Beyond Universal Reason

<p>In <i>The Peaceable Kingdom</i> Stanley Hauerwas claims that to begin by asking what is the relation between theology and ethics is to have already made a mistake. Hauerwas's claim and his contribution toward a socially constituted and historically embodied account of the moral life and moral reason are often charged with sectarianism relativism and tribalism. Emmanuel Katongole defends Hauerwas's dismissal of the traditional philosophical problem of the relation between ethics and religion. It is he argues part of Hauerwas's wider attempt to set aside the dominant Kantian moral tradition. Standard fare in moral philosophy inspired by that tradition fosters a highly formal ahistorical view of ethics that does not do justice to our experience of ourselves as moral agents.</p>