Includes bibliographical references (p. [291]-303) and index.
Contents:
Liberal theology in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- The falsification challenge -- The liberal response -- A purified liberal theology -- The Barthian project in postliberal perspective -- Allies for Barth's heirs: Wittgenstein and ordinary language philosophy -- Earlier postliberalism: narrative theology and Hans Frei's synthesis of Wittgenstein and Barth -- Postliberalism II: George Lindbeck and Frei's later work -- A tale of two dead ends: the linguistic problems of liberal and postliberal theology -- Conclusion: navigating the divide between liberal and postliberal theology.
Summary:
The divide between liberal and postliberal theology is one of the most important and far-reaching methodological disputes in twentieth-century theology. Their divergence in method brought related differences in their approaches to hermeneutics and religious language. This split in the understanding of religious language is widely acknowledged, but rigorous philosophical analysis and assessment of it is seldom seen. Liberalism versus postliberalism provides such analyses, using the developments in analytic philosophy of language over the past forty years. The book provides an original reading of the "theology and falsification" debates of the 1950s and 60s, and Knight's interpretation of the debates supplies a philosophical lens that brings into focus the centrality of religious language in the methodological dispute between liberal and postliberal theologians. Knight suggests that recent philosophical developments reveal problems with both positions and argues for a more inclusive method that takes seriously the aspirations of the debaters. His book makes an important contribution to contemporary theological method, to the understanding of liberal and postliberal theologies, and to our understanding of the role of analytic philosophy in contemporary theology and religious studies.--Book cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.