What is progressive Christianity?   And how do we communicate what it’s about to others?

I.  Different from the “common Christianity” of a generation or two ago – what most Christians took for granted, the beliefs that most Protestants and Catholics shared in common.  Still shared by millions. 

*To see its “shape,” I suggest a memory exercise.  Think back to the end of childhood (age twelve or so?).   In a sentence, how would you have answered the question: “What is the heart of the Christian message, the ‘good news’ of the Christian gospel?”  Why should you or anybody be Christian?  What impression had you absorbed? (A good exercise in an adult ed setting – can be followed by, “And now?”)

*My answer at age twelve: Jesus died for our sins so that we can be forgiven and go to heaven if we believe in him. Note what it emphasizes:

(1) The afterlife.

(2) Sin and forgiveness as the central dynamic of the Christian life. 

(3) The purpose of Jesus within this framework: he died in our place to pay for our sins (known as “substitutionary” or “satisfaction” atonement)

(4) Believing – and often believing that Jesus and Christianity are “the only way”

*Other names for “common Christianity”: because of the emphasis on the afterlife and believing, “heaven-and-hell Christianity” and “belief-centered Christianity.”

*Not all Christians accepted this fifty years ago, yet many (most?) did. But increasingly over the past several decades, it has become unpersuasive to millions who have left the church and many within churches

*The Spirit of God has worked and does work through “common Christianity.” But there’s a lot of “static” in it.  For millions, it has become a stumbling block.  

II. “Common Christianity” is Neither Ancient Nor Traditional Christianity

*Many people think of the “common Christianity” of a generation or two ago as “traditional” Christianity. This is inaccurate.  There is much about it that is neither ancient nor “traditional” but innovative and recent. Examples:

*Biblical inerrancy (an issue for many Protestants) is first mentioned in1600s *Insistent biblical literalism is modern.  Prior to the modern period, the metaphorical meaning of the Bible (its more-than-literal meaning) mattered most.

*The death of Jesus as a substitutionary sacrifice for sin is less than a thousand years old (first explicitly articulated by Anselm in 1097).

*Finally, progressive Christianity can involve a recovery of tradition so that it has significant continuity with pre-modern Christianity. Thus it is “neo-traditional.”

III. Major Features of Progressive Christianity: The “Shape of the Whole”

1. About This Life More than the Next Life – about transformation in this life rather than about an afterlife.  No denial of an afterlife, but little emphasis on it.

*In the Bible, transformation in this life – of ourselves and of the world – is not only central but the primary meaning of “salvation.”

2. Intentional Rather than Conventional – both as motive and emphasis.

*Motive: until recently, there was a conventional expectation that everybody would be part of a church.  Thus many were Christian because of this cultural expectation.  That convention began to disappear in most parts of America about forty years ago

*Increasingly, churches will be made up of intentional Christians

*Emphasis:  Intentionality leads to an emphasis on spiritual practices, for practices are central to intentional Christianity.  The purpose is transformation.

3. Progressive Theologically. 

(1) A historical and metaphorical approach to biblical and Christian language.

*Historical approach. Not in the sense of ‘how much of this happened,”  but ancient text in ancient context. Example: Isaiah 40 in historical context

*Metaphorical:  the more-than-literal meaning of language.

*The contrast to “common Christianity”: in harder or softer forms, a literalist and absolutist interpretation. If the Bible says something happened, it happened; if the Bible says something is wrong, it’s wrong

*Not only is a historical-metaphorical approach more illuminating, but all the problems associated with biblical literalism disappear.

(2) It sees no fundamental conflict between Christianity and science, and considerable complementarity.  They are not rivals – except when science becomes “scientism”

(3) It affirms religious pluralism – not just out of tolerance, but conviction – namely, the conviction that the God of the whole universe has been known not just in one religion but in the enduring religions of the world.  Each is a specific cultural response to the sacred.

 4. Progressive Socially and Politically:

*Socially, it moves toward inclusiveness.  In the last half century: ordination of women; more recently, the full status of gays and lesbians within the church

*Politically progressive – because of a recovery of the political passion of the Bible. The Bible is also religious and spiritual, of course.  But it emphasizes, from beginning to end, God’s passion for a different kind of world. 

5. Christianity is Not Very Much about “Believing” but about “Beloving”

*Before 1600, the English word “believe” did not mean believing statements or teachings or doctrines to be true.  Rather, its direct object was always personal; and “believe” meant what we mean by “belove.”  Faith/believing is about beloving God, and Christian faith is about beloving God as known especially in Jesus.

Second Talk:PCAC, Denver, 10/6/12                   Marcus Borg

Christian Right and Christian Left

I. Comments about the Title.  The possible value of talking about “the Christian Left.”  Everybody has heard of “the Christian Right.”  But many do not know that there is another form of American Christianity today.          Speaking of “the Christian Left” risks further polarization – but not to articulate the difference risks denial.

