The Church in a Postliberal Age (Radical Traditions)

Rating:
Summary: Great book on understanding postliberalism
Review: One of the problems surrounding George Lindbeck's groundbreaking book, "The Nature of Doctrine" is that its critics have focused on it alone in their criticisms and ignored the other writings of Lindbeck. This book brings a number of those other important articles into print, thus filling somthing of that void in making Lindbeck's perspecives more available.

The essays in this book seek to demonstrate in turn that Lindbeck is "Catholic", 'Evangelical", and "Postliberal." Editor, James Buckley does a good job organizing and introducing the various articles, making them much more approachable for the reader.

This book is very important to read before attempting to critique Lindbeck's postliberalism. Many have accused him of being an antirealist and a relativist. However, such accusation almost universally have failed to read anything by Lindbeck other than "The Nature of Doctrine." Perhaps this book will help address the shortcomings in postliberalism's critics. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Radical and traditional
Review: This book is part of a series, overseen by Stanley Hauerwas and Peter Ochs, entitled 'Radical Traditions: Theology in a Postcritical Key'. This series is not exclusively Christian theology, but rather also incorporates Jewish and Islamic thinkers as well. Responding to tradition, modernity, philosophy and scripture in ways that recover forgotten and suppressed ideologies and methodologies, looking to combine God, text and community together in an integral way.

This particular volume is a collection of essays by George Lindbeck, collected, edited and introduced by James Buckley. Lindbeck has a been an important and influential theologian of the late twentieth century; an evangelical Lutheran by upbringing, he nonetheless sees himself as firmly within the catholic tradition (indeed, he was a delegate observer to Vatican II), using ecumenism as a vehicle toward a greater Christian unity. As a postliberal, Lindbeck takes advantage of modern critical theory, particularly in the field of cultural-linguistic theory, to go beyond the preliberal dogmatic truths and liberal theoretical constructs to a postliberal descriptive and sometimes fuzzy but organic conception of Christian theology.

Buckley contends that the three elements in Lindbeck -- evangelical, catholic, postliberal -- tie together to form a radical tradition that might fit what Lindbeck once described as a Wittgensteinian Thomistic Lutheran, combining the work of two very strong, traditional theologians (Aquinas and Luther) with a modern philosopher of language and forms of life. Despite the fact that Buckley breaks the articles into three main sections according to these categories, he insists that none can be read or understood outside of the context of the other two categories. It begins to sound a bit like trinitarian thought, three in one and one in three!

Buckley compares Lindbeck's radical tradition with Millbank's radical orthodoxy, with Kaufman and Tracy on issues of liberalism/postliberalism, and discusses the radical traditions in terms of praxis in addition to theory. As a preface to each of the fourteen articles by Lindbeck, Buckley provides background and context material; much of this is fairly weighty reading, and requires familiarity with some level of theology, philosophy, and social theory.

The fourteen Lindbeck articles themselves come from various publications, either periodicals/journals, chapters of books compiled by others, or parts of Lindbeck's own volumes. They cover many of the 'classic' categories of systematic theology -- there are chapters on scripture, authority, ecclesiology, etc., but this is not a systematic theology by any means. The first article in particular helps set the stage, with autobiographical information from Lindbeck, tracing his progression through different schools of thought, his reaction through his life and academic career to developments within Protestantism, Catholicism, other religions, and the demise of cultural Christianity.

Lindbeck's critiques and insights seem well-founded in many respects. He identifies the difficulties with conventional conservative/liberal thinking, applying the characteristics of one more frequently to the other (one example he gives is of the Tridentine Catholics and followers of Archbishop Lefebvre, who as conservatives are in many ways more schismatic than the progressives who are more 'traditionally' labelled schismatic; this same situation seems to be playing out in the American Episcopal church).

Overall, this is a fascinating collection of essays, a good introduction to Lindbeck's breadth of thought, and an interesting look at a developing trend in modern theology. I look forward to further volumes in the Radical Traditions series.

Rating:
Summary: Radical and traditional
Review: This book is part of a series, overseen by Stanley Hauerwas and Peter Ochs, entitled 'Radical Traditions: Theology in a Postcritical Key'. This series is not exclusively Christian theology, but rather also incorporates Jewish and Islamic thinkers as well. Responding to tradition, modernity, philosophy and scripture in ways that recover forgotten and suppressed ideologies and methodologies, looking to combine God, text and community together in an integral way.

