The Nature of Confession: Evangelicals and Postliberals in Conversation

This edited volume brings together evangelical and postliberal theologians to explore fundamental questions about the nature and authority of Christian confession in contemporary theology. Okholm assembles contributions from leading voices in both movements to examine how differing approaches to Scripture, tradition, and theological method shape understandings of divine revelation and religious truth.

The collection emerges from growing interest in potential convergences between evangelical and postliberal theology during the 1990s, particularly around their shared critique of liberal theology's accommodation to modernity. Contributors examine whether evangelicals' emphasis on biblical authority and postliberals' focus on narrative theology and communal practices might find common ground in recovering robust confessional identity. The volume addresses key methodological questions: How do these traditions understand the relationship between Scripture and tradition? What role does philosophical reasoning play in theological reflection? How do confessional commitments relate to claims about truth and reality?

Central to the dialogue is the question of how Christians can maintain strong truth claims about God while acknowledging the linguistic and cultural mediation of all theological discourse. Evangelical contributors typically defend propositional revelation and the accessibility of biblical truth across cultural contexts, arguing that God's self-disclosure transcends human linguistic limitations. Postliberal voices, following Hans Frei and George Lindbeck, emphasize how Christian language and practice shape believers' understanding of divine reality, suggesting that theology functions more like grammar than scientific description.

The conversation reveals both promising overlaps and persistent tensions. Both groups reject liberal reductionism that would eliminate supernatural claims or reduce theology to anthropology. However, they diverge on epistemological foundations: evangelicals generally maintain that theological statements correspond to objective divine realities, while postliberals stress the irreducibly communal and linguistic character of Christian truth claims. These differences surface particularly in discussions of religious pluralism, biblical interpretation, and the relationship between Christian confession and public discourse.

The volume's significance lies in modeling substantive theological dialogue between traditions often perceived as incompatible. By focusing on the nature of confession itself, contributors illuminate how different Christian communities understand the task of bearing witness to divine truth in contemporary contexts. The exchange demonstrates that while evangelicals and postliberals share important theological convictions, their divergent philosophical assumptions about language, knowledge, and reality continue to generate distinct approaches to articulating the Christian understanding of God.