“Let’s be clear: Progressive Christianity is just Christianity. We are Christians - and we are progressing in our knowledge and our understanding.” - Rev Vince Anderson
A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are for.
This is the heart of what it should mean to be a Christian of any designation; the desire to continue to move and grow and learn and change, even if those things place us in opposition to the person we once were or the beliefs we once held firmly or the testimony we once gave. As we move through space and time, our faith should be in continual evolution. We should always look back at the previous version of ourselves and realise how much we didn’t know then. We should be able to see how far we’ve come in matters of spirituality.
Progressive Christianity is about not apologising for what we become as we live this life and openly engage the faith we grew-up with. There are no sacred cows, only the relentless, sacred search for Truth. Tradition, dogma, and doctrine are all fair game, because all pass through the hands of flawed humanity, and as such are all equally vulnerable to the prejudices, fears, and biases of those it touched.
It’s fashionable for more conservative folk to dismiss Progressive Christianity as some cheap imitation version of the Christian faith; a watered down religion of convenience practised by people who found “real Christianity” too difficult or demanding.
Progressive Christians know the truth of our story, and so these lazy caricatures are of little concern.
We know the authenticity of our faith.
We know the depth of our study.
We know the sincerity of our prayers.
We know the road we’ve travelled—and we’re grateful for it and proud of it.
The truth is that Progressive Christianity is so diverse that it simply cannot be neatly defined or summarised, but here are some things that most who claim the label probably agree on:
We believe that a God who is eternal, isn’t land locked to a 6,000 year-old collection of writings, unable to speak in real-time to those who seek. Revelation can come within and independent of the Bible.
We believe that the teachings and practices of Jesus are what set the overall trajectory of the path of anyone who considers themselves to be a disciple. Insights from other parts of scripture should therefore be considered and weighed against the revelations brought by Jesus.
We believe that God is not threatened or angered by our questions, our doubts, or our vacillation born out of authentic pursuit, even when those things are labelled heretical by other people. God is more secure than they are in who God is.
We believe that Christian tradition is embedded with thousands of years of misogyny, racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia, and that our task as Christians in these days is to remove those cumbersome layers and uncover the very essence of what it meant, and still means, to follow Jesus.
We believe that compassion is the heart of the Gospel, that it was the central work of Jesus as evidenced in his life and teachings; the checking of power, the healing of wounds, the care for the poor, the lifting of the marginalised, the feeding of the hungry, the making of peace.
But what is perhaps just as notable as what Progressive Christians agree on - is all that we do not agree on:
We differ widely with regard to the inerrancy of Scripture, the existence and nature of Hell, intercessory prayer, salvation by atonement, the practice of worship and the doctrine of original sin.
There is no party line to tow. We identify simply as followers of Jesus; carefully, thoughtfully, seriously seeking to understand more today than we did yesterday, and to live lives that, as best we can discern, resemble Christ’s.
Progressive Christianity is not the path of least resistance, but often the road of greatest turbulence. It places us in the decided minority in the larger Church. It creates conflict in our families and faith communities. It brings silence and shunning and separation from those we once were welcomed by. It makes us feel like strangers and orphans in the religion we used to call home.
But these things are the worthy tax on living a fully authentic faith; one where we are confident that all that is not God will fall away as we walk. We are on a continual pilgrimage toward what it looks like to perpetuate Jesus, and we don’t distinguish our road from that of Christians who may be more Conservative or more secure in their orthodoxy. It is the same road.
““We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.””