On Liberal or Conservative Christianity…

November 24, 2006

Here’s another good blog suggestion: Real Live Preacher. This is the blog of Gordon Atkinson, an (American?) Baptist pastor in San Antonio, Texas. You can read more about his blog on his about page, where you’ll find that he has a book of his essays published, has written for the Christian Century, and takes to serious looking pictures.

Atkinson’s writing is penetrating, honest, probing. Take a look at your leisure.

I bring it up because I was struck by tonight’s post “Dear RLP,” an exchange between Atkinson and a reader Tina. I think this is just remarkable:

Dear RLP,

I’ve often wondered, since you’re an unusual sort of Baptist, what your thoughts are on “progressive” (for lack of a better word) Christianity. I’ve just finished The Pagan Christ by Tom Harpur and I have been reading a lot of books by John Spong, Marcus Borg and the like. I think I would have left the church forever if not for the insights of some of the authors.

All the best,

Tina

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Dear Tina,

Much of my life has been spent trying to find a balance between progressive, or liberal Christian ideas and the conservative, evangelical Christianity of my youth. That’s probably why I’m still a Baptist. The Baptist community is broad and diverse.

I think The Church needs the full spectrum of her theology. Look, when it comes to God, our language isn’t going to cut it anyway. How descriptive can we be of a being that is utterly beyond our comprehension? The language of conservative Christianity speaks to many people. I appreciate that. Hell, I love it. It brings me to tears.

On the other hand, liberal or progressive Christianity speaks to others, myself included. There was a time when liberal theology came to my rescue. It kept me in the game, you might say, while I worked things out for myself. It also made me intellectually proud, and that is a dangerous thing. Pride, in all of its many forms, is truly a spiritual killer.

Were we to be given a glimpse of the true nature of God, I wonder if our theological differences would be vaporized in that blinding moment of enlightenment. We might come away from that experience laughing at words like liberal, conservative, doctrine, and theology.

But whether you use conservative or liberal theological language, the central issue of our faith – as I see it – is finding a passion for the life and teachings of Christ and giving yourself to Him. Becoming a disciple, as we say, and by that I mean trying to live a Christ-like life. The details of your theology are far less important than that commitment.

Trying to live as Jesus lived is a humbling experience. It tends to shatter the pride of the intellectual and subdue the dogmatism of the provincial. Christian living drives us to a place in the middle that we might call Grace.

Theology is nothing more than language. And as nice as language is, it cannot stand up to the beauty of a life given in the service of God and humanity.

Peace,

rlp

One of the things about the Presbyterian Church (USA) is that we too have a diversity of theological views. Go to a presbytery meeting, and there you’ll see what I mean. And that diversity is often threatening to tear us asunder, which isn’t itself a good thing at all. But I agree with Atkinson that “the church needs the full spectrum of its theology.” Thats another way of saying that we human beings don’t get it right on our own and we need one another to correct, affirm, probe, explore what we know about God in deeper and deeper ways.

Anyway, I loved this.

Posted in Faith