Alien Studies
Denise Walker
July 1, 1996
Where Resident Aliens Live: Exercises for Christian Practice by Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon (Abingdon Press, 1996). 124 pages. $12.95. THE MAY/JUNE 1993 ISSUE OF The Door carries an interview with William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas. The interviewer's first question is, "What does it mean to be a 'resident alien' in this culture?" Willimon replies, "It means that the Gospel is weird and, if you believe the Gospel, then you will be weird." In their new book Where Resident Aliens Live, theologians Willimon and Hauerwas reprise for us their delightful albeit unsettling role as two men who believe in being just a little weirder—for the Gospel's sake—than everyone else. In 1989, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, colleagues at Duke University, published a book entitled Resident Aliens that created a stir in many Christian circles. Thought provoking and intentionally confrontational, the book was their "modest proposal" on how the Church should live in what they consider to be a "post-Christian" era. Some readers criticized, but still others wrote to them full of questions, and it was to answer these questions—and respond to some of the criticism—that they decided to write a sequel. "This book signifies our response to those who wondered, 'Where is this church of which you speak?' " Although Where Resident Aliens Live was intended as a sequel, it can be read on its own. It is peppered throughout with excerpts of critical reviews written about Resident Aliens, but those reviews could just as easily be written about the current book. In responding to questions and objections, Hauerwas and Willimon are also in the process restating and amplifying their original position: "We will tell even more stories, give more ...
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