Liberal Christianity

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Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward. Liberal does not refer to Progressive Christianity or to the American political philosophy, but to the philosophical and religious thought that developed as a consequence of the Enlightenment.

Liberal Christianity, broadly speaking, is a method of biblical hermeneutics, an undogmatic method of understanding God through the use of scripture by applying the same modern hermeneutics used to understand any ancient writings. Liberal Christianity does not claim to be a belief structure, and as such is not dependent upon any Church dogma or creedal statements. Unlike conservative varieties of Christianity, it has no unified set of propositional beliefs. The word liberal in liberal Christianity denotes a characteristic willingness to interpret scripture without any preconceived notion of inerrancy of scripture or the correctness of Church dogma.^[1] A liberal Christian, however, may hold certain beliefs in common with traditional, orthodox, or even conservative Christianity.

Liberal Christianity and Biblical hermeneutics

The theology of liberal Christianity was prominent in the Biblical criticism of the 19th and 20th centuries. The style of Scriptural hermeneutics (interpretation of the Bible) within liberal theology is often characterized as non-propositional. This means that the Bible is not considered a collection of factual statements, but instead an anthology that documents the human authors' beliefs and feelings about God at the time of its writing—within a historical or cultural context. Thus, liberal Christian theologians do not claim to discover truth propositions but rather create religious models and concepts that reflect the class, gender, social, and political contexts from which they emerge. Liberal Christianity looks upon the Bible as a collection of narratives that explain, epitomize, or symbolize the essence and significance of Christian understanding.^[2] Thus, most liberal Christians do not regard the Bible as divinely inspired (God's Word), but subject Scripture to human reason. However some modern liberal Christians believe in a divinely inspired bible, albeit a predominantly spiritual interpretation of the text and very few, if any, literal interpretations (especially concerning the Old Testament).^{[citation needed]}

In the 1800s, liberal Christianity was still hard to separate from political liberalism. In a decision during the 1870s, an Irish bishop was sent to Quebec by papal authority to sort the two out. Several curès had threatened to withhold the sacrements from parishoners who cast votes for Liberals and others had preached that to vote for Liberal candidates was a mortal sin.^[3]

In the 19th century, self-identified liberal Christians sought to elevate Jesus' humane teachings as a standard for a world civilization freed from cultic traditions and traces of "pagan" belief in the supernatural.^[4] As a result, liberal Christians placed less emphasis on miraculous events associated with the life of Jesus than on his teachings. The effort to remove "superstitious" elements from Christian faith dates to intellectual reformist Christians such as Erasmus and the Deists in the 15th–17th centuries.^[5] The debate over whether a belief in miracles was mere superstition or essential to accepting the divinity of Christ constituted a crisis within the 19th-century church, for which theological compromises were sought.^[6]

Attempts to account for miracles through scientific or rational explanation were mocked even at the turn of the 19th–20th century.^[7] A belief in the authenticity of miracles was one of five tests established in 1910 by the Presbyterian Church to distinguish true believers from false professors of faith such as "educated, 'liberal' Christians."^[8]

Contemporary liberal Christians may prefer to read Jesus' miracles as metaphorical narratives for understanding the power of God.^[9] Not all theologians with liberal inclinations reject the possibility of miracles, but may reject the polemicism that denial or affirmation entails.^[10]

Liberal theology does not only appear in a context where the divine inspiration of the Bible is questioned. In conservative Christian movements, the Bible is seen as divinely inspired but is sometimes combined with ideologies originating from outside the Bible or Christian teaching. Typical examples of influence from liberal theology in conservative Christianity would be extreme focus on eschatology (the end of times) by giving a divine interpretation to secular events. Also, the "Christian Zionism" movement combines conservative Christianity with a secular ideology given a divine status.

Influence of liberal Christianity

Liberal Christianity was most influential with mainline Protestant churches in the early 20th century, when proponents believed the changes it would bring would be the future of the Christian church. Other subsequent theological movements within the Protestant mainline (in the US) included political liberation theology, philosophical forms of postmodern Christianity such as Christian existentialism, and conservative movements such as neo-evangelicalism and paleo-orthodoxy.

However, the 1990s and 2000s saw a resurgence of non-doctrinal, scholarly work on biblical exegesis and theology, exemplified by figures such as Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, John Shelby Spong, and Scotty McLennan. Their appeal, like that of the earlier modernism, also is primarily found in the mainline denominations.

