Stanley Hauerwas: Extend Charity

Posted by admin on Saturday, January 22, 2022

Stanley Hauerwas Money Quote saying it’s possible to extend charity to the poor, even without means of your own – offer friendship. Stanley Hauerwas said:
 

 

“To be poor does not mean you lack the means to extend charity to another. You may lack money or food, but you have the gift of friendship to overwhelm the loneliness that grips the lives of so many” — Stanley Hauerwas

 

 

In this quote, Stanley Hauerwas is challenging the notion that only those with money or material wealth can extend charity to others in need. While someone who is poor may lack money or resources, Hauerwas argues that they still possess a valuable gift – the gift of friendship. He suggests that befriending others and overcoming loneliness with compassionate human connection is a form of charity in itself.

Even without tangible assets, the poor still have the ability to enrich lives through the charitable act of friendship. So Hauerwas views friendship as a kind of non-monetary wealth that the impoverished possess and can use to help lift “the loneliness that grips the lives of so many.”