Christian language as testimony
Starting point of this project is the observation that both the ‘postliberal’ theologies of George Lindbeck and Stanley Hauerwas lack a sufficient theory of testimony. The problems in Lindbeck and Hauerwas are opposite. Though Lindbeck makes a strong and original plea for the uniqueness of the Christian language, the formal character of his cultural-linguistic approach makes it impossible fully to appoint what this language intents: to give witness of God. Hauerwas on the contrary speaks frankly of the church’s witness of God but there seems to be another problem: He fails to explain why this very word ‘witness’, a juridical word the bible writers apply theologically, a word nowadays used not only by theologians but also by philosophers and literary theorists, is suitable to describe the Christian praxis. Given this status questionis this survey seeks to develop a theological theory of Christian testimony, a theory which can explain how the language of Christian witness and testimony presents God. The first stage of the project is a study of non-theological thinkers about the logic and grammar of testimony and witness. The insights from this study will be used to understand the biblical speaking about testimony and witness. Finally this analyses lead to a systematic theological inquiry of three dimensions of testimony: epistemological – what are the conditions to present God in witness? –, pneumatological – how is a testimony related to the One who is being testified – and ecclesiological – what is the social field of the Christian testimony? Hopefully this project will contribute to a better understanding of the nature of Christian language.
drs. A.W. Baan, Protestant Theological University (PThU)
begeleiders: prof.dr. G.W. Neven en
« Back