Resident Aliens Book Review

Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon use Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony to argue that the church has been called on by God to be what they call a “unique colony” within today’s world, and not a social group who makes their decision based on society’s opinions. The authors chose to use the metaphor of a colony to symbolize that although the church is part of the state its first priority is God and his will, rather than the governments. The second metaphor the authors chose to use throughout the book is that Christians are resident aliens, meaning that we do not belong to this world but instead belong to heaven. This statement is not only used in the text to show how we should be different from worldly people, but is used to show that Christians have a great connection through the loving father. The first argument that the two authors present is the argument of the church being a colony rather than a social club. The authors start by explaining how today’s church is different than the churches in what they call Constantine’s culture. Hauerwas and Willimon claim that when they were young the church was surrounded by Christian culture, a specific example they give is that on Sunday nights their entire town is shut down except the church. In today’s world it is obvious that the …show more content…
As residents in heaven we have the responsibility to not bend out culture to fit into the world but to model a new series of ethics that are defined by God. An old metaphor they use to explain this is the church being a light house on a hill, its job being to illuminate the way to Christ for the rest of