[13][14] Lindbeck was born on March 10, 1923, in Luoyang, China, the son of American Lutheran missionaries.

Raised in that country and in Korea for the first seventeen years of his life,[15] he was often sickly as a child and found himself often isolated from the world around himself.

He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Yale in 1955 concentrating on medieval studies, delivering a dissertation on the Franciscan theologian Duns Scotus.

[15] Lindbeck first gained attention as a medievalist and as a participant in ecumenical discussions in academia and the church.

He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of the Wilbur Cross Medal from the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association.