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Theology Built on Vapors: the Rise and Diffusion of Postliberal Theology by Winfried Corduan Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Taylor University

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Theology Built on Vapors: the Rise and Diffusion of Postliberal Theology by Winfried Corduan Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Taylor University KNOWING & DOING A Teaching Quarterly for Discipleship of Heart and Mind This article originally appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of Knowing & Doing. C.S. LEWIS INSTITUTE Theology Built on Vapors: The Rise and Diffusion of Postliberal Theology by Winfried Corduan Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Taylor University ost-what? It’s not all theologians has decided that a new era in theol- that long ago that ogy has come about, a notion that already should we h ad to lea r n put us on alert, and many Christian leaders, both about postmodern- evangelical and non-evangelical, are becoming a Pism, and many of us found part of the movement. Consequently, even though it to be a pretty wiggly idea. this article may be one of the few places that you Now we’re supposed to encounter “postliberalism” by name, the nature of learn about postliberalism. this theology may be influencing what you read Couldn’t we just declare our- Winfried Corduan in your Sunday School quarterly, what your pas- selves to be post-postliberal tor preaches, and in which ministries your home and spare ourselves the agony of learning the church does or does not engage. There is much name of another theological label that only people talk today of the “Emergent Church” movement, in seminaries and universities will ever use any- and many of the traits of this school of thought way until it is replaced by the next fad? are derived from postliberalism under a very thin As understandable as this attitude may be, guise. Most seriously, under the illusion of mani- the truth is that the term “postliberal” refers to a festing a greater appreciation for the Bible, it ulti- way of thinking that is bringing about large-scale mately undercuts the assurance of the gospel. changes in today’s church. Sometimes some of the The theology that we call “postliberalism” most powerful ideas, whether for good or ill, come began with two well-known theologians at Yale in obscure packages, and we ignore them at seri- University, Hans Frei and George Lindbeck. I met ous risk. For example, we may have heard about Hans Frei once when he gave the three-evening the philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, but I suspect few Rockwell Lectures at Rice University in 1974. of us have read him, and even fewer have been This was the time when popular theology in the able to understand him. Hegel’s writing is hard United States was just recovering a little more self- to follow and seems to be well suited for the ivory integrity from so-called “secular theology”—not tower. Who would have thought back in the early to mention the disastrous “God-is-Dead” move- 19th century that a hundred years later his ideas ment—and process theology was enjoying its would contribute to events that changed the en- years in the sun. tire world. Hegel’s philosophy was a crucial influ- I called on Dr. Frei at his guest lodgings one ence on Karl Marx, and the rest is history. So, we afternoon just to chat, and I was impressed by need to be very careful; sometimes an apparently the genuine interest he showed in the contem- meaningless and unnecessary label may conceal plations of an idealistic first-year Ph.D. student. an idea that, without the label, is bringing about I had just become engrossed in the philosophi- major changes in the world. cal underpinning of Karl Rahner’s theology, and This is the case for postliberalism, an out- Dr. Frei manifested a lot of interest as I recounted wardly pretty empty term. Behind this label is what I had learned. Then he asked me a question an attitude that is influencing the church in many that genuinely surprised me: “But how do you get ways right now, and, sad to say, most of them are from there to the incarnation?” Looking at it from negative. Even though the name does not tell us a Rahnerian perspective, I did not have an answer much at first glance, it does reveal that a group of at the time,1 though as an evangelical Christian, 2 Theology Built on Vapors it did not bother me at the moment that I could biblical studies that brought up serious ques- not speak for Rahner in this respect. What really tions concerning the reliability of the Bible, intrigued me was the fact that this impressive but ultimately is not dependent on it. In other contemporary theologian would put the incarna- words, you could be a theological liberal even tion (a supernatural event if there ever was one, if you affirmed an inerrant or infallible view of and one that