The term ‘progressivism’ once applied
to a nineteenth century, modernist philosophical belief in the progress of
society that came to a shocking demise with the First World War. Today it refers to social reform that is the
social expression of postmodernity. In
this essay in four parts, four points about a progressive theology will be
considered. First, I will describe the
work of theology and say more about my choice of the label ‘Progressive
Theology’. It is very different from the
liberal theology of the modernist era, let alone orthodox theology. Second, I will note how this theology
functions more like art and artistic expression than theology as textual
interpretation or systematic theology.
Third, I will comment on the hermeneutic involved in Progressive
Theology. It is something that has long been
with us now in liberation theology, where ideology drives a reader-response
hermeneutic. It rejects the idea that an
author’s words relate to the author’s intentions and thereby denies textual
authority. Fourth, I will conclude with an example in how Revelation 7.9 has
been given a new interpretation in order to provide textual support for a
progressive multicultural and diversity agenda.
Enquiry and the Work of
Theology
What is the work of
theology? I would suggest it can be
understood in one of three ways. These
involve what Alasdair MacIntyre describes as the incommensurable versions
of enquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy, and Tradition.[1] By using these terms, MacIntyre avoids the
implicit suggestion that one approach follows another as a movement in culture,
as in the terminology ‘Modernism’ and ‘Postmodernism.’ Rather, these three versions of enquiry stand
as alternative types of enquiry.
‘Encyclopedia’ is, as its name
implies, characteristic of the view that greater and greater knowledge
accumulates over time to bring assured, universally agreeable knowledge to a
subject. This knowledge rests on incontrovertible
foundations that cannot be doubted (Rene Descartes). It is scientifically established, the product
of reason. Methodologies for enquiry may
be developed that will lead to the same results no matter who is conducting the
study: knowledge is objective. It is
also integrated: what is found in one area of knowledge will not contradict
what is found in another area of knowledge.
MacIntyre’s term ‘genealogy’
comes from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals, in which the
argument is presented that Western society is beholden to a Jewish,
slave-morality that was perpetuated by the Church. The ‘superman’ (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
was the one who overrides this conditioning, and he can do so by recognizing
the genealogical history of the morality that Western society has handed
him. He needs to deconstruct it and,
with his own will and power, construct his own world. Thus, the existentialism of Nietzsche and the
postmodern views of Michel Foucault represent the Genealogical version of
enquiry.
For a ‘tradition’ approach to
enquiry, MacIntyre examines the theology of Thomas Aquinas. One might note, however, that a tradition
approach need not apply to one theological or religious tradition in
particular—it is a mode of enquiry that can be considered with writers from Socrates
on. The characteristics of a tradition
version of enquiry might be listed in the following points:
1. prior commitment to a certain perspective
2. narrative view of history
3. locates authority in (a) a given community, (b) authoritative texts, and (c) a tradition of interpretation of these texts
4. appreciates the need for a prerational
reordering of the reader
5.
understands
that a trusted teacher is needed to guide students in appropriating and
understanding the tradition of the community
6.
uses
dialectic, arguing towards first
principles
What is underway, however, is a development of Progressive Theology in
the mode of what MacIntyre means by Genealogy. This mode of enquiry is more like artwork
than science and more like artistic expression than faithfulness to a
tradition. Some forms of art in a Genealogy
mode of enquiry are expressionism, cubism, and dadaism, and these will be examined
briefly later to identify the related views and perspectives of Progressive Theology.
main tenets of
liberalism are political democracy, limitations on the power of government, the
development of universal human rights, legal equality for all adult citizens,
freedom of expression, respect for the value of viewpoint diversity and honest
debate, respect for evidence and reason, the separation of church and state,
and freedom of religion.[2]
Such views, MacIntyre would
respond, are typical of Encyclopedia.
The description of liberalism provides a way to contrast progressivism. Progressives, then, want majority rule, an
expansion of government, tribal rights over other, opposing tribes, penalties
for those who do not conform to the progressive agenda, a limitation on free
speech, a championing of politically correct viewpoints over others, a use of
science insofar as it can be made to support the causes of progressives, a focus
on issues of social justice that make the Church irrelevant, and a
disempowering of religion. These last
two points might be stated a little differently when defining a Progressive
Theology, but this perspective, a hyper-Protestantism in a way, makes the Church
quite irrelevant. The Church equals
individual Christians who take up public square causes of justice—as an entity
of some sort in itself, it is irrelevant.
