Duke Theology - Linbeck - Propositional Truth
Can someone explain to me what Dr. Hall read from Linbeck about propositional truth and radical orthodoxy's critique of Linbeck? What does he believe about propositional truth (or not believe)?
posted by Tom Arthur at 5:06 PM
2 Comments:
I wasn't at the lecture by Dr.Hall so I have waited for someone else to respond before giving it a go. Since no one has taken your bait, I'll offer my understanding of Lindbeck and standby for fraternal correction.
It's certainly important to locate Lindbeck in the midst of the ecumenical movement both before and after Vatican II. The Nature of Doctrine is aimed at proposing a way that separated communities of Christ might find the way to reunion by understanding the irreconcilable epistemologies at work beneath the surface of our doctrinal differences. It was in the midst of that analysis that he introduced his linguistic-canonical approach to Scripture and showed why propositionalism yields a flat view of Scripture that does not provide an adequate cartography by which Christians can navigate in following Christ.
Lindbeck defined the literal sense of Scripture, pace the definition offered by propositionalists, as “that which a community of readers takes to be the plain, primary, and controlling significance of a text.”
He taught that “the narrative meaning of stories about Jesus that were the uniquely privileged sensus literalis of the whole of Scripture for the groups by whom and for whom those stories were composed..."
Milbank says about Lindbeck: A postmodern (or post-liberal) theology, as G. Lindbeck has rightly argued, must reject two forms of ‘foundationalism.’ First, it has to refuse the idea that faith is grounded in a series of propositions about ‘objects’ available to our rational gaze: God, eternity, the soul, or incarnate divinity, ‘proven’ by miraculous events and fulfillments of prophecies. Secondly, it has to refuse equally the idea that Christian beliefs are somehow ‘expressions’ of experiences entirely preceding these beliefs....If anything refers to reality here, then it must be, as Lindbeck says, the entire practice, with all its signs, images, and actions, and not just a set of propositions taken in isolation."
"Correct performance, however, is for Lindbeck defined in advance by the exemplary narratives of Jesus. These stories are not situated within the world: instead, for the Christian, the world is situated within these stories. They define for us what reality is, and they function as a ‘metanarrative’ not in the sense of a story based on, or unfolding foundational reason...but in the sense of a story privileged by faith, and seen as the key to the interpretation and regulation of all other stories."
Craig,
Have you read much Newbigin? How similar to this is Newbigin's project in say, Proper Confidence?
Post a Comment
<< Home