I recently read a wonderful book titled Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir by Stanley Hauerwas. Hauerwas has long been one of my favorite thinkers, and his thought has had a huge impact on my own thinking. Despite the fact that I had read almost all of his theological works, I didn’t actually know that much about his life, so I relished the opportunity to learn more about one of my heroes.

Something that Hauerwas said a couple of times in the book was really striking. He mentions his writings and his academic work and says, essentially, that he hopes that his work would make no sense if the gospel were not true.

I know that I don’t live this way in my normal life. I know that it’s tempting for me to delve into philosophy and critical theory in my own academic theological writing which makes a lot of what I write in that arena not understandable to average Christians who don’t have the academic training that I do have. This is a constant tension in my life.

I needed this intellectual reminder this week, but I think we all need this reminder for our own lives. I think that it’s important to remember that our own lives should make no sense unless the gospel is true. It’s easy for all of us to live like nothing has changed, but that’s simply not the way we are called to live. We are to be salt and light to a world that is very different from us.

Our lives should be unintelligible if there is no resurrection of the dead.

Scripture makes it clear over and over again that we are supposed to be changed creatures. Let us live our lives in such a way that makes it clear that we are citizens of a greater Kingdom.

By Timothy