George Lindbeck has died at the age of 94. The Lutheran (ELCA) theologian and Yale professor is considered the father of postliberal theology. This movement is essentially a critique of liberal theology from the standpoint of postmodernism.
The liberal theology that dominated mainline Protestantism through much of the 20th century was “modernist.” It professed to be rationalistic and scientific. It worked from a naturalistic worldview. It assumed the tenets of progress, that human beings have moved from primitivism to ever-higher levels of understanding. Which further implied that “old-fashioned” beliefs needed to be changed in accord with “modern thought.”
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