The trial of the witnesses : the rise and decline of postliberal theology / Paul J. DeHart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

DeHart, Paul J., 1964-

Contributor:

Isaac Norris Library Fund.

Series:

Challenges in contemporary theology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Postliberal theology.

Physical Description:

xvi, 296 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Malden, MA ; Oxford : Blackwell Pub., 2006.

Summary:

The much discussed notion of postliberal theology developed from the writings of two theologians at Yale University, Hans Frei and George Lindbeck. In The Trial of the Witnesses, Paul J. DeHart provides a thorough analysis and critique of postliberal theology, beginning with an examination of the intellectual context of Frei and Lindbeck's thought and the controversies to which their work has given rise. The book scrutinizes the dogmatic underpinnings of Frei and Lindbeck's understandings of theology and investigates the key concepts taken from their work which have been used to construct the idea of postliberalism.

Contents:

Genesis of a concept : postliberalism and its opponents

Preparation : 1945-54

Exploring new directions at Yale : 1955-64

A tendency takes shape : 1965-74

The "Yale school" before postliberalism : 1975-84

The crystallization and contentious reception of postliberalism : 1985-94

The decline of postliberalism : 1995 to the present

The goal of the present work

George Lindbeck : theology and the ecclesial people of witness

Orthodoxy and society after Christendom

Community definition by grammatical rules

The truth of the people of witness

A new theology for the ecclesial "text"

Hans Frei : theology and the christological object of witness

Concreteness and identity in the christological object

Christology and biblical hermeneutics

Negotiating perspectives on the christological object

The "generosity" of orthodoxy as an issue of method

Lindbeck : elusive oppositions and the construction of postliberalism (I)

The conceptual scaffolding of the liberal-postliberal dualism

Ecclesiology and the verbum externum

Liberalism as "experiential-expressivism"

Intratextuality

Temptations of opposition

Frei : elusive oppositions and the construction of postliberalism (II)

The mystery of the christological object and types of theology

The typology

Dogmatics and apologetics : a zero-sum game?

Systematic versus ad hoc (I) : the case of David Tracy

Systematic versus ad hoc (II) : irreducible mystery and the lessons of correlation

The trial of the witnesses : the Yale thinkers "after" postliberalism

Fashioning an alternative to postliberalism : the trial

Trial as endurance under temptation

Trial as experiment

Trial as submission to judgment

The logic of proliferation.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [283]-292) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Isaac Norris Library Fund.

ISBN:

1405132957

1405132965

OCLC:

62172715

Publisher Number:

9781405132954

9781405132961