Here I explain my theory of the origins of liberal theology among Christians especially in America. I set it forth more fully with examples in my book Against Liberal Theology (Zondervan).
First, of course, I must define “liberal theology.” Most basically it is theology without miracles or anything supernatural. It has taken on many forms over the past 200 years, but all share that basically naturalistic view of reality.
For a fuller account of liberal theology, read Against Liberal Theology.
So how did liberal theology begin? What gave rise to it?
At least here in the United States, the Unitarian (later Unitarian-Universalist) movement rose especially in New England in the early years of the 19th century. Many Congregational and other Protestant churches became Unitarian. Unitarians by-and-large came to deny miracles and anything supernatural. They began by denying Calvinism and the Trinity but went on to deny original sin, hell, the deity of Christ, etc. They were the original liberal “Christians.” And in the beginning they definitely thought of themselves as Christians but “enlightened” ones—adapting to the new spirit of the Enlightenment.
The Unitarian movement was quickly drawing churches and individual Christians away from the (so-called) mainline denominations and churches. Many affluent and highly educated Congregationalists, for example, were attracted to Unitarianism. Some leading Protestant ministers defected to Unitarianism.
Then, some Protestant leaders especially in New England thought of a strategy for keeping those affluent and highly educated members from defecting to Unitarianism. Why not simply adopt Unitarian theology into mainline Protestant Christianity? They did and for the next two centuries a fight has been on between orthodox Protestants of many kinds and liberal Protestants.
Mediating theologians such as Horace Bushnell tried to find a middle ground, a via media, between conservative and liberal theology but it failed to catch on. In typical American fashion people were attracted to the extremes on both ends of the theological spectrum. Fundamentalism arose in reaction to liberal theology, led at first by stars of the Princeton School of Orthodox Protestantism (Hodge and Warfield and Machen). Then liberal theologians moved further “left” toward full-blown “modernism” with denials of the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the ontological deity of Christ, his substitutionary atonement, second coming, etc.
But liberal theology was born in America, anyway, as a response to the appeal of Unitarianism. Its adoption by mainline Protestant theologians and ministers, at first mostly Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists, stopped the growth of Unitarianism. Why change denominations or churches if your own church taught and preached the same thing (as Unitarians)? It was a huge success for mainline Protestant denominations and churches for a while. Then, in the mid-20th century they began to decline, as more and more people decided their message was hardly Christian at all and not very different from those of good, non-religious community organizations (e.g., Rotary).
Well, that’s my theory of why and how liberal theology arose and caught on in America. Of course, it was already arising in Germany and England and probably for different reasons as Unitarianism never really became a threat to the mainline denominations (state churches) in those countries.
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