Postliberal Theology and Its Relationship

Postliberal Theology and Its Relationship to Vatican II

The objective of this work is to explore some vital aspects of the proposed topic within contemporary theology. Post-liberal Theology and Its Relationship to Vatican II.

Liberal Theologians

The work of McMahon (2009) entitled: "Liberal Theologians"

states that theologians have been impacted by not only society and churches but as well by academic institutions over the last 150 years "towards a modernistic approach to 'doing theology'." (McMahon, 2009)

Also profoundly impacting theological perspectives are the factors of:

(1) the colonization of America;

(2) the enlightenment;

(3) the romantic period

(4) the American and French revolution;

(5) the rise of nationalism;

(6) the industrial revolution;

(7) the development of natural sciences, technologies, medical science and the human sciences. (McMahon, 2009)

It is reported that there from all appearances is an "overarching trend among recent theologians to integrate theology with culture, and to emphasize some aspect of the eschatological pinpoint of how theology should work." (McMahon, 2009

II. Modern Theology

It is stated that both Kant and Hegel greatly impressed modern theologians however, modern theology is attempting to answer the question of how theology affects the academy, the churches and society." (McMahon, 2009

) There was a; major crisis in European society and culture due to the impact of World War I and this in turn impacted the theological framework of many theologians at that time. It is stated that the World War "was the context in which Karl Bart's Neo-orthodoxy would emerge and the rise of his dialectical theology. This was his attempt at rethinking the whole enterprise of modern theology and fitting it into the crisis of the age in which he lived. He took theology and moved it into the realm of the post-modern, becoming the father of neo-orthodoxy." (McMahon, 2009

Bart is stated to have transformed the idea of "human autonomy" which was emergent during the Enlightenment to be a major theological factor against traditional orthodoxy by identifying Jesus Christ as the one true human autonomy of which all men should follow and imitate." (McMahon, 2009

) Barth is stated to make the attempt to "create a God-centered account of reality" however what Barth actually does is redefine "theology and places the life history of Jesus in the context often occupied an abstract concept of God and presses the reader to acknowledge what are his own formulations of the Trinity and "uses them as focal points for his systematic 'Church Dogmatics'. " (McMahon, 2009

III. The Vatican II

McMahon states that in 20th century modern theology "one cannot but look to Vatican II (1962-1965 as the "most important theological event which had implications not only for the Catholic Church, but also for the rest of the world." (McMahon, 2009

) McMahon reports that the work of Congar was invaluable on the church specifically in terms of its history. The work of Congar on Vatican II "was helpful link that he mediated, in a certain light to making the outcome of Vatican II sensible in its documentation." (McMahon, 2009

) McMahon states that if he is coupled with Henri de Lubac, "the complex church and political events become clear in their interpretation of the events of Vatican II. Lebac reached into history and pulled the Counter Reformation into the present, restored an understanding of the church through a theology that reinterprets the Eucharist, has an incredibly deep appreciation of pre-modern biblical interpretation, and expounds in his writings on the 'deconstruction' of the dualism between grace and nature." (McMahon, 2009

De Lubac posits that Christianity transforms the world "not by rejecting it, but by absorbing it and specifically states"…there is nothing good which Catholicism cannot claim for its own…" and additionally stated that "Nothing authentically human, whatever its origin, can be alien to her [the church]." (in: McMahon, 2009

) it is stated that because God "is the author of nature, truth may be found in other religions and philosophical systems and be fruitfully utilized and perfected by Christianity." (McMahon, 2009

De Lubac additionally writes: "any ideas of a more or less Marxist, Nietzschean, or Positivist stamp may even find a place in some blueprint for a new synthesis, and neither its orthodoxy nor its value will be called into question on that account. In the Church, the work of assimilation never ceases and it is never too soon to undertake it." (McMahon, 2009

Guarino (1995)

writes that the entire theological corpus of de Lubac is one that "bears witness to his retrieval of the patristic notion of reciprocity. Truth is indeed everywhere and the church's process of appropriation and analogy extends to every realm of thought. The only boundary for the assimilative and analogical imagination is Christ, all truth is subject to further refinement in him." (Guarino, 1995) de Lubac, with his "drive for totality and mutual correlation" was strongly in support of attempts which was made in various Roman Catholic circles "to revive the theological style of Aquinas and the thirteenth century." (Guarino, 1995) it was the view of de Lebac that the gospels "dynamism…demanded an unending process of creative imagination and bold appropriation…" (Guarino, 1995) de Lubac held that "Just to imitate primitive Christianity or the Middle Ages will not be enough. We can revive the Fathers' all-embracing humanism and recover [their] spirit [...] only by an assimilation which is at the same time a transformation. For although the Church rests on eternal foundations, it is in a continual state of rebuilding and since the Fathers' time it has undergone many changes in style…" (cited in: Guarino, 1995) de Lubac states that "we live in a world different from that of St. Paul, Origen, Aquinas and Bossuet" and that the theological mission of the present time is that of developing styles and approaches which are suitable for the present times as did those just previously stated.

