Preface to Theology: Christology and Theological Method
From the Introduction, written by Stanley Hauerwas and Alex Sider: "In some of our more perverse moments we like to think of Yoder as a revolutionary pamphleteer. Revolutionaries often begin the attempt to form a cadre of sympathizers by creating a literature that is both hard to find and risky-at least if you are caught reading it. . . . Yoder, whose position is even more radical than most of his revolutionaries can imagine, sometimes appeared to go out of his way to make it hard to acquire his work. His essays seem to exist, like the revolutionary pamphlet, in pirated versions that make anyone who reads or listens an enemy of the state. Did he think the retraining his work requires begins with the difficulty in getting hold of what he wrote? We doubt even Yoder was that clever . . . "We hope Yoder would have approved making Preface to Theology: Christology and Theological Method into a book. We believe John Howard Yoder is one of the most important theologians of the last century. We are even more convinced that his work provides some of the crucial hints to help the church negotiate current and future challenges facing Christians. Accordingly, we think the publication of this book is important not only because it makes available previously unpublished work that helps us understand Yoder, but because, dated as some of the material in this book is, we believe this book is not simply part of our theological 'past,' but rather is our future."  JOHN HOWARD YODER was professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and a fellow of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. His many books included The Politics of Jesus, The Priestly Kingdom, and A Royal Priesthood. Especially for a scholar sometimes misleadingly characterized as "sectarian," his work was strikingly cosmopolitan. He represented his Mennonite tradition through decades of ecumenical dialogues, within such bodies as the World Council of Churches and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and dialogued with Jews and Muslims as well as Christians. He lectured in more than twenty countries, and in languages including French, Spanish, German, as well as English. Known primarily for his work in theological and social ethics, Yoder studied historical theology under Karl Barth. He died, unexpectedly, in 1997, at the age of 70.