Stanley Hauerwas changed my life.  As an undergraduate aiming for law school, he told me “Lawyers are a dime a dozen” and got me thinking about graduate studies in theology.  As a grad student, he was my Doktorvater.  From him I...

The morning of my dissertation defense, right before my defense time, I said a Eucharist in Goodson Chapel to offer my labor to God. Stanley didn’t have to come - he wasn’t on my committee - but he did. It meant the world to me.

My life and ministry have been blessed by Stanley's friendship.  One learns quite early in a friendship with Stanley, not to ask him his opinion if you do not want the unvarnished truth.  Now, in this wonderful gathering, you too can get the full-frontal Hauerwas.  Get ready to be smacked by the truth in Jesus' name!  One more thing, it has been said of Stanley, as it was said of Barth, that...

Stanley was the first critique of the church that I had trusted; he smelled too much like Jesus. His life has been spent trying to pry the church's head from it's own ass. Builds strength of character.

I didn't realize quite the impact Dr. Hauerwas would have on my life until it was too late. His written work, essays, and conversations have challenged me to not only take the Gospel seriously but to take myself seriously as a minister of the gospel. It is because of him that I consider the theological role of the pastor for the community as important as the pastoral role we are called to play.

Quite simply, no one has shaped my theology more than Stanley Hauerwas.