Postliberalism is stated to have been associated widely with the work of George Lindbeck and with nuances, several other thinkers. It is the argument of postliberalists that "if one gives proper ontological weight to the finite, the particular and the local, then one speaks not of universal experiences and standard, but of encompassing cultural-linguistic systems, of enveloping networks and webs of belief of the incommensurability informing various frameworks. Guarino writes that Vatican II "speaks of the climactic and normative revelation in Jesus Christ which is integrally transmitted from age to age in perpetuity." (1995) This is stated to be "hardly innovative" as it "simply sums up the long tradition of Christian belief that God has truly manifested himself and taken humanity into deep communion with his own inner life. In turn, Christianity has adopted some form of prima philosophia only insofar as it needs this to undergird logically the material continuity and integral transmission that appear essential to its self-understanding." (Guarino, 1995) the epistemological achievement of Vatican II "within Roman Catholicism…" was "that the material identity of Christianity does not require a commitment to one particular philosophical system, viz, Christianized Aristotelianism." (Guarino, 1995)

O'Leary writes that the Vatican II held that "…"the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully and without error teaches that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the sacred Scriptures" (Dei Verbum 11). Focusing on the phrase, "for the sake of our salvation," they conclude: "We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters. We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision" (the Gift of Scripture, no. 14 in O'Leary, 2008

) Specifically stated is:

"Fundamentalism, they declare, "disregards the diversity of views and the development of understanding which is found in the Bible and does not allow for the presence of 'imperfect and time-conditioned elements' [imperfecta et temporaria] (Dei Verbum, 15) within Scripture." It "actually invites people to a kind of intellectual suicide," because it gives "insufficient consideration of the place of a given text within a developing tradition" and it "will often take a simplistic view of literary genre, as when narrative texts which are of a more complex nature are treated as historical" (the Gift of Scripture, no. 19 cited in Leary, 2007

The question is asked in the work of Gabriel Fackre entitled: "Claiming Jesus as Savior in a Religiously Plural World" of "…if postliberal theology strongly affirms identity, then where does it find room for openness? Could the post-liberal community be open to strangers, without either reducing the stranger to the same, or representing the stranger as a negative other? Could the community be open to self-criticism as well as critique? " it is stated that today Christianity is "constituted by overlapping and sometimes conflicting, communities. The plural life-world of society today also implies -- for better or worse -- that difference is not only between communities, but within communities and persons as well. The rift between the church and the world goes right through the believer's heart. And since the church shouldn't identify itself with kingdom-come, the difference between inside and outside is not a given. As Jeffrey Stout has it, following James' "Will-to-Believe," "We need not agree on all matters of moral importance to agree on many, and where our judgments happen to coincide we need not reach them for the same reasons." (Fackre, 2003)

Fackre states that there are five pluralist views as follows:

View 1: Common Core. At the center of all the great religions of humankind is found a common core of divine (however conceived) doing, disclosing and delivering. Each faith approaches it through its own heroes, expresses it in its own language, celebrates it in its own rituals, formulates it in its own rules of behavior, and passes it on in its own communal forms. While the rhetoric of each religion may claim that its way, truth and life are for all, these absolutist professions are, in fact, "love talk," the metaphors of commitment, not the metaphysics of reality. Jesus is, therefore, "my savior," not "the savior." In pop idiom, "you do your thing and I'll do mine." Christian faith and other religions are different routes to the same core Reality.

View 2: Common Quest. Perspective 2 makes no claim for a reachable core, as perspective does. Postmodern ambiguity rather than modern foundational certainty is the order of the day. Religions are quests for self-understanding, not paths to Reality. Like the relativism of the common core view, this too is describable in popular idiom as "different strokes for different folks." Unlike it, View 2 judges that the common quest provides no way to an ultimate truth and life. Rather, "my savior" is the profession and practice of "what works for me" in the midst of my day-to-day penultimacies, a pragmatic test in a postmodern world for what is self-referentially adequate.

View 3: Common Pool. Like its predecessors, View 3 gives pride of place to religious commonalities, but seeks to respect the uniqueness of a religion and not dissolve it into a common core, contra View 1, and insists that such is in touch with Reality, not just involved in a quest for it as in View 2. It does this by maintaining that each is its own distinct reconciling way to ultimate Reality, disclosing some needed aspect of ultimate truth, delivering its devotees to saving life through its own means. The way of Christ grants to Christians access to Reality, offers a distinct illuminating take on the truth, and delivers ultimate life through its unique portal. The challenge is to pool the best from each with the goal of a "world faith."

