reinforce and enlarge upon the perception Christian—person has no choice; character a nonexistent past, the author also
the author also firmly
of many people that improvements in the
delivery of health care are needed and long
overdue. It will provide new insights into
the relationship between the way in which
good health is pursued and the structure of
the larger society. But it will convince very
few that socialism is needed in the United
Stales.
Ironically, the deficiencies in the health
system that the book reveals so forcefully,
combined with the relative ineffectiveness
of its arguments for social revolution, are
likely to promote precisely those "reform-
ist" reforms that Waitzkin believes are of
little value. Although The Second Sickness
will have an impact, it won't be the one its
author intended. WV
THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM
by Stanley Hauerwaa
(University of Notre Dame Press; 179 pp.;
$7.95 [paper])
Edward J. Curtin, Jr.
Christianity began as an otherworldly es-
chatological religion whose members,
banding together to form a nonpublic, un-
political corpus of mutual love, undertook
all actions with the proviso quamdiu mm-
dus durat—ts long as the world lasts. This
proviso underlies Stanley Hauerwas's per-
sonal account of a radically otherworldly
nonviolent Christian ethic. Jesus has for all
time defeated death. Christians, therefore,
embrace an ethic of absolute nonviolence
and follow him to the cross.
Christians, however, do not freely em-
brace their ethic. Hauerwas argues that "we
do not create moral values, principles, vir-
tues; rather they constitute a life for us to
appropriate. The very idea that we choose
what is valuable undermines our confidence
in its worth." He insists, moreover, that we
also do not choose our basic beliefs; such
choice is too arbitrary and so would un-
dermine their truthfulness. We are born into
our beliefs; our characters and convictions
are formed out of them. If we're lucky, we
find ourselves initiated into the Christian
community, the locus of God's truth. We
are free only if we accept mis truthful com-
munity of virtue and its narrative history of
salvation; otherwise we are unfaithful, re-
bellious sinners.
Though a true believer may be tempted
to act unethically, it "is not a real possi-
bility." h/fact, just die thought of having
to xnakeja decision may indicate our "un-
faithtumeu." For the truly good—that is,
30
is destiny. "Our character is a gift from
others which we leam to claim as our own
by recognizing it as a gift'." What, then, is
Christian agency? It is the ability to describe
"die narratives of the communities in which
we find ourselves." It turns out that nar-
rative, not freedom, is the fundamental
characteristic of moral agency.
What is this Christian narrative? It is the
story of renunciation and other worldliness
embodied in the cross and vindicated by the
resurrection. Christians are therefore called
to imitate Christ by resisting a violent world
through the power of nonviolent witness.
No nation can be their home, only die church
itself, where they show the world what it
means to be a community of peace and
truth. Nonviolent faithfulness, not effec-
tiveness, is the Christian's task, because our
hope is not in this world but in the kingdom
to come through God's power.
Hauerwas's emphasis on nonviolence is
welcome, but his argument for it abounds
with circular reasoning, undefended and
unexplained assertions, evasions, double-
talk, and circumlocutions. Even nonvio-
lence itself is predetermined: "For it is my
contention," he writes, "that if we are gen-
uinely non-violent we can no more decide
to use violence even if the situation seems
to warrant it, than the courageous can de-
cide, under certain conditions, to be cow-
ardly." His denial of freedom ironically
echoes the Grand Inquisitor's rebuke to Je-
sus: "Didst Thou forget that man prefers
peace, and even death, to freedom of choice
in the knowledge of good and evil?"
Briefly Noted
AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY, MYTH
AND REALITY
by Paulln J. HountondJI
(Indiana University Press; 221 pp.; $18.50/
$8.95)
What is the relevance of Africa's past to its
present and future? Paulin Hountondji, a
philosopher from Dahomey in West Africa,
provides a decisive answer. He rejects the
efforts of European and African writers to
create an "enthnophilosophy" myth of a
glorious, collective, precolonial body of
thought that can be used to counter Euro-
pean views of African intellectual inferi-
ority. He maintains instead that diversity
and debate rather than unanimity charac-
terized Africa in the past and that they are
desperately needed to make possible a free
and nondogmatic future.
Rejecting those who make myths about
rejects those who use rigid Marxist or other
formulas to distort the present and the fu-
ture. "The prime problem of philosophy in
present-day Africa is therefore how far it
can contribute to the development of sci-
ence." Free discussion is needed to distin-
guish the real relations between state and
people from the confused notions of Right
and Left that obfuscate with verbal for-
mulas. Backward-looking cultural nation-
alisms often serve to mask postindependence
power-grabs by favored social classes.
To seek cultural pluralism and freedom
of expression is a bold stance in today's
Africa, wracked with repression. "On one
side, there is force—a brute, blind, savage
force, a direct heir to colonial violence—
trying to dictate to the minds and hearts of
all; on the other, there are the bare hands
of men and women so exploited and mys-
tified that they make themselves active ac-
complices of their executioners: this is as
close as you can get to a true description
of the real face of contemporary Africa."
Ably translated from the French, this col-
lection of essays is thoughtfully introduced
by the Nigerian scholar Abiola Irele. By
rejecting mythmaking about the past as well
as the "inspired short circuit of nationalism
and pseudo-revolutionary lies," the author
sees "the free exploration and confrontation
of ideas as a precondition of a real African
philosophy." His work is an important first
step. —Aaron Segal
ARCHITECTURE AND COMMUNITY:
BUILDING IN THE ISLAMIC
WORLD TODAY
edited by Renata Holod
(Aperture [Millerton, N.Y.]; 255 pp.;
$40.00)
The Aga Khan IV is the spiritual leader of
a worldwide community of Ismailis, esti-
mated in the millions, who consider him
the direct descendant of Ali, son-in-law and
cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. As the
leader of this prosperous, cosmopolitan, and
unorthodox Muslim sect, the Aga Khan has
devoted much of his energy to promoting
a universal and tolerant Islamic revival.
This splendid book is a magnificent tes-
timony to his efforts. It consists of detailed
plans, photographs, and descriptions of the
fifteen prize buildings from throughout the
Islamic world that have been given the Aga
Khan architecture award, and stimulating
and informative essays by specialists on Is-
lamic architecture. All the prize buildings
were constructed between 1950 and 1977,
and they are as diverse in function and de-
sign as is the forty-nation Islamic world
itself. The prize-winners include a medical
center in Mali and an agricultural training
center in Senegal built with local designs
and materials, a luxury hotel in India in
Mughal Empire style, the National Museum
in Qatar, private homes in Egypt, Morocco,
and Turkey, the stunning spiral water tow-
ers of Kuwait, and low-cost housing in In-
donesia. There was also a special award for
an Egyptian architect, Hassan Fathy, a pi-
oneer in traditional techniques and self-help
housing.
No mosques or religious buildings are
among the award-winners, although prizes
went to reconstnictions in Iran, Tunisia, and
elsewhere. The architects are foreign and
local Muslims and members of other faiths,
as are the members of the jury. Some prize
buildings were funded by petrodollars, but
others were locally financed in non-oil
countries. The essays emphasize the im-
portance of building for the needs of the
poor and of building with their participa-
tion; in the Islamic world most people want
work first, shelter only second.
It is the buildings themselves, lovingly
photographed, that give this book its beauty
A few are innovative; several are architec-
tural reconstructions, and others attempt to
use traditional styles in a contemporary
mode. They all merit prizes, and anyone
interested in architecture in the modern world
has a visual treat in store in this book. A
second volume is promised in 1984, based
on the latest round of Aga Khan architecture
awards. —Aaron Segal

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