Professor Hauerwas has sought in his work to understand the nature of the Christian life. This search has led him to emphasize the importance of the church, as well as the importance of narrative, for understanding Christian existence.  He has been a promoter of nonviolence, and is perhaps the best-known defender of Christian pacifism aliv today.  The various movements (e.g., post liberalism, narrative theology, virtue ethics) associated with Hauerwas share his larger aim of opposing the corrosive effects of modernity on Christian theology.  His work cuts across disciplinary lines as he is in conversation with systematic theology, philosophical theology, ethics, political theory, as well as the philosophy of social science and medical ethics.