Stanley Hauerwas still knows how to afflict the comfortable who populate the theological and political spectrum. In Jesus Changes Everything: A New World Made Possible, he insists Christians of all stripes must center their lives on obeying the teachings and following the sacrifice of Jesus. Twenty-five readings provide a collection of greatest hits for readers who have followed Hauerwas for years and a focused introduction for others encountering him for the first time.

For a long time, Stanley Hauerwas has been urging the followers of Christ to be “resident aliens,” where the church is not trying to “take the seven mountains” of cultural influence and certainly not to found a theocracy as a political power. But neither is Hauerwas calling us into a Christian conclave as lumps of tasteless salt and bucket-covered lamps. … In this tight, clear manifesto, the author reorients us to Jesus. He shows us how Jesus’ story can be our story, and from that center, trust the ripples. A keeper.

Hauerwas is provocative, but not for provocation’s sake. He calls us back to the disruptive words of Jesus, and to the church – to a community of ordinary people who are meant to learn to follow Jesus in the concreteness of our lives in a complex world. He is clear that following Jesus will always come at a cost and will disassemble most of our expectations about how our lives should turn out.