*In general, “the Christian Right” combines conservative theology with conservative politics, and “the Christian Left” combines progressive theology with progressive politics.  But the theological and political overlap is not exact.  Some theological conservatives are political progressives (e.g. Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Ron Sider). And some who are theological progressives are political conservatives. 

*Both the political Christian Right and the political Christian Left are critical of much in contemporary American politics. But what they criticize and what they advocate are very different.

II. The Political Issues of the Christian Right

1. Critical of the permissiveness of government on moral values they deem especially important.  Many are about sexuality.  They oppose the availability of abortion, requiring employers to include birth control in health insurance for women, and legal protection for same-sex relationships, including especially gay marriage. “Right to life” and “the defense of family values” are major emphases.

            *Other issues include prayer in public schools, the Ten Commandments in public places, the teaching of creationism in addition to evolution, and sex education focused on abstinence.

2. What these issues have in common: all are about personal behavior and belief.   The politics of the Christian Right focus on policies that foster individual righteousness by supporting and maintaining “right behavior” and “right belief” as they see it.  Their political concern is ultimately about personal behavior.

Transition: Of course, personal behavior and conviction matter.  Hopefully, this is a point of agreement among conservative and progressive Christians, the Christian Right and the Christian Left.   Personal integrity, honesty, responsibility, fidelity, compassion, generosity, all matter.  Being “born again” matters – a metaphor for radical transformation: dying to an old identity and way of life to a new identity and way of being.          But the Christian life is not just about personal transformation.  It is about political transformation as well.  A transformation of how we see “this world” and participating in God’s passion for a different kind of world.

III. Educating about the Bible’s Political Passion: A World of Justice and Peace. 

Emphasize that the Bible and Christianity are both personal and political.  The Bible is about a personal relationship to God and the need to be born again and again. And it is about politics, in the broad, ancient, and crucial sense of the word: the shape and shaping of “the city,” of human community, of our lives together as groups, societies, nations. It is about God’s passion for justice and peace. 

*Exodus:  Israel’s “primal narrative,” most important story.  The heart of the Torah (Pentateuch): a story of liberation from bondage in Egypt to life in a new community.

*Prophets:  God-intoxicated advocates of God’s passion for justice against the injustice and violence of the monarchy

*God’s Dream: a world of justice and peace. [Isaiah 2.2-4 =Micah 4.1-4]

*Jesus:  “the Kingdom of God” – and it’s for the earth: the Lord’s Prayer

*The reason the authorities executed him.

*Jesus as Son of God, Lord, Savior, who brings peace on earth – all titles ascribed to Roman emperors from Caesar Augustus (31 BCE to 14 CE) onward

*Paul: “Jesus is Lord” (and thus Caesar is not)

*Revelation: the lordship of Christ versus the lordship of Empire

*God’s passion for justice is not about punitive or retributive justice, but about distributive or economic justice – about the just distribution of God’s earth: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it” (Psalm 24.1). Everybody is to have “enough” – not through charity, but as the product of justice.

*God’s passion for peace: not just internal peace of mind or in personal relationships, but about a world of peace: Isaiah 2, Micah 4.  Jesus and non-violence.

*Why is the God of the Bible passionate about justice and peace? Because the greatest sources of unnecessary human misery are economic injustice and war.

IV. The Scandal of American Christianity. Statistically, we are the most Christian country in the world – in percentage (80%) and absolute numbers.  And yet:

1. We are committed to overwhelming military superiority – as powerful as the rest of the world combined

            *With just under 5% of the world’s population, we account for half of the    world’s military spending

            *Our navy is as powerful as the next 13 navies of the world combined

            *The U.S. Air Force is the most powerful in the world.  Who’s next?

            *We have troops stationed in 130 countries – maybe more

            *We have declared the right and policy of pre-emptive war

*Our policy: to be able to project our military power anywhere in the globe

*All of this is virtually unquestioned – taken for granted

             *What if the Defense Department were to become about defense?

            *“In God we trust.”  Really?

2. We have the greatest income inequality of any developed nation.

            *See book The Spirit Level by R. Wilkinson and K. Pickett.  Correlations between income inequality and social dysfunction.

            *Income inequality in U.S. is growing. In 1976, wealthiest 1% got 7% of national income; by 2007, 1% got 24%

            *Median household income ($50K) and taxpayer income ($28K)

            *Our country is the most difficult in the developed world to be in the bottom 30 to 40% of income level….

As Christians and Americans, the need to reflect about this…

*For progressive Christianity, personal values matter – and so do the political-social values of justice and peace.