View 4: Common Community. Challenging the individualism of the foregoing options, the common community view sees us as creatures of formative cultures. Our communal destiny is normative for us as well as descriptive of us, a call to know who we are, and live out of the traditions in which we are immersed. For Christians, this means clarity about our defining characteristics, knowing our ecclesial language and lore and respecting our community's rules of believing and behaving. Christ can be no other than the way, truth and life for us. Given our postmodern circumstances, we can lay no claim to reaching ultimate reality through our way, or assert such to be true and saving for everyone. Hence, Christians are to "keep the faith," but acknowledge that they share with others the common condition of ambiguity

View 5: Common Range. The fifth perspective shares the pluralist premise of the former options. The religions are on common ground in matters of way, truth and life, all providing reconciliation, revelation and redemption. However, when it comes to disclosure of the Really Real -- accessible here too, as in Views 1 and 3 -- Jesus' light is the brightest and best. To change the figure, Jesus is on the same mountain range as Mohammad, Buddha, Moses -- or for that matter other great prophets from Socrates to Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. -- but is the Mt. Everest among the peaks of human experience. The difference is in degree, not kind, for Christ offers the same saving benefits as other high religions. ." (Fackre, 2003)

Fackre states that the following five views state the definitive singularity of God's deed in Jesus Christ for the reconciliation of the world:

View 6: Anonymous Particularity. Only at one point in human history does God come among us to do the necessary deed of reconciliation. Jesus is the "absolute savior" not a relative one, the singular incarnate Word, reconciler of God and the world. However, this particularity has a universal scope. The power from the Christological center of history radiates everywhere in incognito fashion, giving all humans and their diverse religious traditions a sense, to one degree or another, of the divine purposes, the option of responding aright and the offer of grace to do so. With that right response, they become "anonymous Christians." While so granting the universal possibilities of both revelation and redemption, only in the privileged church of Christians is there the clear knowledge of the divine and assurance of the path to salvation

View 7: Revelatory Particularity. God comes to reconcile the alienated world in only one way, and gives ultimate truth only in one place, in Jesus Christ. This divine deed is so radical that all human beings are reconciled to God in this central Event, dying with Christ in his humiliation and rising with him in his exaltation. The church is uniquely given the revelation of this truth, and called to get the message out to the human race of "virtual believers" so reconciled. Are all then finally redeemed by the reconciling way of God in Christ? We have a right to hope that is so based on the deed done, but not to assert a universal homecoming as an article of faith. Only the sovereign God decides the final outcome.

View 8: Pluralist Particularity. Christ is the defining particular way that God makes into the world, giving a unique truth and special saving life. Yet the generosity of God provides in different religions other ways, truths and aspects of ultimate life ("religious fulfillments" in conformity with their desires). Christians believe that the one to which they testify is the supreme deed, disclosure and deliverance of the triune God, inclusive of the partial goals of other religions, and seek to witness that superiority to all.

View 9: Imperial Particularity. Christ is the particular way God came into the world to bring the only truth and only saving life to be had. The elect and/or those who decide for Christ during their time on earth, know the truth and are saved. Those passed over and/or do not decide for Christ perish eternally. Christians are charged to preach the gospel so that those called may respond in saving faith.

View 10: Narrative Particularity.2? A narrative is "an account of characters and events in a plot moving over time and space through conflict toward resolution." The defining deed, disclosure and deliverance take place in the central chapter of a Grand Narrative that runs from creation to consummation. But as the Story of God, the chapters that lead up to and away from the Center play their role in the plot of reconciliation, revelation and redemption…." (Fackre, 2003)

There is an unresolved conflict between liberalism and Christianity and particularly as related to the pluralist view of God and his work on earth. Aquinas vision of reality "a true pluralism of philosophies and theologies was endorsed and affirmed…" however, both the council and subsequent ecclesiastical documents are stated to endorse only "a pluralism which can sustain an understanding of revelation which includes Christianity's historical identity and universal normativity " (McMahon, 2009

It is stated that the postliberal or 'cultural-linguistic' model views religion as "self-enclosed language games in which doctrines operate as grammatical rules." (Marmion, 2005

) the view of postliberalism is one in which the text of the Bible absorbs the world instead of the world absorbing the text." (Marmion, 2005

) Marmion states: "This contrast model of Church, with its attendant understandings of doctrine, biblical narratives and tradition stands over and against an approach that argues for a mutual correlation between theology and human experience. With its rather pessimistic reading of postmodern culture, and its inward-looking model of Church, the postliberal vision runs the risk of ghettoising the Church and rendering theology as a public discourse practically impossible. Segregation is not the answer. Unless the Church is more than an aloof contrast-society, it risks failing to contribute positively to the world in which it forms a part." (Marmion, 2005

It is stated that the acknowledgement of the importance of experience both personal and social in religious experience "has become increasingly accepted as one appropriate starting-point and referent for both theology and spirituality. Theologians have come to recognise that religious experience cannot be dismissed as "cognitively empty" as happened during the Enlightenment. Theological assertions are then regarded as derivative, and as "the expressions of spirituality. Rahner himself continuously underlined that an experience of God is at the core of what it means to be Christian. Theology, then, in a second step, reflects on this experience, describes and elucidates it. or, in more traditional terms, theology both grows out of the spiritual life and remains in debt to it." (Marmion, 2005