What is Progressive Christianity? For me, it is a form of Christianity which tries to do justice to the following:

1) Christianity has naturally (if not consistently) historically stood for those values that bear the label “progressive” or “liberal”: racial equality, social justice, poverty, inclusiveness, and so on.

2) To be a Christian at all, one has to allow for progressive revelation. One cannot claim that the Bible is authoritative, inspired, or anything else without realizing that there is change over the course of the Bible. Some recognize this, but stop at the end of the New Testament. Others stop with the creeds. But why stop at all? Why not accept that progressive revelation, however one understands it, is open ended and never finished? Looking back, and looking around, we can see things that New Testament authors didn’t see, and find other solutions to the same problems they sought to address.

3) Progress is not only made in theology or in revelation but even more obviously in our knowledge of the natural world. Information from the sciences needs to be embraced as a source of progressive revelation, one whose certainty is far greater than even the most dearly cherished theological affirmation.

Here are some other sources I’ve come across recently, reflecting a progressive Christian perspective:

A talk by Rev. Tom Honey, which addresses head-on the popular view of God, which leaves us with a God who can get us a parking space but not stop a tsunami wave:

(HT Debunking Christianity)

Mystical Seeker drew attention to a nice article in Macleans about contemporary scholarly and progressive views of Jesus.

There is a Center for Progressive Christianity (and a specifically Canadian one too).

My last post featuring Expelled! The Video Game uses Java to allow the game to be played directly on the page if you have Java installed. If you don’t and you use Microsoft Internet Explorer, you just see a box with a red x. Someone recently told me that on Firefox this crashes the browser altogether. This is bad news, but perhaps someone reading this knows enough about Firefox to suggest a solution. I’d prefer to not remove the playable version of the game and spoil the seconds of enjoyment it will give to visitors to my blog…

Pseudoscience needs the support of a video game to really flourish. Following on the great success of our Michael Behe vs. the Mousetrap game, we’ve now added a new addition to our products: Expelled! The Video Game.

Ben Stein is the wizard trying to defend his movie theater of hocus pocus from intruding scientists. Use left and right arrows to change P. Z. Myers’ direction at any time. Press the space bar to have Ben Stein cast his spell and attempt to make PZ fade into ghostly nothingness.

Avoid the ‘d’ key at all costs, or Richard Dawkins will sneak past, right under Ben’s nose!

[Like the last game, this one was created using MIT's Scratch program. Feel free to tinker with the game and make improvements, and if you do, please leave a comment with a link to let me know!]

Learn more about this project

Metacatholic discusses the words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John and their implications for C. S. Lewis’ famous ‘trilemma’.

Thoughts in a Haystack highlights an insightful article about fundamentalism. Jim West also did so.

Henry Neufeld gives a wonderful summary of why there is nothing appealing about seeing the movie Expelled!.

Matt discusses what to do when the dishonorable ask you to do the honorable thing and stop pointing out their lack of honor.

A clip from Stephen Colbert’s Democralypse Now has been shared on the Commonweal blog. It offers an entertaining view of the relationship between presidential candidates and controversial preachers.