Comparing stonecutters and theologians- a quote from Stanley Hauerwas

Here is a very brief excerpt from Stanley Hauerwas's memoir. He writes of theology as a craft requiring years of training in which one, as an apprentice, learns the tools of the trade, and learns to work skillfully with the raw materials one is given. Here is the excerpt:

Commenting on the craft of stonecutting and on the training required to work with stone, Seamus Murphy observes: “With hammer, mallet and chisel we have shaped and fashioned rough boulders. We often curse our material, and we often speak to it kindly—we have come to terms with it in order to master it, and it has a way of dictating to us sometimes—and then the struggle begins. We try to impose ourselves on it, but we know our material and respect it. We will often take a suggestion from it, and our work will be the better for it.” In like manner, I think of theology as a craft requiring years of training. Like stonecutters and bricklayers, theologians must come to terms with the material upon which they work. In particular, they must learn to respect the simple complexity of the language of the faith, so that they might reflect the radical character of orthodoxy. I think one of the reasons I was never drawn to liberal Protestant theology was that it felt too much like an attempt to avoid the training required of apprentices. In contrast, Karl Barth’s work represented for me an uncompromising demand to submit to a master bricklayer, with the hope that in the process one might learn some of the “tricks of the trade.”

Hauerwas, Stanley. Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir. (William B. Eerdmans Publishing: Grand Rapids) 2010, 37.

I particularly appreciate Hauerwas's insight about the need to not only know our material but to respect it, as a stonecutter respects the stone with which he works. Not only know it and respect it, but "come to terms with it;" in other words, appreciate the material for what it is, while at the same time learning not to force the material to be something it is not. Further, Hauerwas's comparison raises the idea of apprenticing with a master craftsman, someone who knows the material well from years and years of consistent and good work. This notion reminds me to be grateful for the masters from whom I have learned my trade, the teachers and mentors I have had throughout my training. And it inspires me to think that, though I will always see myself as a learner in the things of God, I have all along been developing some skills, some perspectives, and some valuable knowledge that I can pass on to my own students.