Stanley kids Will, saying that Will never had an unpublished thought – and that most of the good one’s are Hauerwas’s. Will’s retort is that nobody would have heard any of Stanley’s thoughts had it not been for Will’s superior syntax. (p. 16)
This sequel is much better than Resident Aliens. It is not as annoying in tone (with some exceptions), and they dropped the talk of the church as a colony. I am not sure who I’d recommend it for, though.
Chapters one to three are essentially a summary of Hauerwas thinking, though I am not sure the syntax is as superior as Willimon seems to think – I prefer to read the same ideas in The Peaceable Kingdom or After Christendom. But chapter four is really good, it contains some practical examples that claify what Hauerwas (and Willimon) are trying to say about the church. It starts with an absolutely terrifying description of the way the Marine’s boot camp functions as a ”moral” education. It also contains a delightful description of how Willimons daughter became a chemist. Finally (all in the same chapter) there is a interesting discussion on marriage and the family. So for die-hard Hauerwas-fans the book is worth its price for that chapter.
