Is the world so simple that we can quickly attach a valid label to everyone? We often act as though it is—or certainly we do in the world of theology, where we try to separate between those who are theologically conservative and those who are progressive—although we might use slightly different language, and suggest someone is a liberal or a fundamentalist, an ecumenical or an evangelical or whatever.
Single descriptors (conservative or progressive) usually make the error of assuming a world without nuance.
Single descriptors (conservative or progressive) usually make the error of assuming a world without nuance, a world where things fit tidily into a box… but when you dig a little, it becomes obvious that such a world does not exist.
I asked the question of myself. Am I a theological progressive or conservative? The best I could come up with was that I am progressive conservative (or a conservative progressive, if you think the first descriptor is more important than the second). Terms are relative—progressive compared to whom? The most conservative representative of a view, or some impossible to define middle ground? Likewise conservative compared to whom?
Perhaps I should say why I insist on being called a conservative just as firmly as I insist on being called a progressive.
I believe there are many (many) things from our past which need to be conserved.
I am a Christian conservative because I believe there are many (many) things from our past which need to be conserved. And that is what conservative means—someone who wants to conserve things they view as being of value.
I absolutely believe that:
- God is
- God is love
- God was in Christ
- In Christ all things hold together
- Christ is the hope of the world
- Jesus was raised from the dead, the first fruit of all who will be raised from the dead
- If Christ has not been raised from the dead, we of all people are most to be pitied
- God is at work in the world
- God’s work in the world has done immeasurable good
- The Church is the creation of God’s Spirit
- The Church is called to be the body of Christ in the world
- The Bible is a trustworthy record of God’s encounters with humanity
- The Bible reveals the essential aspects of God’s nature, personality and purposes
- God can transform the life of an individual, a community and the world
- And much more beside.
These are important truths, and the Christian faith would be dramatically poorer if any were abandoned. Indeed, if they were abandoned, they would be no less valid—for they remain true regardless of our belief or disbelief. Without them, however, we would have much less light to guide us.
A progressive is someone who believes that things happen gradually and in stages.
I am a Christian progressive because I believe that God’s work in the world makes a difference—there is progress. A progressive is someone who believes that things happen gradually and in stages. Should our understanding of God be richer and deeper than it was a hundred years ago? I certainly hope so!
Yesterday I read Deuteronomy chapters 19-26. Why? Because I drew the short straw for my local churches preaching series on Deuteronomy and was assigned them. They are... interesting. Parts you read with gentle pride, thinking, “for a plus 3,000 year old text, this is remarkably insightful and points in a valuable direction.”
I said parts. For there are other passages where you have to say, “Oh my goodness! Does it really say that?” Actually Deuteronomy 22:28-29 does say that if a man rapes a virgin he must pay her father 50 shekels and then marry and never divorce her.
Sorry, I am never going to suggest we take that passage literally. Or what about the instruction in Deuteronomy 25:11-12, that if you are in a fight with an assailant and you wife attempts to help you by grabbing the other man’s testicles, you are to chop her hand off.
Lest you think the writer is joking, he (and it must have been he) adds, “Show her no pity.” No. I am not going anywhere near those two verses when I preach on these chapters! There is more, but I’d prefer this site not to be given an R18 rating.
When you read Deuteronomy you instantly know you are a progressive, and if you don’t, that’s a serious worry! Some will quickly add, “But of course! Christians read the Bible with a Christological lens, and that is why we read these passages in a different light. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus was the progressive leap ahead, but we are now a community of faithful remembrance and should expect no more.”
All people have been made in the image of God.
Really? Here’s the thing. Though we read some of the instructions of Deuteronomy as being barbaric, in their own time they were considered reasonable and, dare I say it, progressive. But human society further developed, and some broad principles took root. Many of them come from the Bible itself, like the conviction that all people have been made in the image of God, and that we should love our neighbor as ourself.
It has been a slow slog, but progressively (there is that word again) we have faced the ever-deepening implications that flow from these beliefs. We also better understand their import because the Spirit is at work in the world, and the Spirit’s work in the world bears fruit.
Much of so-called progressive theology flows from thinking through these convictions more carefully. According to the would-be font of all wisdom (also known as Wikipedia) “Progressive Christianity is characterized by a willingness to question tradition, acceptance of human diversity, a strong emphasis on social justice and care for the poor and the oppressed, and environmental stewardship of the earth.”
What’s wrong with that? And why does that threaten conservative faith when it simply invites us to think through the implications of some core beliefs (validly conserved) more deeply.
Of course, nothing is entirely simple. Some who claim the title progressive want to downplay the uniqueness of Jesus, the need for conversion, the reality of evil (a strange conviction given that poverty, human enslavement and the degradation of the environment are the direct result of human evil).
And some who are conservative want to pretend that the Church has never done any wrong, and that faith is simple and that conventional ethical wisdom can never change—even though the context does. And none of that is OK. At least, not in my book.
There is much that is good in both conservative and progressive Christianity.
So I am a conservative progressive, and there are times when I critique the conservative part of the equation, and times when I lament the progressive part of it. But more often I celebrate, for there is much that is good in both conservative and progressive Christianity.
And God is, and God is good, and God is love, and God is in Christ, and Jesus is the hope of the world, and justice matters and all people are precious to God, and the earth is the Lord’s… and that’s enough to go on with.
Originally published on Brian Harris' Blog. Republished with permission.
Dr Brian Harris, is based in Perth Australia. After decades of church pastoring and 17 years leading a theological college, he now directs the Avenir Leadership Institute, a future-focused consultancy which helps to shape the kinds of leaders the world needs. Brian is the author of seven books, the latest of which are: Why Christianity is Probably True (Paternoster, 2020) and Stirrers and Saints: Forming Spiritual Leaders of Skill, Depth and Character (Paternoster, 2024).
