A choice quote from the CNN/TIME article on Haerwas as America’s Theologiam of the Year (kind of ironic, to call him “America’s Best”, since he is of a totally different order from what the term “American” has become .
Through his ministry and death, Jesus offered humankind a radical vision of forgiveness and freedom from revenge. To a world obsessed with power, that is outrageous. An omnipotent God incarnate who relinquishes his power and dies an ignominious death in order that human beings might “have life and have it more abundantly”? Whoever heard of such a thing?
A God who embraces powerlessness unto death is a message the world will never accept, says Hauerwas. Yet, he argues, it is that message the Christian is bid to take to all nations. If you were to ask Hauerwas to define himself by a single word, once he got Texan out of the way, he would probably say disciple and add that anyone who uses the word “better damn well mean it.”