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DIGGING IT: ON UNDERSTANDING THEOLOGY AS BRICKLAYING
Author(s) -
MUERS RACHEL
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
modern theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.144
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1468-0025
pISSN - 0266-7177
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0025.2012.01741.x
Subject(s) - craft , digging , depiction , poetry , philosophy , theology , task (project management) , epistemology , aesthetics , sociology , art , history , visual arts , archaeology , linguistics , management , economics
The connections Stanley Hauerwas draws between his theological work and the craft of bricklaying, which he learned from his father, invites comparison with Seamus Heaney's depiction of poetry as digging. Both men understand their task of writing as hard and precise labour that pays close attention to given materials and that honours the complexities of the past. I consider how the characterisation of theology as bricklaying‐like work, integral to Hauerwas’ professional and personal self‐understanding, may shape his theological approaches and priorities, and ask how this might contrast with other possible approaches formed from other historical contexts.