"To be put up against Barth, if only to suggest there is something to be said for my claim to be a Barthian, is profoundly humbling. . . . Why should anyone care if I am a Barthian? Little seems to hang on an answer to that question. Yet the care with which Hunsicker pursues that question means that it might matter not because there is a definitive answer but because the pursuit of an answer can tell us something about how theology needs to be done. In short, theology is best done in conversation with other theologians."

"This is an exceptional piece of scholarship. Extremely well researched yet written in an accessible and inviting voice, it represents a real contribution to the field. While David Hunsicker admits that numerous books about Hauerwas have already been written, he is right that Hauerwas' relationship to Barth has not been sufficiently addressed—and it matters. This book ought to be widely read by Barthians and Hauerwasians, as well as anyone interested in the landscape and contours of theology and ethics in the last century."

"David Hunsicker ends his delightfully lucid account of Hauerwas's theology with the assurance that his will not be the last word. But his book has definitively raised the standard for all future treatments of the main sources and impulses of Hauerwas's theological ethic."

"In mellifluous prose, Hunsicker makes the case that Hauerwas is not, as some scholars have recently charged, unconsciously an exponent of Protestant liberalism. But in making this case, Hunsicker gives us something even more valuable: a reckoning with Hauerwas's main sources that offers a new way of understanding the history of the past century of Protestant theology in America, with Hauerwas performing Barth's theology in a Yoderian mode in response to American idolatries. This book helps us to understand what Hauerwas's witness has meant and means."

"Hunsicker's book is thoroughly academic, well researched, and clearly organized. Carefully guiding his readers through his argument, he convincingly submits that Hauerwas is thoroughly Barthian in his rejection of Protestant liberalism in the American context. He effectively highlights the pragmatism of postliberal theology vis-à-vis Hauerwas's ecclesiocentric Christology under the influence of Barth, showing his readers how Barth's theology for the church is picked up, adapted, and applied by Hauerwas. This book is a must-read for understanding how these two important theologians affect contemporary discussions in missional ecclesiology."