Liberal Christian theologians and authors

Anglican and Protestant

• Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834), often called the "father of liberal theology," he claimed that religious experience was introspective, and that the truest understanding of God consisted of "a sense of absolute dependence".
• William Ellery Channing (1780–1842), pioneering liberal theologian in the USA, who criticized the doctrine of the Trinity and the strength of scriptural authority, in favor of more rationalistic and historical-critical beliefs. Unitarian.
• Charles Augustus Briggs (1841–1913) early advocate of modern Biblical criticism
• Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887), US preacher who left behind the Calvinist orthodoxy of his famous father, the Reverend Lyman Beecher, to popularize liberal Christianity.
• Adolf von Harnack, (1851–1930), German theologian and church historian, promoted the Social Gospel.
• Charles Fillmore (1854–1948). Emerson-influenced Christian mystic and co-founder (with his wife, Myrtle Fillmore) of the Unity Church.
• Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969), Baptist founding pastor of New York's Riverside Church in 1922.
• Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976), German biblical scholar, liberal Christian theologian until 1924.
• Paul Tillich (1886–1965), synthesized Protestant Christian theology with existential philosophy
• Leslie Weatherhead (1893–1976), English preacher, and author of The Will of God and The Christian Agnostic
• Lloyd Geering (1918–), New Zealand theologian.
• Paul Moore, Jr. (1919 - 2003), 13th Episcopal Bishop, New York Diocese
• John A.T. Robinson (1919–1983), Bishop of Woolwich, author of Honest to God.
• John Hick (b. 1922) British philosopher of religion and theologian.
• William Sloane Coffin (1924–2006), Senior Minister at the Riverside Church in New York City, and President of SANE/Freeze (now Peace Action).
• John Shelby Spong (1931–), Episcopal bishop and author.
• Richard Holloway (1933-), Bishop of Edinburgh 1986-2000.
• Rubem Alves, (b. 1938) Brazilian, ex-Presbyterian minister, retired professor from UNICAMP, cofounder of Liberation theology.
• Matthew Fox (priest) (b. 1940) American Episcopalian priest and theologian.
• Marcus Borg (b. 1942) American biblical scholar and author.
• Scotty McLennan (b. 1948) Unitarian Universalist Christian Minister, Stanford University professor and author.
• Michael Dowd (b. 1958) Religious Naturalist theologian and Epic of Evolution evangelist.
• Douglas Ottati, Presbyterian theologian and author, former professor at Union-PSCE, current professor at Davidson College.

Roman Catholic

• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955), a French Jesuit, also trained as a paleontologist; works condemned by the Holy Office in 1962. The condemnation was formally reaffirmed in 1981 but many theologians still refer to his writings, including Pope Benedict XVI.
• Yves Congar (1904–1995), French Dominican ecumenical theologian.
• Raymond Edward Brown (May 22, 1928 - August 8, 1998), He was a professor emeritus at Union Theological Seminary in New York, which known as one of the leading centers of liberal Christianity in the United States.
• Edward Schillebeeckx, (1914–2009) Belgian Dominican theologian.
• Hans Küng, (b. 1928) Swiss theologian. Had his licence to teach Catholic theology revoked in 1979 because of his rejection of the doctrine of the infallibility of the Church, but retained his faculties to say the Mass.
• John Dominic Crossan, (b. 1934) ex-priest, New Testament scholar, co-founder of the Jesus Seminar.
• Joan Chittister, (b. 1936) OSB, a lecturer and social psychologist.
• Leonardo Boff, (b. 1938) Brazilian, ex-Franciscan, ex-priest, cofounder of Liberation theology.

References

1. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: Liberalism". http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09212a.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-27. 
2. ^ Montgomery, John Warwick. In Defense of Martin Luther. Milwaukee: Northwestern, 1970, p. 57. “Luther’s Hermeneutic vs. the New Hermeneutic.” Quoted in http://www.wlsessays.net/authors/W/WestphalConfession/WestphalConfession.PDF^{[dead link]}
3. ^ Robert Collins (1977). The Age of Innocence 1870/1880. Canada's Illustrated Heritage. Jack McClelland. pp. 87-88. ISBN 0919644198. 
4. ^ Burton L. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Book of Q and Christian Origins (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 29 online.
5. ^ Linda Woodhead, "Christianity," in Religions in the Modern World (Routledge, 2002), pp. 186 online and 193.
6. ^ The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion 1805–1900, edited by Gary J. Dorrien (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), passim, search miracles.
7. ^ F.J. Ryan, Protestant Miracles: High Orthodox and Evangelical Authority for the Belief in Divine Interposition in Human Affairs (Stockton, California, 1899), p. 78 online. Full text downloadable.
8. ^ Dan P. McAdams, The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 164 online.
9. ^ Ann-Marie Brandom, "The Role of Language in Religious Education," in Learning to Teach Religious Education in the Secondary School: A Companion to School Experience (Routledge, 2000), p. 76 online.
10. ^ The Making of American Liberal Theology: Idealism, Realism, and Modernity, 1900-1950, edited by Gary J. Dorrien (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), passim, search miracles, especially p. 413; on Ames, p. 233 online; on Niebuhr, p. 436 online.

See also

Biblical hermeneutics Christian democracy Christian existentialism Christian feminism Christian left Christian socialism Christian universalism Evangelical left Fountain Street Church European Liberal Protestant Network

Free Christianity Jesus Seminar Liberal Anglo-Catholicism Postliberal theology Postmodern Christianity Process theology Progressive Christianity Queer theology Secular theology Social Gospel

External links

• The Progressive Christian Alliance
• Progressive Christian Network Britain
• Liberalism By M. James Sawyer , Th.M., Ph.D.
• Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937)
• The Christian Left -- An Open Fellowship of Progressive Christians
• The Liberal Christians Network