essay<\/a> published on The Gospel Coalition (TGC) website.\u00a0 Before we address the claim, it is important to note the trajectory of the writer\u2019s essay.\u00a0 She clearly believes there is a slippery slope between progressive Christianity and atheism.\u00a0 She does qualify much of what she writes, noting she is speaking of \u201csome\u201d progressive Christians and that correlation is not causation.<\/p>\nHowever, it\u2019s not hard to miss where she is heading; it\u2019s clear what we are to take away: Progressive Christianity is something we should be suspicious of, if not hostile toward.\u00a0 At the end, she even compares progressive Christianity to the serpent\u2019s voice in Genesis.\u00a0 Nice.\u00a0 What a reasonable and charitable reading of progressive Christianity\u2026<\/p>\n
So, let\u2019s unpack this a bit:<\/p>\n
She writes:<\/p>\n
\u201c[Bart Campolo]\u00a0explained that his journey to secular humanism was a 30-year process of passing through every stage of heresy. In other words, his theology \u201cprogressed\u201d from conservative to liberal to entirely secular..\u201d<\/p>\n
That is a very misleading use of the word \u201cprogressed\u201d in the context of progressive Christianity.\u00a0 Progressive Christianity is not about moving from one stage of belief to further and further unbelief.\u00a0 We would argue that more than a progression, it is a recovery<\/em> of orthodox Christianity.<\/p>\nNext, she writes:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026progressive Christians tend to reject the historic biblical understanding of marriage and sexuality, and generally deny or redefine doctrines such as the atonement and biblical authority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here she misrepresents what progressives deny or redefine and all by way of begging the question.\u00a0 Whether progressive understandings are \u201cbiblical\u201d or \u201chistoric\u201d and whether or not they are being denied or redefined are the very questions in dispute.\u00a0 Progressives would argue that many historical understandings of the Bible were derived more from culture than the Bible and that rather than denying or redefining doctrines, they are correcting bad or false theological understandings.<\/p>\n
She then notes the many stories, not of progressives becoming atheists, but of fundamentalists\/evangelicals becoming atheists, but then realizing there is way to be a Christian that operates outside the fundamentalism\/evangelical paradigm.\u00a0 In fact, they learn what the great majority of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglican, and many progressive forms of Protestantism already knew.\u00a0 They learn they were practicing a very small, Western, Americanized, and modern form of Christianity when compared with the rest of the world and the church through history.\u00a0 Maybe this is what should concern the writer (and TGC) more than where progressive Christianity might lead people.<\/p>\n
Let us now consider her suggestion that there are, \u201c\u2026three atheistic ideas that some progressive Christians espouse\u2026[that] may lead them into full-blown atheism.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first<\/strong>: \u201cThey May Adopt a Belief That the Bible Is Unreliable\u201d<\/p>\nFirst of all, reliability is hardly what concerns most atheists when it comes to the Bible.\u00a0 If we were to ask an atheist if they thought the Bible reliable, their first question would be: Reliable in what way?\u00a0 As history?\u00a0 As science? As a blue print for living?\u00a0 As the final word in ethics, philosophy, and metaphysics?\u00a0 What?\u00a0 More importantly, if asked if they thought it had been inspired by God, they would of course say, no.\u00a0 Asserting this to be an atheistic idea is nonsensical, or moot at best.<\/p>\n
Second, none of the progressive Christians the writer quotes tell us the Bible is unreliable.\u00a0 What bothers the writer is that they disagree with her as to how the Bible should be interpreted, used, and understood.<\/p>\n
Thus, there is no connection here between the fact that progressive Christians interpret and understand the Bible differently than she does, and the fact that atheists do not believe the Bible to be reliable.\u00a0 That is something they would obviously not believe given they don\u2019t believe in God.\u00a0 These are two entirely different issues.<\/p>\n
The second<\/strong>: \u201cThey May Have an Unresolved Answer to the Problem of Evil\u201d<\/p>\nWait, does the writer presume to tell us she has resolved the problem of evil?\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 Well, please do tell.\u00a0 I mean, only the best and brightest theologians, philosophers and scholars have been wrestling with this question and problem for centuries.\u00a0 If our writer and the other Gospel Coalition people have resolved this problem, then please enlighten the rest of us.<\/p>\n
