engleski

Ghetto, Colony, or a Journeying People? The Baptists’ Role in the Croatian Society, with a Special Reference to the Work of Stanley Hauerwas and his Critics

The article explores possible contributions of Stanley Hauerwas’s work to the self- understanding of the Croatian Baptist churches and their role in the society. In spite of some obvious differences between their contexts, it can be argued that both Hauerwas and the Croatian Baptists perceive the societies they live in as specific versions of the Constantinian state. Looking for an answer to the question of what it means to be a church in this particular social setting, Hauerwas relies on virtue ethics. Critical of American liberal society, he suggests that the most essential social function of the church is to be church, separated from the world, yet for the sake of the world. Thus the church, according to him, is supposed to be a gathering of the community that generates people of virtue, faithful to the story of Christian participation in God’s dealings with the world. Confronted with the new set of challenges stemming from the development of liberal democracy and capitalism, the Croatian Baptists would do well to consider his emphasis on moral formation within the community as a backbone of social ethics, but would also need to take heed of his critics, who warn against sectarianism and retreating from the use of public language and dialogue, pointing to the absence of constructive elements in his ethics.

social ethics ; virtues ; Baptists ; Hauerwas ; ecclesiology

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