NARRATIVE THEOLOGY

'Narrative theology' was a 20th-century theological development which supported the idea that the Church's use of the Bible should focus on a narrative presentation of the faith, rather than on the exclusive development of a systematic theology. Also frequently referred to as '''postliberal theology''', narrative theology was inspired by a group of theologians at Yale Divinity School, many influenced theologically by Karl Barth, Thomas Aquinas and to some extent, the ''nouvelle théologie'' of French Catholics such as Henri de Lubac. The clear philosophical influence, however, was Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy of language, the moral philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre, and the sociological insights of Clifford Geertz and Peter Berger on the nature of communities.
Partly a reaction to the modern, individualist and romantic trends of theological liberalism, important ''postliberal'' thinkers included George Lindbeck, Hans Wilhelm Frei, and Stanley Hauerwas. This movement has provided much of the foundation for other movements, such as Radical orthodoxy, Scriptural Reasoning, paleo-orthodoxy, the emerging church movement, and postliberal versions of evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism. In contrast to liberal individualism, postliberalism tends toward more tradition-constituted and communitarian accounts of rationality. Theological rationality is not to be rooted in the individual (''cogito ergo sum'') but in a living tradition of inquiry which sustains a conversation, and thus a form of life, over time. The postliberals argue that the Christian faith be equated with neither the religious feelings of Romanticism nor the propositions of a Rationalist or fundamentalist approach to religion. Rather, the Christian faith is understood as a set of distinctive practices, skills, and habits that perform the biblical story of redemption. Thus, in addition to a critique of theological liberalism, and an emphasis upon the narratives of scripture, there is also a stress upon tradition, and upon the lived performance of the scriptural narrative in the life of the church. As a result, postliberal theologies are often oriented around liturgical action and descriptions of Christian practice as resources for critical inquiry (e.g. culture critique).

Contents

Books

See also

Books

★ ''The Art of Biblical Narrative'' by Robert Alter (1981, ISBN 0-465-00427-X)

★ ''The Gospel in Parable: Metaphor, Narrative, and Theology in the Synoptic Gospels'' by John R. Donahue (1990, ISBN 0-8006-2480-7)

★ ''The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative : A Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics'' by Hans Frei (1980, ISBN 0-300-02602-1)

★ ''Theology and Narrative: A Critical Introduction'' by Michael Goldberg (1982, ISBN 1-56338-010-2)

★ ''A Community of Character'' by Stanley Hauerwas (1981, ISBN 0-268-00735-7)

★ ''Paul Among the Postliberals'' by Douglas Harink (2003, ISBN 1-58743-041-X)

★ ''Narrative Reading, Narrative Preaching'' edited by Joel Green & Michael Pasquarello (2003, ISBN 0-8010-2721-7)

★ ''Why Narrative? Readings in Narrative Theology'', edited by Stanley Hauerwas & L. Gregory Jones (1989, ISBN 1-57910-065-1)

★ ''Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony'' by Stanley Hauerwas & William Willimon (1989, ISBN 0-687-36159-1)

★ ''Unleashing the Scripture: Freeing the Bible from Captivity to America'' by Stanley Hauerwas (1993, ISBN 0-687-31678-2)

★ ''Women and the Authority of Scripture: A Narrative Approach'' by Sarah Heaner Lancaster (2002, ISBN 1-56338-356-X)

★ ''The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age'' by George Lindbeck (1984, ISBN ISBN 0-664-24618-4)

★ ''The Story of God: Wesleyan Theology and Biblical Narrative'' by Michael Lodahl (1994, ISBN 0-8341-1479-8)

★ ''The Use and Abuse of the Bible: A Study of the Bible in an Age of Rapid Cultural Change'' by Dennis Nineham, (1976, ISBN 0-333-10489-7)

★ ''The Promise of Narrative Theology: Recovering the Gospel in the Church'' by George W. Stroup (1997, ISBN 1-57910-053-8)

★ ''The Politics of Jesus'' by John Howard Yoder (1972, ISBN 0-8028-0734-8)

★ ''Transforming Postliberal Theology'' by C.C. Pecknold (2005, ISBN 0-567-03034-2)

★ ''The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linquistic Approach To Christian Theology'' by Kevin J. Vanhoozer (2005, ISBN 0-664-22327-3)

See also

★ Christian theology

★ Christianity

★ Biblical theology

★ Systematic theology

★ Table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture

★ Emerging Church Movement