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Stanley Hauerwas (1940- ) is a United Methodist theologian and ethicist who is currently the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC.
In his career, he has attempted to emphasize the importance of virtue and character within the Church. He has been a passionate voice for Christian pacifism and nonviolence, having been mentored by Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. Hauerwas has also been an opponent of nationalism, particularly American patriotism, arguing that it has no place in the Church. His writings occasionally veer into the area of paleo-orthodoxy, though Hauerwas himself might refute this claim.
TIME Magazine in 2001 named him "America's Best Theologian". That same year, he was invited to give the prestigious Gifford Lectures in Scotland.
In the late 20th century and early 21st century, he may have been the most prominent and influential theological ethicist in the United States. As John Howard Yoder had attempted to demonstrate what he felt were problems with Reinhold Niebuhr's ethics in his 1972 book The Politics of Jesus (ISBN 0802807348), Hauerwas attempted the same with the positions of both H. Richard Niebuhr (particularly his 1956 book Christ and Culture ISBN 0061300039) and Paul Tillich, thus calling into question the modern philosophical foundations for just war thinking.
Among his more notable works are:
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