What is progressive Christianity?

Other Beliefs & ReligionsIn theological review

The short answer

Progressive Christianity is a spectrum with no confession, described here from its best known published voices. Writers such as Brian McLaren, Rob Bell and Richard Rohr re-read central claims: the resurrection as symbol more than event, hell as metaphor or as emptiness rather than judgment, and Jesus as one path of divine love among others. The movement answers real failures in churches, and it should be taken seriously. Scripture answers from the same texts it re-reads: Jesus names himself the way, and Paul stakes everything on the resurrection as fact.

The fuller answer

There is no progressive creed, so honesty requires describing named writers rather than inventing one. Brian McLaren, in A New Kind of Christianity, recasts doctrines such as original sin and hell as later distortions of a kinder original faith. Rob Bell, in Love Wins, questions whether a loving God could let anyone be finally lost, and treats hell largely as the misery people make now. Richard Rohr, in The Universal Christ, distinguishes Jesus the man from a universal Christ present in all things. Many churchgoers absorb one of these ideas without ever taking the label.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:6 (BSB)

Jesus does not present himself as one guide among several. He says he is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him. A reading that keeps Jesus as an inspiring teacher while loosening that claim has to explain why the teacher's own central sentence does not mean what it says. Progressive writers often answer that such texts are tribal or metaphorical. That is exactly the point at issue: whether the text judges our age, or our age judges the text.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith.

1 Corinthians 15:14 (BSB)

The resurrection is where Paul himself draws the line. If Christ has not been raised, he says, preaching is useless and faith is useless. Paul refuses the option of a resurrection that is true as symbol while false as event, because he knew witnesses and named them. A symbolic resurrection may be easier to defend in a lecture hall. It is not the faith Paul preached, and he says plainly that Christians who hold it are still in their sins and are of all people most to be pitied.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2 Timothy 3:16 (BSB)

Underneath the individual questions sits one about Scripture itself. Paul calls all Scripture God breathed and useful for teaching and correction. Progressive readings commonly treat the Bible as a human record of encounters with God, authoritative where it agrees with love as we now understand it. The biblical writers claim more for the text than that, and they include hard sayings from the mouth of Jesus himself. The pastoral answer is patient: many who drift this way were hurt by real churches, and they deserve a hearing before a rebuttal.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Progressive Christianity published voices

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

What is the New Apostolic Reformation?The New Apostolic Reformation is a loose network, not a denomination, named by C. Peter Wagner for a movement that restores present day apostles and prophets whose words carry governing authority. Teachers associated with it, including Bill Johnson and Lance Wallnau, promote ideas such as the Seven Mountain Mandate for taking cultural dominion. Most charismatic Christians are not part of it, and Scripture tests every prophet by whether his word comes to pass and whether it matches the gospel already given.Do all religions lead to God?No, and the reason is not tribal loyalty: the faiths contradict each other about God, sin, and salvation, so they cannot all be roads to the same place. More decisively, Jesus did not present himself as one guide among many, saying, I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. Christians can respect their neighbours of other faiths, and should, without pretending the differences are small.What is the gospel?The gospel is the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ: he died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. It is news before it is advice: a death that pays for sin, a resurrection that proves it, and a living Lord who is to be confessed, believed, and followed.Did Jesus claim to be God?Yes, though usually in the language of his own Scriptures rather than in a slogan. He took God's own name, I AM, onto his lips, claimed oneness with the Father, forgave sins, and accepted worship. His hearers understood the claims clearly enough: the charge they brought against him, again and again, was blasphemy.Lesson: Did Jesus rise from the dead?The Christian faith stands or falls here, and Paul says so himself. Learn the answer at three depths: hallway, coffee, and the long evening.