Stanley Hauerwas is as honest as the day is long in his theological memoir, Hannah's Child. The book is littered with insights that only make sense because they emerge from a life on which Hauerwas has reflected with honesty and reported with candour. And there are moments of delightful humanity, when Hauerwas contradicts the popular version of his personality as a truculent Texan of theological self-deprecating genius. Here's one of them:
I discovered the gift of friendship. Indeed I discovered I had a gift for friendship. I love and trust people. My love and trust may at times be unwise, but I prefer the risk. I am not stupid. I do not like fools or pretension. But I love interesting, complex and even difficult people. Thank God, they often love me.
I do not think that questions concerning the truth of Christian convictions can be isolated from what is necessary to sustain friendships that are truthful. I am not suggesting that Christians can be friends only with other Christians. Some of my most cherished friends are with non-Christians. Rather I am suggesting that if what it means to be a Christian is compelling and true, then such truthfulness will be manifest and tested through friendship.
See! Self deprecating genius. That is as good a description of what friendship is as I've come across, and one which says well where I am myself when it comes to friendliness as a disposition towards others that is life enriching.
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