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Postliberal theology is an overarching, but not monolithic, narrative-focused theological sensibility that moves beyond the conservative/liberal divide. Not to be confused with political ‘postliberalism’ – a response to liberal, market-driven economics – postliberal theology is a distinctive theological sensibility. It affirms tradition, experience, and propositions when doing theology, and emphasizes context and community more than historical-critical, empirical, or rationalistic epistemological theological concerns. This article will provide an overview of postliberal theology by focusing on its background (including its identification with the ‘Yale School’), key figures, major themes, concerns, tendencies, and theological agendas. It will begin by addressing key themes found in postliberal theology that include its non-foundational and non-apologetic character, intratextuality, community-shaped grammar, ecumenical openness, and its focus on the narrative of God’s people in scripture in the story of Israel and the Christian faith community. It will then provide a brief profile of key philosophical and sociological scholars who are influencers of postliberal sensibilities in theology. These include Ludwig Wittgenstein, Thomas Kuhn, Michael Polanyi, Alasdair MacIntyre, Clifford Geertz, Peter Berger, and Thomas Luckmann. This will be followed by considering several key theologians who are proponents of postliberal theology, including Karl Barth, Hans Frei, Paul Holmer, David Kelsey, George Lindbeck, and Stanley Hauerwas, among others. The article will then consider some critical engagements and appropriations of postliberal theology as seen in the work of Kevin J. Vanhoozer, James K. A. Smith, John Milbank, and David Burrell. In conclusion, consideration will be given to implications and potential applications of postliberal theology for the contemporary Christian church.

These thoroughly engaged and engaging essays invite reflection on Bishop Wright's practice and principles as an interpreter of Scripture and of the Christian faith in today's context. Wright wants to reground theology in a biblical narrative and considers that systematic theology has been impoverished by forgetfulness of its roots in the story of God's Covenant with humanity. This story contains in concrete form all the truths that later theology painfully spelled out in categories that were not always appropriate. Systematic theologians might reply that doctrine, whether of the Fathers or of the Reformers, has allowed a penetrating interpretation of Scripture, which otherwise could lack its full existential and spiritual impact. Wright's over‐arching biblical story tends to become drab and to generate biblicism rather than a repristinated biblical theology. His recommendation that we solve problems of modern life by recalling our roots in the biblical story may be a simplistic nostrum. Wright's theology is thoroughly incarnational. Salvation is the emergence of God's Kingdom on this earth. He claims to be a creational monotheist, not a Platonic dualist. He stresses the collective dimensions of salvation, sometimes sounding like a liberation theologian. While his sense for sacred times and sacred places is an incarnational emphasis, his focus on the sacral theme of the Temple in John and throughout the New Testament might be an idealizing construction that takes away from his effort to understand Jesus in his historical world. His hermeneutics could be more flexible and effective if he opened up more to the pluralistic open‐endedness of the biblical texts (not just the eschatological openness at the end of the story), or if he were more ready to delight in the literary qualities of Scripture for their own sake. While he skillfully skewers some trendy movements in Jesus research and Pauline studies, his skepticism about Q and ascription of the hymns in Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians to the pen of the Apostle exemplify a literary conservatism that may generate a monochrome reading. In Christology, his repeated declaration that Jesus 'embodied Israel's God' hovers between a 'high' and a 'low' interpretation, indicating that his 'early High Christology' is not a stable and monolithic formation. Wright, an outstanding pastor and apologist, finally may lay claim to the watchword of 'missional hermeneutics' such as Paul practiced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies of the relationship between science and religion yield a growing scholarly consensus over the compatibility of each category's truth claims, but there is continued dissonance in the relationship between the truth claims of cosmology and eschatology. On the one hand, cosmologists claim that the world ends in catastrophe; on the other hand, theologians working on eschatology claim that it is moving towards renewal and new creation. Recent scholarship responds to this dissonance by emphasising the bodily resurrection of Jesus. There is, however, another possible resolution to this dissonance that also provides an interpretive lens for understanding cosmology: using the Christian doctrine of soteriology as an analogy for eschatological claims. Through a comparative analysis of its own narrative with the narrative of cosmology, the Christian doctrine of soteriology lends a new perspective to the cosmological-eschatological dissonance while also providing a larger interpretive lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wolfgang Vondey's Pentecostal Theology: Living the Full Gospel is a tour de force in Pentecostal systematic theology. It is also the most articulate statement of the fivefold gospel's power to explain the impulses of past Pentecostal spirituality and its constructive potential for future Pentecostal discourse. Combining both traditional and innovative systematic loci, Vondey's project shows great promise for the enterprise of christologically oriented narrative theology. One looming question is whether the christocentrism of the full gospel can bear adequate witness to some of the details of Spirit christology. That is, can the full gospel, with its emphasis on Jesus actively bestowing the Holy Spirit on creatures, give proper place to Jesus passively receiving the Holy Spirit from the Father, without the full gospel's structure undergoing fundamental transformation? While some ambiguities remain in Vondey's attempts to employ both the full gospel and elements of Spirit christology in the same theological paradigm, he takes long strides towards integrating these two themes that have often competed with each other for space in Pentecostal theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article explores the connection between life and theology. Today, many people do not understand the connection between theology and everyday life. In particular, many of today's theological students are leaving theological institutions and entering the ministry with a fragmented theology instead of an integrated theology. A brief historical and literature review indicates that there are three perspectives in contemporary theology, namely the theological triad of orthodoxy, orthopathy and orthopraxy. A brief analysis of the three perspectives indicates a close connection between theology and everyday life: theology and life are linked in praise (orthodoxy), action (orthopraxy) and passion (orthopathy). This article focuses on the paradigm of narrative theology and shows that, when used correctly, narrative theology provides the building blocks for systematic theology and biblical theology. Narrative theology also provides helpful insights when it takes into account legitimate literary concerns, such as the historical background of the Bible passage and the author's theology and purpose. The close connection between theology and everyday life is clearly portrayed in a narrative approach to Isaiah 6:1-8, especially when it illustrates how the story (narrative) shapes each of the three perspectives of the theological triad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short study offers a celebration of and engagement with James D.G. Dunn's Baptism of the Holy Spirit forty years after its first publication. Specifically, this article focuses upon the sections of Baptism of the Holy Spirit devoted to the Johannine literature, posing questions for further reflection and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuestiones Teológicas is the property of Cuestiones Teologicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on narrative theology, approach in understanding the scriptures. It states that the approach has been with the church for some time and became prominent through the works of Hans Frei, George Linbeck, and David Kelsey otherwise known as Yale School. It notes that the recent convergence of the approach in Yale School has eventuated between literary studies, biblical studies, drama, and the arts.

A new and unprejudiced reading may reveal that two divinities, one called Yahweh, the other called Elohim, seem to act in the story: Yahweh is more involved in bringing the flood, and Elohim in saving Noah. The source of this narrative may have been a polytheistic story in which two gods quarrelled: Yahweh decided to blot out mankind, whereas Elohim wanted to save it. This story was remoulded in monotheistic spirit and the moral motive as the cause of the flood was added by generations of redactors. The ultimate source seems to have been a Canaaniteflood story: Baal the god of rain and benevolent El quarrelled because of the human marriages of Sons of El that were regarded by Baal as threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]