Thursday, July 28, 2005

Amen, brother!

I've finally actually read Resident Aliens, the 1989 offering from Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon whose title names the church's situation in the midst of a culture of disbelief. Resident Aliens is now considered a classic, and I've read many pieces of it and about it over the years without actually reading the book itself. (Do you have a long list of such books on your shelves, too?)
I'm taken with the church as "salt and light," but not sure that colony is the best image to describe the church in an age of empire. There's way too much to blog on when my children are waiting for me to come up and dish ice cream. Anyway, in the middle of my own reflections on that still challenging book I ran across this post on alternet. I imagine that Hauerwas and Willimon would call the very notion of the religious left fighting back a sign that liberals still long for the age of Christendom, but I'll call it one small sign of hope and say "amen" to the effort. But now, it's time for ice cream.