As I have written, I have rejected Calvinism, sola scriptura, and fundamentalism. Additionally, through my studies in philosophy, I lost much faith in the traditional arguments for the existence of God (what we call natural theology). And somehow that has left me reading the blogs of progressive Christians, hoping, searching for faith in an existential world.
I’ve turned to progressive Christianity, and I leave empty-handed. I’ve wondered if I’m suffering from the unfamiliar. Perhaps, I tell myself, evangelicalism is familiar because its like a first language (or is it? I thought I was raised fundamental?). Progressive Christianity is so unfamiliar that it never seems right, I think, I convince myself, believing the problem is me, not the church. See, I love the great social work and social justice done in these progressive communities. And I, too, am done with Biblical literalism. I now see that church history is human. It took years for the church to agree on the canon (and the debate still isn’t settled in my ways).
In my struggles to grasp what it means to be a Christian in a postmodern world, I often feel that progressive Christianity is my last hope for any faith at all. Progressive Christianity is a synthesis between classical orthodoxy and existentialism; this synthesis is my last stab at Christianity.
Or is it? Is there another synthesis out there?
Although I still consider myself progressive, in a way, the richness of classical orthodoxy appeals to me more than neo-orthodoxy or progressive Christianity. And after I’ve thought about this, I don’t think this is because evangelicalism is my first religious language.
Progressive Christianity, though not entirely so, is postmodern. It’s the vague, experiential, ungrounded part of postmodern Christianity that I struggle with as a woman in an existential world.
Philosophy lurks behind progressive Christianity and contemporary theology, and this is not a conspiracy. John Shelby Spong, the famous liberal bishop, admits that he was highly influenced by Paul Tillich (so much so, that this fact is mentioned on his wikipedia page), and Ruldoph Bultmann, a name well-known for students of contemporary theology, made his students study the existential atheist Martin Heidegger, calling it the most important work for theologians, something Heidegger got huge kicks from (it is pretty funny).
Behind much of the progressive church, a lot more is going on than Christians waking up and saying gays are people too, although I think that change is good. I am not saying the postmodern wake up was for the bad. But, but, I think in the end, we are still living in a philosophical tension between classical orthodoxy and neo-orthodoxy, searching for new ideas and new answers.
If you don’t know who these people are, or what existentialism means, don’t worry, I’m going to walk through contemporary theologians and philosophers these the next few days. Again, I still consider myself progressive, but I am rethinking my place within the progressive church. Or perhaps I should say, I am rethinking the direction the progressive church needs to wander.
Now what about you? Do you see problems in the progressive church? Does it sometimes bother you? Does the evangelical church bother you too? What direction do you think the church needs to go? Or does religion have no place in our society at all? Was religion meaningful for the past, but not for today?