Progressive Christianity

 This is the second of two week 1 discussion questions from my Spring 2022 course Making Sense of Theology through Pathways Theological Education.

How would you describe progressive Christianity for an inquiring parishioner? What particularly resonated for you in Brown’s discussion of it in Chapter 1 and what, if anything, troubled or challenged you about it?

I thought Chapter 1 of Brown was amazing. I'm very much looking forward to reading the rest of the book. I saved the following quote to refer to in one of my required CUA polity papers:

Progressive Christianity is not a “you just have to believe it” point of view. But neither, for us, are good reasons the same as “proofs.” They are not the kind of argument the conclusion of which any reasonable person will necessarily accept if he or she understands the argument. Good reasons don’t force assent. I will put it this way: “Good reasons” are reasons for believing something that a person who does not share that belief can nevertheless respect. They are reasons that someone else thinks to be credible even if they are not compelling for him or her.

 I think that this idea of good reasons rather than proofs is a key to understanding progressive Christianity and how it differs from both fundamentalism and liberal Christianity. I would explain progressive Christianity as follows:

Progressive Christianity comes from a baseline of assuming that we are well-intentioned Christian believers, trying to follow Jesus as best we know, but acknowledging that because as Paul puts it "we see as through a glass darkly" and the documents we have (predominantly The Bible, but also the writings of Christians since) were written under a different cultural understanding (even as our parents grew up with different cultural understandings than we did), we cannot always know exactly "What Would Jesus Do?" As progressive Christians we accept that what we can do is attempt to come up with reactions and reasoning that other well-intentioned Christian believers can agree are respectable and respectful, even if they themselves would come to a different conclusion. Likewise, we recognize that those who have come to a different conclusion in a respectable and respectful manner are still well-intentioned, devout fellow Christian believers.

 Brown, Delwin. What Does a Progressive Christian Believe? A Guide for the Searching, the Open and the Curious. New York, Church Publishing Incorporated, 2008.