Now, in a session like this on post-liberal theology where you have a bunch of different people,

all of whom studied at the same place at the same time, the worry is that it turns into old home week,

with a lot of some anecdotes of the old days.

Professor Marshall clearly avoided that.

It appears that Professor Buckley will also give something more substantive.

I'm afraid I am the old Home Week presentation.

Where I want to ask, what is post-liberal theology?

Was there a Yale school, and why care?

Four or five years ago, excuse me, a student asked me whether I was a follower of

post-liberalism.

I was a bit taken aback.

It was a question I had not thought about in a good while.

After some brief thought, I answered that I wasn't sure, because I wasn't sure what

pro-liberalism was, or even if there was such a thing.

The answer seemed to baffle the student.

Shouldn't I know, after all, so to speak, I was there.

I was a graduate student at Yale during the foundational years of post-liberal theology in the 1970s. I followed the path of

George Lindbeck into ecumenical work, and I published essays on theology and narrative theory

in the 1980s. I may be a minor member of the Yale school, perhaps least among the apostles,

but I, too, like Saul, one would think would be among

the prophets.

My views were not always so diffident.

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