In the meantime (while we wait for that essay), has the problem of evil caused some to become atheists?\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Does that have anything to do with progressive Christianity?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 In fact, it is entirely possible more atheists are created by the easy and shallow answers given by fundamentalists\/evangelicals regarding the problem of evil, than anything proposed by progressives.<\/p>\n
The third<\/strong>: \u201cThey May Affirm a Culture-Adapting Morality\u201d<\/p>\nHere, like with number one, the writer again begs the question.\u00a0 The very question in dispute for progressives is does the Bible teach what fundamentalist\/evangelicals think it does when it comes to morality and ethics?\u00a0 In the years leading up to the Civil War, Christians in the South believed the Bible supported slavery.\u00a0 Now, looking back, even the writer would agree they were simply affirming a culture-adapted morality, which they then used the Bible to support.\u00a0 How does the writer know whether or not her views of marriage, sexuality, and morality in general are not replicating the same phenomenon?<\/p>\n
Again, her true concern here, is that progressives interpret and understand the Bible differently than she does when it comes to morality and ethics.\u00a0 Instead of addressing the true issue, the issue of hermeneutics and epistemology, she just begs the question as to what the Bible teaches (meaning, what we<\/em> understand it to be teaching) regarding morality\/ethics in general.<\/p>\nThe writer ends with many other misunderstandings, but a true gem is: \u201cThe teachings of the Bible aren\u2019t progressive\u2014they\u2019re eternal.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m confused.\u00a0 Does she mean progressives interpret and understand the Bible incorrectly?\u00a0 Thus, the Bible doesn\u2019t teach what they think it does?\u00a0 Or, does she mean the teachings of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, have never changed or been understood differently over time?\u00a0 Does she mean Moses and Paul believed the same things about heaven, hell, grace, circumcision, and how Gentiles are saved, etc.?\u00a0 Does she mean that when Jesus said, \u201cyou have heard it said\u2026but I tell you\u2026\u201d there was nothing, \u201cprogressive\u201d about that for the hearers?<\/p>\n
Is she confusing progressive revelation with progressive Christianity, two entirely different things?\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 If she is using the word \u201cprogressive\u201d to designate what are considered the understandings and interpretations held by the community of progressive Christians, then she simply begs the question again.\u00a0 Whether or not the teachings of the Bible are progressive (in the sense of progressive Christianity), is the very thing disputed.<\/p>\n
If she is speaking of progressive revelation, even though off topic, we might respond:\u00a0 The truths of the Bible, especially those that pertain to God\u2019s person and being, are indeed eternal, but that doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t, from our finite and limited perspective, understand them progressively over time.\u00a0 Again, consider the issue of slavery, or women viewed as property.\u00a0 Here, history itself refutes the writer.\u00a0 Either way, however she is using the word \u201cprogressive,\u201d her point fails.<\/p>\n
So, to conclude, rather than stoop to the level of equating what the writer is telling us with the voice of Satan, let\u2019s just go with the truth: The writer\u2019s essay is a series of misunderstandings in general, confusion over the use and meaning of the word \u201cprogressive,\u201d and question-begging assertions.<\/p>\n
I have a Patreon<\/a> Page\u2014please consider supporting my writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Such is the assertion posed in a recent essay published on The Gospel Coalition (TGC) website.\u00a0 Before we address the claim, it is important to note the trajectory of the writer\u2019s essay.\u00a0 She clearly believes there is a slippery slope between progressive Christianity and atheism.\u00a0 She does qualify much of what she writes, noting she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3524,"featured_media":1020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[642,636,639],"class_list":["post-1014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-atheism","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-the-gospel-coalition"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n