SJT 61(4): 462–476 (2008) Printed in the United Kingdom C  2008 Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd doi:10.1017/S0036930608004213 Critical Postliberalism: Lindbeck’s cultural-linguistic system and the socially extrasystemic Noel Heather 19 Englefield Close, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey TW20 0SE, UK nl_heather@yahoo.co.uk Abstract I argue that Lindbeck’s notion of religion as a cultural-linguistic system may be profitably considered in the light of contemporary socio-linguistic concerns orientated towards the critical analysis of real-world language usage. Examples drawn from observation are used to show how, by combining Lindbeck’s approach with Critical Discourse Analysis (Critical Postliberalism), extrasystemic features of religion and religious language can be perceived which link with a basic (R1–R2) dialectic. The latter can be correlated not only with the observable product of socio-theological grammars in believing communities today, but also with salient features of the gospels. Regional and other culturally related variations appear within limits to be accommodated by the model. We could bring in a social theorist like Bourdieu, who could all too pertinently critique the first-order/second-order distinction, the talk of rule-governed behaviour, the implicit distinction of cultural system from the lived situation; and if the critique worked we would have devastated Lindbeck’s position without so much as nodding in the direction of theology. Lindbeck would have shown the theological usefulness of a secular theory, but a secular theory which is in important respects now discredited. 1 Against the background of major contemporary linguistic concerns with language in context, Mike Higton’s observation implicitly adumbrates a way of handling Lindbeck’s project which is powerful in explanatory terms for theology both pure and applied. Postliberalism and the generative linguistic model From the viewpoint of many of today’s linguistic perceptions, the long and continuing debate over Lindbeck’s notion of religion as a cultural-linguistic 1 Mike Higton, ‘Frei’s Christology and Lindbeck’s Cultural-Linguistic Theory’, Scottish Journal of Theology 50/1 (1997), p. 86. 462