The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age, 25th anniv. ed.
Overview
The Nature of Doctrine, originally published in 1984, is one of the most influential works of academic theology in the past fifty years. A true classic, this book sets forth the central tenets of a post-liberal approach to theology, emphasizing a cultural-linguistic approach to religion and a rule theory of doctrine.
In addition to his account of the nature of religion, George Lindbeck also addresses the relationship between Christianity and other religions, the resolution of historic doctrinal conflict among Christian communities, and the nature and task of theology itself. This is a work that all theologians and advanced students should know.
This twenty-fifth anniversary edition includes an English translation of the foreword to the German edition and a complete bibliography of Lindbeck's work.
- Covers the central tenets of a post-liberal approach to theology
- Emphasizes a cultural-linguistic approach to religion and a rule theory of doctrine
- Addresses the relationship between Christianity and other religions
- Theory, Ecumenism, and Culture: The Proposal in Context
- Religion and Experience: A Pretheological Inquiry
- Many Religions and the One True Faith
- Theories of Doctrine
- Testing the Theory: Christology, Mariology, and Infallibility
- Toward a Postliberal Theology
Top Highlights
“Rather, to become religious—no less than to become culturally or linguistically competent—is to interiorize a set of skills by practice and training.” (Page 21)
“Like a culture or language, it is a communal phenomenon that shapes the subjectivities of individuals rather than being primarily a manifestation of those subjectivities. It comprises a vocabulary of discursive and nondiscursive symbols together with a distinctive logic or grammar in terms of which this vocabulary can be meaningfully deployed.” (Page 19)
“It is unable to do justice to the fact that a religious system is more like a natural language than a formally organized set of explicit statements, and that the right use of this language, unlike a mathematical one, cannot be detached from a particular way of behaving.” (Page 50)
“The significant things are the distinctive patterns of story, belief, ritual, and behavior that give ‘love’ and ‘God’ their specific and sometimes contradictory meanings.” (Page 28)
“Postliberalism is methodologically committed to neither traditionalism nor progressivism” (Page 112)
- Title: The Nature of Doctrine, 25th Anniversary Edition: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age
- Author: George A. Lindbeck
- Edition: 25th Anniversary Edition
- Publisher: Westminster John Knox
- Publication Date: 2009
- Pages: 208
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Theology