In Conversation: Samuel Wells and Stanley Hauerwas

Samuel Wells is vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, and the author of many acclaimed books including How Then Shall We Live and What Episcopalians Believe. Prior to returning to the United Kingdom, Wells served as dean of the chapel and research professor of Christian ethics at Duke University.

Stanley Hauerwas was named “Best Theologian" byTimemagazine in 2001. His writings are controversial and well-read, including the recent Hannahs Child, a memoir that ends about the time he became an Episcopalian. Hauerwas earned a BA from Southwestern University in 1962. He went on to earn the BD, MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees from Yale University and was awarded an honorary DD from the University of Edinburgh in 2001. Hauerwas joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in 1970. In 1983, he moved to the Divinity School of Duke University, where he is Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics with a joint appointment at the Duke University School of Law. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

“These conversations spark with energy and intelligence, with candour and (often) a kind of gospel-shaped mischief. If you think there is nothing new or interesting to be said about preaching, forgiveness, race, power, marriage and sexuality, university education, think again. Stanley and Sam have a rare gift for making things fresh, turning familiar questions around and genuinely inviting you to learn, as they have so manifestly learned from their friendship. A welcome shaft of spiritual clarity in a very wintry season for Western society.” —The Most Rev. Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury

"This freedom to be present in the present imbues In Conversation with winsomeness, the gracious mirth of two conversation partners who feel free to dissent and clarify without fear of judgment or anxiety that it’s up to them to get it all right. At a time when basic civility feels like a mirage, Hauerwas and Wells stage a sort of intervention to compel us to do Christianity in a healthier way."
—Jason Micheli, The Christian Century

-- Christian Century