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Teaching Communities
Week 2008
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Living Gently in a Violent World
November 8-10, 2008 The Teaching Communities Program at the Duke Center for Reconciliation recognizes that forming Christian leaders in the theology and practice of reconciliation requires a close connection with living signs of hope, the faithful witnesses throughout North America and the world who embody deep wisdom about the journey of reconciliation. Teaching Communities Week, a key part of this program, is an annual event that brings a leading practitioner and a leading theologian, each dedicated to Christian reconciliation in a divided world, to teach together at the Divinity School and in the community. As part of this year’s Teaching Communities Week, we are also celebrating the launch of our new book series, Resources for Reconciliation, published in partnership with InterVarsity Press. The second volume in the series, Living Gently in a Violent World, was co-authored by Jean Vanier and Stanley Hauerwas.
Jean Vanier is the founder of L’Arche, an international network of family-like homes where people with and without disabilities share their lives together and witness to the reality that persons with disabilities possess inherent qualities of welcome, wonderment, spirituality, and friendship. In his early twenties, Vanier, the son of former Canadian Governor General Georges Vanier, left a promising career as a naval officer to study philosophy and theology at the Institut Catholique in Paris. There he met Father Thomas Philippe, a Dominican priest and professor who became Vanier’s friend and spiritual mentor. Through the influence of Father Thomas, Vanier moved to Trosly, France in 1964 to live with people with intellectual disabilities, founding the first L’Arche community. For over four decades, Jean Vanier has given his life to nurturing L’Arche, which has grown to include over 135 communities in 36 countries. Vanier is also the founder of Faith and Light, an international movement that brings together people with intellectual disabilities, their families, caregivers and friends for friendship, sharing, prayer and celebration.
Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School. For many years, Hauerwas has reflected on the lives of people with disabilities, the political significance of community, and how the experience of living with a disability unmasks the weaknesses and failures of liberal society. In his writing and speaking, Hauerwas seeks to demonstrate that theological convictions only make sense when they are actually embodied in our lives. His work is characterized by a deep love for the church. One of the most widely read theologians of the late twentieth century, his books include Resident Aliens, Wilderness Wanderings, A Peaceable Kingdom, Sanctify Them in the Truth, With the Grain of the Universe and A Better Hope. His book, A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic, was selected as one of the 100 most important books on religion of the 20th century. Dr. Hauerwas was named "America’s Best Theologian" by Time magazine in 2001. Public Invited to All Events Map to Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church Duke Visitor Parking Information For more information about any of these events, contact Dayna Olson-Getty at 919-660-3578.
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