Seriously But Not Literally

 This is the first of two week 1 discussion questions from my Spring 2022 course Understanding the Bible as a Progressive Christian through Pathways Theological Education

Describe what it means that Progressive Christians “take the Bible seriously but not literally.” 

I've started, stopped and erased several partial paragraphs by now about what it means to "take the Bible seriously but not literally", because almost everything that I come up with is something that the literalists I know would also agree with, in some cases immediately and others in response to questioning. (Roger Wolsey partially addresses this in the introduction to his article 16 Ways Progressive Christians Interpret The Bible.) However, the more I think about it, the more I see the differences as almost anthropomorphizing the Bible. We don't just see the Bible as, as the CUA Statement of Faith puts it, "the authoritative textual basis of our faith"; we treat it as we would a beloved friend. I don't mean this in the sense of keeping it dear to our hearts and welcoming it into our homes (which my literalist friends do as well), but rather how we  listen and interact with it. We recognize that the same words in different contexts of time, place and content have different meaning. When my friend says "I just can't", context tells me whether they have reached the end of their physical or emotional rope and are asking for help or they are are excited about something and are using hyperbole or they are simply busy / setting a boundary and don't plan to discuss it further. As progressive Christians, we pay attention to nuance and style to determine the meaning of phrases in different contexts in the Bible, just like we do with our friends. If we are walking up to one of our friends and they are saying something that doesn't sound like the good person they usually are, or someone quotes them as having said something that doesn't line up with their usual personality and beliefs, we step back and make sure that they weren't quoting someone else, giving an example of something to avoid doing or saying, or otherwise not attempting to speak for themselves at that moment, and we apply the same to Bible verses. We recognize that story telling, sarcasm, poetry, and venting (imprecatory psalms anyone?) are all viable methods of communicating important information without expecting every word of them to also carry the exact literal truth in the Bible, just as we do in our friends. We recognize that what is appropriate in one time and place is not appropriate in another, and just as we behave differently when we show up to support our friends at something hard like a funeral than when we watch a movie together for relaxation, we don't expect every statement, requirement or prohibition in the Bible to apply in every situation. Just as we accept our friends when they are not perfect, as progressives, we don't and don't have to expect the Bible to be perfect in every way to value it or for it (in conjunction with the Holy Spirit) to illuminate our lives and strengthen our relationship with God.