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How Does Theology Go Public? Rethinking the Debate Between David Tracy and George Lindbeck
Abstract
The possibilities for taking theological ethics ‘public’ have taken on added
significance amidst debates over the nature of moral norms. If realist theological
ethics can find a public voice, it will enhance the prospects for interreligious
ethical collaboration and the place of theology in it. A key question remains
whether particular contexts of religious symbols render them meaningful only
within communities of ‘origin’, or particularity actually enables broadly compelling
meaning or a public voice for theology. At issue in the Tracy-Lindbeck
debate are their understandings of ‘public’, their responses to philosophical
anti-foundationalism, and their theological presuppositions. While postliberal
emphases on the distinctiveness of the Christian community and attention to the
ecclesial community complement Tracy’s emphases on dialogue and coherence,
Tracy’s recent methods provide more adequate responses to the challenges posed
by postmodernism.
significance amidst debates over the nature of moral norms. If realist theological
ethics can find a public voice, it will enhance the prospects for interreligious
ethical collaboration and the place of theology in it. A key question remains
whether particular contexts of religious symbols render them meaningful only
within communities of ‘origin’, or particularity actually enables broadly compelling
meaning or a public voice for theology. At issue in the Tracy-Lindbeck
debate are their understandings of ‘public’, their responses to philosophical
anti-foundationalism, and their theological presuppositions. While postliberal
emphases on the distinctiveness of the Christian community and attention to the
ecclesial community complement Tracy’s emphases on dialogue and coherence,
Tracy’s recent methods provide more adequate responses to the challenges posed
by postmodernism.