seen, then quietly slip out the back door and join John Wayne at the Fox. That evening has come to represent a watershed in the history of Christendom, South Carolina style. On that night, Greenville, South Carolina—the last pocket of resistance to secularity in the Western world—served notice that it would no longer be a prop for the church. There would be no more free passes for the church, no more free rides. The Fox Theater went head to head with the church over