On Reading John H Yoder Again

I've just begun reading Yoder again for the first time in a long time.  This is after reading Hauerwas extensively.

My sense is that Hauerwas, because of his adoption of MacIntyre's assessment of society, has been unwilling to represent the complexity of Yoder's thought around the church's role in society. Yoder seems frustrated with Hauerwas on this point. I am also very intrigued around Barth's thinking on the subject of the church's posture towards society (which Yoder adopts). Interestingly, I think that the direction that Stout pushes Hauerwas is in the direction of Yoder/Barth. I've heard Stout very explicitly say that he thinks Barth's approach to societal engagement is extremely important for Christians to consider and represents a better way of being in the world. 

I've also just read C Carter's summary of Yoder's thought. And while helpful, I found it too optimistic and at times misleading. When he describes Yoder's ecclesiology he says that it is essential in Yoder to have a strong church/world distinction. On one level (the level of recognition of lordship), yes, that is true. On another level it isn't (Yoder affirms that Christians are also simultaneously members of the world). It seems in Yoder he has a dialectic ecclesiology, one that I've felt has been sorely lacking in Anabaptism and in evangelicalism. 

Also, Carter isn't hard enough on Yoder. His critiques often sound like affirmations. I think a major shortcoming of Yoder's work is his refusal to do many book length projects. This has lead to a certain intellectual laziness where he continually is repeating the same ideas and referring to the same Scripture passages. I wish he would have either written a Summa or published his lecture notes more systematically. And, I think Reimer is right that he is sloppy in his history around Constantianism and diaspora Judaism. I would rather Constantianism become a perennial temptation of religious people, rather than a totalizing historical phenomenon. Same with diasporism. I don't think this is ever perfectly reflected in a community, but is a trend or idea that we can live into.

But, no matter what, I don't think that Yoder's notions of the congregation's posture towards society can be easily written off or glibly ignore.  They are simply too complex, theologically suggestive, and provocative in their implications.