Includes bibliographical references (p. [283]-292) and index.

Genesis of a concept : postliberalism and its opponents -- Preparation : 1945-54 -- Exploring new directions at Yale : 1955-64 -- A tendency takes shape : 1965-74 -- The "Yale school" before postliberalism : 1975-84 -- The crystallization and contentious reception of postliberalism : 1985-94 -- The decline of postliberalism : 1995 to the present -- The goal of the present work -- George Lindbeck : theology and the ecclesial people of witness -- Orthodoxy and society after Christendom -- Community definition by grammatical rules -- The truth of the people of witness -- A new theology for the ecclesial "text" -- Hans Frei : theology and the christological object of witness -- Concreteness and identity in the christological object -- Christology and biblical hermeneutics -- Negotiating perspectives on the christological object -- The "generosity" of orthodoxy as an issue of method -- Lindbeck : elusive oppositions and the construction of postliberalism (I) -- The conceptual scaffolding of the liberal-postliberal dualism -- Ecclesiology and the verbum externum -- Liberalism as "experiential-expressivism" -- Intratextuality -- Temptations of opposition -- Frei : elusive oppositions and the construction of postliberalism (II) -- The mystery of the christological object and types of theology -- The typology -- Dogmatics and apologetics : a zero-sum game? -- Systematic versus ad hoc (I) : the case of David Tracy -- Systematic versus ad hoc (II) : irreducible mystery and the lessons of correlation -- The trial of the witnesses : the Yale thinkers "after" postliberalism -- Fashioning an alternative to postliberalism : the trial -- Trial as endurance under temptation -- Trial as experiment -- Trial as submission to judgment -- The logic of proliferation.