Postliberal theology

Postliberal theology (often called narrative theology) is a Christian theological movement which became popular in the late twentieth century. The movement's proponents argue that the church's use of the Bible should focus on a narrative presentation of the Christian faith as regulative for the development of a coherent systematic theology. Thus Christianity is to be viewed as an overarching story, with its own embedded culture, grammar, and practices which can be understood only with reference to Christianity's own internal logic. These views were strongly influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept of language-games. Supporters believe that this challenges the faulty assumptions of the Enlightenment and modernity, such as foundationalism and the belief in universal rationality. Many also argue that the biblical narrative challenges the dominant presuppositions of liberalism and liberal Christianity, including its emphasis on the autonomous individual (hence the name postliberal). Postliberal theology (often called narrative theology) is a Christian theological movement which became popular in the late twentieth century. The movement's proponents argue that the church's use of the Bible should focus on a narrative presentation of the Christian faith as regulative for the development of a coherent systematic theology. Thus Christianity is to be viewed as an overarching story, with its own embedded culture, grammar, and practices which can be understood only with reference to Christianity's own internal logic. These views were strongly influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept of language-games. Supporters believe that this challenges the faulty assumptions of the Enlightenment and modernity, such as foundationalism and the belief in universal rationality. Many also argue that the biblical narrative challenges the dominant presuppositions of liberalism and liberal Christianity, including its emphasis on the autonomous individual (hence the name postliberal). Ronald T. Michener argues that there are five characteristics common amongst expressions of postliberal theology: (1) 't is non-foundationalist'; (2) 't is intra-textual'; (3) 't is socially centred'; (4) 't respects plurality and diversity'; and (5) 't embraces a generous orthodoxy (i.e. it is ecumenically focused).' Because it was principally advanced by George Lindbeck, Hans Wilhelm Frei, and other scholars at Yale Divinity School, and has also been popularized in part by Stanley Hauerwas (who attended graduate school at Yale), it is sometime referred to as the Yale school or narrative theology. Postliberal theology was mostly inspired by people that had either taught or studied at Yale Divinity School, many influenced theologically by Karl Barth, Thomas Aquinas, and to some extent, the nouvelle théologie of French Catholics such as Henri de Lubac. The clear philosophical influence, however, was Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy of language, the moral philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre, and the sociological insights of Clifford Geertz and Peter Berger on the nature of communities. Philosophers of science such as Thomas Kuhn and literary theorists such as Erich Auerbach also influenced the new approach. Partly a reaction to the modern, individualist, rationalist, and romantic trends of theological liberalism, important postliberal thinkers included George Lindbeck, Hans Wilhelm Frei, and Stanley Hauerwas; theologians in this camp were once concentrated at Yale Divinity School, but are now influential at a number of seminaries and divinity schools, notably Duke Divinity School (where Hauerwas teaches). This movement has provided much of the foundation for other movements, such as radical orthodoxy, scriptural reasoning, paleo-orthodoxy, the emerging church movement, and postliberal expressions of evangelical Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. Its ecumenical spirit originates from Lindbeck's work, which was partly animated by his involvement as a Lutheran observer at the Second Vatican Council. In contrast to liberal individualism in theology, postliberal theology roots rationality not in the certainty of the individual thinking subject (cogito ergo sum, 'I think, therefore I am') but in the language and culture of a living tradition of communal life. The postliberals argue that the Christian faith be equated with neither the religious feelings of romanticism nor the propositions of a rationalist or fundamentalist approach to religion and theology. Rather, the Christian faith is understood as a culture and a language, in which doctrines are likened to a 'depth grammar' for the first-order language and culture (practices, skills, habits) of the church that is historically shaped by the continuous, regulated reading of the scriptural narrative over time. Thus, in addition to a critique of theological liberalism, and an emphasis upon the Bible, there is also a stress upon tradition, and upon the language, culture, and intelligibility intrinsic to the Christian community. As a result, postliberal theologies are often oriented around the scriptural narrative as a script to be performed, understand orthodox dogmas (esp. the creeds) as depth-grammars for Christian life, and see such scriptural and traditional grammars as a resource for both Christian self-critique and culture critique. The early postliberals followed Karl Barth's view that the best apologetic is a good systematic, and as such believed that Christians should 'not engage in systematic apologetics. Postliberal theologians will make ad hoc connections with the philosophy or art or miscellaneous experience of the cultures around them, but they do not believe that any non-Christian framework, philosophical or cultural, sets the context in which Christian claims must be defended.' However, later postliberals have qualified this aversion and have seriously tempered its initial concerns over both apologetics and metaphysics. In this way, postliberal theologies have largely replicated earlier 20th-century debates surrounding the notion of the 'analogy of being' (cf. Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Theology of Karl Barth). Unlike the pluralistic liberal trend preceding it, postliberal theology also tends to stress the dissimilarities between religious worldviews, and will often strike out against dominant cultural trends. Scriptural interpretation remains fundamental for postliberal theology. There are at least four key exegetical differences between liberal and postliberal theology. First, liberal interpretation of Scripture is done with a preoccupation with the historical context, whereas postliberal interpretation is 'an act of imagination', interpreting the text with the needs of the reading sub-community in the forefront. Liberal theology deals with aiming to understand the text as it would have applied to the past. Using a non-foundationalist approach, postliberal interpretation aims to interpret the text as it should be applied now and in the future. Second, liberal theologians stress dependence on unbiased reason to ensure finding the objective meaning of the text. Postliberal theologians, however, recognize the impossibility of reading without imposing subjective interpretation of the text by the reader, where such a notion of objective reading disintegrates. Third, 'we read texts as bodied interpreters fully situated in some body politic.' That is, each and every meaning is, to a certain degree, relative to the reader and his own set of contexts. Finally, because reading is always done with a concern for the sub-community, postliberal interpretation always contains a normative element, encouraging an active response. Liberal interpretation, on the other hand, centre around time- and situation-independent truths that do not necessarily impel the reader to act. More typical of postliberal theologies today, however, is a return to patristic and medieval hermeneutical models for reading scripture theologically, uniting historical-grammatical and spiritual-figurative-allegorical senses into a coherent and faithful understanding of Scripture. The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible is one example of postliberal scriptural interpretation at work. It is also noteworthy that in recent years a great number of prominent postliberal theologians have become Roman Catholics, such as R. R. Reno and Paul J. Griffiths (both former Anglicans), as well as Bruce Marshall, Michael Root, and Reinhard Huetter (former Lutherans), in a manner similar to the followers of the tractarian movement within mid-19th-century Anglicanism, which also occurred during global economic change (see Industrial Revolution). Prominent postliberals becoming Catholic is especially notable because George Lindbeck's ecumenical work at the Second Vatican Council and beyond expressed no interest in individual conversions to the Catholic Church, but did suggest the need for a communal transformation of liberal Protestantism so that Protestant Christianity might begin to be more identifiable as a form of Catholic Christianity. Postliberalism partly arose in response to a decline of the prestige of mainline Protestantism in America, in light of which conservative evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism were seen by some theologians and ministers as the only serious theological and sociological alternatives.Post-liberalism has sought to transform Christian communities in a socially embodied, historically extended way.