Doctrine in the Diaspora

DOCTRINE IN THE DIASPORA GEORGE A. LINDBECK'S The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age 1 is one of the very few novel theological proposals to appear since the collapse of Protestant and Catholic neo-orthodoxies in the 1960s. Indeed, I know of no other single text that in such brief compass-there are just over 100 pages of actual text-so effectively re-maps the theological scene. My aim here is to raise three questions about Lindbeck's proposal, but a sketch of the book's two main tracks will suggest why my questions risk doing an injustice to the book as a whole. On the first track Lindbeck argues for-maps or sketches or charts might be better-his own theories of religion, doctrine, and theology. The centerpiece of his proposal is an interest in those respects in which religious resemble languages together with their correlative forms of life and are thus similar to cultures.... The function of church doctrines that becomes most prominent in this perspective is their use ... as communally authoritative rules of discourse, attitude, and action (17-18). Lindbeck calls this theory of religion " cultural linguistic " and this theory of church doctrine a " ' regulative ' or ' rule ' theory" (18). He unfolds the proposal in increasingly particular stages. That is, after a foreword describing the background and characteristics of his argument (7-13), he first sketches the ecumenical and cultural context (c. 1). His case is that cultural linguisticism is preferable 1) for nontheological purposes, i.e., for those interested in " how religions work for their adherents" (130) whether such religions are meaningless or meaningful, true or false (c. 2) . It is also preferable 2) for theological purposes-whether on a) the interreligious issues of the " unsurpassibility " of a religion, dialogue between t (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1984). 142 Pages. $16.95 H; $9.95 P. References in this essay are to chapter (e.g., c.l) and page (e.g., 1). Italicized English words within quotes are mine. 443 444 JAMES J. BUCKLEY religions, and the universality of salvation (c. 3), b) more christianly intrareligious doctrines dealing with christology, mariology, and ecclesial infallibility (c. 4-c. 5), or c) the more particularly theological issues raised by demands for dogmatic faithfulness, practical applicability, and apologetic intelligibility (c. 6) . A second and subordinate track in this movement from nontheological to theological uses of the cultural linguistic theory is a sustained dialogue with the three main rivals: cognitivepropositional theories (emphasizing the cognitive aspects of religion and the truth-claiming features of doctrines); experiential -expressive theories (emphasizing the experiential aspects of religion and the non-informative force of doctrines), and "two-dimensional" theories (attempts to combine-correlate or mediate, we might also say-propositional and experiential theories) (16). The argument with experientialism is largely in chapters ~ and 3; the argument with propositionalism is largely in chapters 4 and 5. Lindbeck's dialogue with these alternatives manages to compare and assess them on topics ranging from their theories of truth and scenarios of the eschaton to their christologies and views of Scripture. What we have here is obviously something more than a narrowly honed treatise on doctrine. It is not only " a contribution to the theory of religion and religious doctrine" but also " prolegorµena " to a future book " on the current status of the doctrinal agreements and disagreements of the major Christian traditions" (8). What makes evaluation difficult are what Lindbeck calls" the characteristics of the argument" (8). The Nature of Doctrine is " more concerned with how to think than with what to assert about matters of fact" (9), more concerned to provide a framework for settling issues than to settle material issues (10). The movement of the argument is from religious (c. ~-c. 3) and ecumenical (c. 4-c. 5) "neutrality " to theological (c. 6) non-neutrality (9-10). Further, the argument as a whole is " suggestive rather than demonstrative " (10, 134); and, because the case is circular rather than linear, the " order of the topics is in some respects optional " DOCTRINE IN THE DIASPORA 445 (11). Lindbeck wants to suggest the "availability" of cultural -linguisticism a.s a " serious option " whose ultimate test is...