would continue to be impeached by the Bible (though I must hasten to add that I do many other theologians2) ahead of philosophical not think that you would excel in logical consis- speculation. I did not know at the time that Frei tency if you took that route). The most central and his colleagues were in the process of deliver- characteristic of theological liberalism is the re- ing a whole new paradigm, which reversed many formulation of Christian doctrine into general of the trends that had de-theologized theology for moral exhortations, either for an individual or the previous fifteen years. This was the year in for society. Thus, liberalism sees the doctrine which his ground-breaking book, The Eclipse of of the cross not as the reconciliation between Biblical Narrative,3 came out. God and the human person in a substitution- ary atonement, but as an example of how people The Maze of Terminology should live in self-sacrificial love. In this more To understand the meaning of “postliberal” theol- specific delimitation, liberalism was a powerful ogy, we need to acquaint ourselves with a number presence in German theology in the late 19th of theological labels. Obviously, if it is post-liberal, century, and in American theology, particularly we need to be clear on what “liberal” means in in the Northeast, in the early 20th century. The this context. In ordinary conversation, it is com- so-called “social gospel” is a typical representa- mon for us to pit “conservatism” against “liberal- tive of theological liberalism. ism.” In such a general bifurcation, it is not really While liberalism was flourishing in many possible to say what those terms mean, other than circles, evangelicals maintained their own iden- that presumably conservatives hold on to more tities and often went to great lengths to repu- traditional beliefs than liberals. Thus, I need to diate liberalism by scholarship that directly specify my terms quite a bit more. confronted the errors of liberal biblical criticism One term that will become crucial in this dis- on its own ground. But liberalism also had its cussion is the word “orthodox,” by which I am own problems. For one thing, the basic optimism not referring to the Eastern branch of the Chris- necessary to advocate the moral betterment of tian Church, but to a basic adherence to the true the human race was devastated by the inhuman- doctrines of Christianity. Orthodoxy in this sense ity and cruelty of World War I. Simultaneously, can span Christian groups ranging all the way Karl Barth, coming out of the liberal theological from Roman Catholicism to Tennessee Mountain world, called for a fresh look at the actual teach- Charismatics. Perhaps a happy synonym for “or- ings of Scripture and thereby initiated the move- thodoxy” might be what C.S. Lewis had in mind ment of neo-orthodoxy. when he talked about “mere Christianity.” Neo-orthodoxy and postliberalism appear to One orthodox subgroup is constituted by be very similar, but postliberals wish to see them- evangelicals, who are Protestants who emphasize selves as quite different, and so we need to say the need for personal salvation in Jesus Christ, a few more words about neo-orthodoxy. Neo-or- and who hold to the Bible as truthful in all that it thodoxy, as espoused by Karl Barth, tried to call affirms, frequently invoking the term “inerrancy.” the church back to the essential beliefs of historic For purposes of this essay, there is no need to dis- Christianity, such as sin, the atonement, the Trin- tinguish between evangelicals and fundamental- ity, and salvation. But even though it promoted ists. In our context, evangelicals are the epitome orthodoxy, its method was rather free-floating of conservative Christians. because it accepted the conclusions of negative Now let us take a closer look at what “lib- biblical criticism, and thus—Barth’s own pro- eralism” means in this connection. In the his- tests notwithstanding—constructed a set of be- tory of theology, liberalism has a fairly specific liefs based on an inadequate foundation. In other meaning. It is closely tied to developments in words, it may have been orthodox, but it was neo- Theology Built on Vapors 3 orthodox because there was no controlling author- the first few generations, people simply accepted ity. Consequently, neo-orthodoxy lost no time in the story, went to the bank, and rejoiced in their redefining itself with every new theologian who good fortune. However, several generations later, somehow claimed that label, and it is utterly un- people started to ask questions about this story. surprising that the “God is dead” movement had They wanted to know: its roots in neo-orthodoxy. For example, Paul Van 1. Is this story really true? Buren earned his doctorate under Barth in Basel, 2. Who first came up with this story? writing his dissertation on the theology of Calvin, 3.
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