This particular volume is a collection of essays by George Lindbeck, collected, edited and introduced by James Buckley. Lindbeck has a been an important and influential theologian of the late twentieth century; an evangelical Lutheran by upbringing, he nonetheless sees himself as firmly within the catholic tradition (indeed, he was a delegate observer to Vatican II), using ecumenism as a vehicle toward a greater Christian unity. As a postliberal, Lindbeck takes advantage of modern critical theory, particularly in the field of cultural-linguistic theory, to go beyond the preliberal dogmatic truths and liberal theoretical constructs to a postliberal descriptive and sometimes fuzzy but organic conception of Christian theology.

Buckley contends that the three elements in Lindbeck -- evangelical, catholic, postliberal -- tie together to form a radical tradition that might fit what Lindbeck once described as a Wittgensteinian Thomistic Lutheran, combining the work of two very strong, traditional theologians (Aquinas and Luther) with a modern philosopher of language and forms of life. Despite the fact that Buckley breaks the articles into three main sections according to these categories, he insists that none can be read or understood outside of the context of the other two categories. It begins to sound a bit like trinitarian thought, three in one and one in three!

Buckley compares Lindbeck's radical tradition with Millbank's radical orthodoxy, with Kaufman and Tracy on issues of liberalism/postliberalism, and discusses the radical traditions in terms of praxis in addition to theory. As a preface to each of the fourteen articles by Lindbeck, Buckley provides background and context material; much of this is fairly weighty reading, and requires familiarity with some level of theology, philosophy, and social theory.

The fourteen Lindbeck articles themselves come from various publications, either periodicals/journals, chapters of books compiled by others, or parts of Lindbeck's own volumes. They cover many of the 'classic' categories of systematic theology -- there are chapters on scripture, authority, ecclesiology, etc., but this is not a systematic theology by any means. The first article in particular helps set the stage, with autobiographical information from Lindbeck, tracing his progression through different schools of thought, his reaction through his life and academic career to developments within Protestantism, Catholicism, other religions, and the demise of cultural Christianity.

Lindbeck's critiques and insights seem well-founded in many respects. He identifies the difficulties with conventional conservative/liberal thinking, applying the characteristics of one more frequently to the other (one example he gives is of the Tridentine Catholics and followers of Archbishop Lefebvre, who as conservatives are in many ways more schismatic than the progressives who are more 'traditionally' labelled schismatic; this same situation seems to be playing out in the American Episcopal church).

Overall, this is a fascinating collection of essays, a good introduction to Lindbeck's breadth of thought, and an interesting look at a developing trend in modern theology. I look forward to further volumes in the Radical Traditions series.

Rating:
Summary: so so
Review: This book, - which is actually an edited collection of essays written over 3 decades, - is split into three sections. These being the Church as Evangelical, Catholic and Postliberal. The three terms do encapture the way in which Lindbeck's theology is both particularist and inclusivist.

If I was being cynical I would say that this was just a cash-cow aiming at emptying students wallets. This is probably a bit harsh however because the book does collate some articles thatb would otherwise be hard to find. I came to this book hoping that this would enflesh some of the work Lindbeck developed out of his involvement in Vatican II in his "The Nature of Doctrine". While this book did have its moments this long held hope for a more thorough examination of Postliberal theology is still left unfulfilled after its initial outline 20 years ago. One theme hinted at in many of the essays but never given significant treatment is the need for the church to develop a post-Constantinian mindset which Lindbeck. Lindbeck seems to suggest that this is necessary (the series editor Stanley Hauerwas seems to have had an effect on him here) but is reluctant for the reduction in social influence. This would seem to be an avenue Lindbeck needs to examine in future.

It is not all bad however, indeed some of the articles a very good read. Notably Lindbecks early (in the book) essay on the Lutheran and Catholic understanding of Justification was magnificent. However, unless you are specifically interested in Lindbeck I would suggest you buy the other books in this series (although I don't suppose any series focussing on postliberal thought could ever be complete without a contribution be Lindbeck) or Lindbecks original "The Nature of Doctrine" as better purchases.