Stanley Hauerwas

"The society we in the West inhabit is a strange place. We are oddly comfortable with truths that, on reflection, are deeply dissonant and even disturbing. For example, we seem quite comfortable with the knowledge that up to twenty thousand children die every day from preventable diseases. We miss the deep irony that we constantly seek peace by going to war. We develop policies and practices that welcome people with disabilities into our communities, offering them rights and responsibilities, and at precisely the same time we develop forms of genetic technology designed to prevent them from entering society in the first place." p 11 (from Introduction by John Swinton)

Because of the title of the book, I thought it was going to be more about physical violence (war, death penalty, etc.), but actually it's more about philosophical "violence" and equates slowing down and having patience with "peace."

It speaks mostly to the ways in which we either embrace or reject individuals with disabilities in our everyday lives.

It was an okay read, but too abstract/philosophical for my taste or understanding.

It is written by 3 authors, essentially: John Swinton writes the introduction and conclusion, while Jean Vanier and Stanley Hauerwas each write two chapters. This made the flow a little strange, because each one has a different voice.

I was concerned especially with Jean Vanier's theological views. He states at one point, "Catholics and Protestants, Hindus and Muslims.... they are all our brothers and sisters." (p 28) I didn't think he did a very great job distinguishing how humans are made in God's image, and yet not all humans have turned from sin and joined the family of God.

It had some good points, but I'm betting there's a better book somewhere on this same subject, especially since this one was published a decade ago.

One last quote I liked:

".... speed has produced technology, which then undercuts the viability of community. We see it in medicine today; the task is not to care for patients but to cure them. When caring turns into curing, we don't know what to do with patients when we can't cure them. What do we do with people who have diseases it seems they won't recover from? That's speed taking over." (p 50)… (mehr)