Liberal Christianity
- For liberal political views within Christianity, see Christian left. For the particular intra-ecclesiastical form of theological Modernism condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, see Modernism (Roman Catholicism).
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Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically-informed religious movements and moods within late 18th, 19th and 20th century Christianity. The word "liberal" in liberal Christianity does not refer to a leftist political agenda or set of beliefs, but rather to the freedom of dialectic process associated with continental philosophy and other philosophical and religious paradigms developed during the Age of Enlightenment.
Liberal Christians commonly question deeply held and centuries-old Christian doctrines, such as the inerrancy of the Bible and the Trinity. As a result, traditional Christians classify some liberal Christians as not Christian at all.
Liberal Christians became dominant in New England c 1800, espousing a unitarian interpretation of Christianity. Dr. William Ellery Channing was the most prominent spokesman for this movement. Harvard Divinity School was unitarian from 1805 until it became nonsectarian in 1861. Liberal Christianity remained popular early in the 20th century, with Harry Emerson Fosdick its most renowned representative. The liberal Christian tradition continues today with the work of Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and John Shelby Spong.
Contributions to biblical hermeneutics
The theology of liberal Christianity was prominent in the biblical criticism of the 19th and 20th centuries. The style of scriptural hermeneutics within liberal theology is often characterized as non-propositional. This means that the Bible is not considered an inventory of factual statements but instead documents the human authors' beliefs and feelings about God at the time of its writing—within an historic/cultural context.[1] Thus, liberal Christian theologians do not discover truth propositions but rather create religious models and concepts that reflect the class, gender, social, and political contexts from which they emerge.[2] Liberal Christianity looks upon the Bible as a collection of narratives that explain, epitomize, or symbolize the essence and significance of Christian understanding.[3]
Liberal Christian beliefs
Liberal Christianity is a method of biblical hermeneutics, an individualistic method of interpreting the word of God in scripture, not a belief structure. Unlike conservative Christianity, it has no unified set of propositional beliefs. The word liberal in liberal Christianity denotes a characteristic willingness to interpret scripture in an intellectually independent manner—with no preconceived notion of inerrancy of scripture when its passages are literally interpreted.[4] A liberal Christian however may hold certain beliefs in common with traditional, orthodox, or even conservative Christianity.
Influence of liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity was most influential with mainline Protestant churches in the early 20th century, when proponents believed the changes it would bring would be the future of the Christian church. Despite that optimism, its influence in mainline churches waned in the wake of World War II, as the more moderate alternative of neo-orthodoxy (and later postliberalism) began to supplant the earlier modernism. Other theological movements included political liberation theology, philosophical forms of postmodern Christianity such as Christian existentialism, and conservative movements such as neo-evangelicalism and paleo-orthodoxy.
The 1990s and early 2000s saw a resurgence of non-doctrinal, scholarly work on biblical exegesis and theology, exemplified by figures such as Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and John Shelby Spong. Their appeal is also primarily to the mainline denominations.
Liberal Christian theologians and authors
Protestant
- Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887), US preacher who left behind the Calvinist orthodoxy of his famous father, the Rev. Lyman Beecher, to popularize liberal Christianity
- William Sloane Coffin (1924 –2006), Senior Minister at the Riverside Church in New York City, and President of SANE/Freeze (now Peace Action)
- Charles Fillmore (1854-1948). Emerson-influenced Christian mystic and co-founder (with his wife, Myrtle Fillmore) of the Unity Church.
- Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976), German biblical scholar
- William Ellery Channing (1780–1842), pioneering liberal theologian in the USA, who criticized the doctrine of the Trinity and the strength of scriptural authority, in favor of more rationalistic and historical-critical beliefs
- Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969), Baptist founding pastor of New York's Riverside Church in 1922
- Adolf von Harnack, (1851–1930), German theologian and church historian, promoted the Social Gospel.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.[citation needed] (1929–1968), US civil rights leader and Baptist minister
- John A.T. Robinson (1919–1983), Bishop of Woolwich, author of Honest to God
- Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834), often called the "father of liberal theology," he claimed that religious experience was introspective, and that the truest understanding of God consisted of "a sense of absolute dependence"
- John Shelby Spong (1931- ), Episcopalian theologian and author
- Paul Tillich (1886–1965), synthesized Protestant Christian theology with existential philosophy
- Leslie Weatherhead (1893–1976), English preacher, and author of The Will of God and The Christian Agnostic
Catholic
- Leonardo Boff, Brazilian, ex-Franciscan, ex-priest, cofounder of Liberation theology
- Yves Congar (1904–1995), French Dominican ecumenical theologian.
- Joan Chittister, OSB, a lecturer and social psychologist, a noted expert on early Christian spirituality.
- John Dominic Crossan, ex-priest, New Testament scholar, co-founder of the Jesus Seminar.
- Hans Küng, Swiss theologian. Had his license to teach Catholic theology revoked in 1979 because of his rejection of the doctrine of the infallibility of the Church, but retained his faculties to say the Mass.
- Edward Schillebeeckx, Belgian Dominican theologian.
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955), a French Jesuit, also trained as a paleontologist; works condemned by the Holy Office in 1962, condemnation reaffirmed in 1981.
References
- ^ http://www.polyamoryonline.org/articles/keeping_the_faith_122106.html
- ^ http://www-gatago.com/alt/bible/10710094.html
- ^ Montgomery, John Warwick. In Defense of Martin Luther. Milwaukee: Northwestern, 1970, p. 57. “Luther’s Hermeneutic vs. the New Hermeneutic.” Quoted in http://www.wlsessays.net/authors/W/WestphalConfession/WestphalConfession.PDF
- ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: Liberalism". Retrieved 2007-01-27.