A Progressive theologian would not understand or appreciate, and would
actively work against, a fundamental understanding of the important role of the
Church in its communal aspect by social ethicist Stanley Hauerwas:
I
am…challenging the very idea that Christian social ethics is primarily to make
the world more peaceable or just. Put starkly, the first
social ethical task of the church is to be the church –the servant community.
Such a claim may well sound self-serving until we remember what makes the
church the church is its faithful manifestation of the peaceable kingdom in the
world. As such the church does not have a social ethic; the church is a social
ethic.[3]
The term, ‘progressive theology,’
has been used before. While the specific
examples used in the definition no longer apply, the notion of a progressive
theology was already stated by Charles Spurgeon in the 19th
century. His more general description of
this theology applies rather well, and who could state the matter better than
the great preacher? He begins by noting
the developmental nature of Progressive Theology in that people see themselves
as coming to a further, improved understanding than what the whole Church has
taught always and everywhere (to use language defining orthodoxy by St. Vincent
of Lérins). He also notes how these
progressives suddenly come out of the closet, so to speak.
In this age of
progress, religious opinions move at railway speed. Within the last few weeks
many have made an open advance of a very special kind; we say
an open advance, for we suspect that secretly they had for a long
time harbored the errors which now they have avowed. And what a revelation it
is! Here, one sees a "Moderate" declaring his advance to
"another gospel" in the boldest terms; and there, another, highly
esteemed for his supposed love of the truth, stubbing it after the subtle
manner of its most malicious foes. While some of the most perverted cunningly
endeavor to appear orthodox, others of a braver nature come out in their true
colors, and astonish us with the glaring hue of their heresy. That which makes
manifest is light; and, however much we may deplore the unwelcome discoveries
of the present controversy, we ought to be thankful that they are made, for it
is better for us to know where we are, and with whom we are associating.[4]
Spurgeon likens their theology to
a ‘cross-breed between nonsense and blasphemy’ in its attempt to add to the
sound teaching of the Church through the centuries. He says that they set themselves a
presumptuous task like moles setting out to improve the sun’s light. They think that they can ‘hatch out the
meanings of the Infinite’, and they brood over hidden truths. The ‘ever-developing theology’ will ‘owe a
great deal to the wisdom of men. God may
provide the marble, but it is man who will carve the statue.’
Spurgeon’s designation of
progressive theology had to do with the progression of theologians from
orthodoxy in an age of Modernity. While
the same spirit of progress applies to what I am calling ‘Progressive
Theology,’ I reserve the language—in keeping with the other ‘progressives’ in
our day—for those working out a theology in keeping with postmodernity and the
economically and politically left in today’s society. The progressive spirit that Spurgeon found
already in the air in the 1800s remains, and it is particularly a force in
Marxist thought in the post-World War I era.
A ‘Critical Theory’ of what has come before, it is a ‘Progressive
Theory’ of how things might be changed (without a view toward what that change
will necessarily be in the ongoing, ‘long march through the institutions’[5] of society).
[1]
Alasdair Alasdair MacIntyre, Three Rival
Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and Tradition (Notre
Dame, IL: University of Notre Dame, 1990).
See my Rival Versions of Theological Enquiry (Prague: International
Baptist Theological Seminary, 2005).
[2]
Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist
Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms
Everything (Durham, NC: Pitchstone Pub., 2020).
[3] Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable
Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (Notre Dame, UNDP, 1983), p.99.
[4]
Charles Spurgeon, ‘Progressive Theology,’ in Sword and Trowel (April,
1888); available online: https://archive.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/dg10.php.
[5] The phrase was used by the communist student, Rudi Dutschke in a speech in 1967. Cf. Loren Balhorn, ‘Joschka Fischer’s Long March,’ Jacobin (May, 23, 2018); online at: https://jacobinmag.com/2018/05/joschka-fischers-long-march/.
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