Reflections on Postliberalism

Part 6, Right and Unwell

In the last post I described my hermeneutical posture as liberationist and described how this posture keeps me on the “liberal” and “progressive” side of many moral and political debates. That is to say, my readings of the Bible will be heard as “good news” by oppressed and marginalized groups.

And yet, as I’ve pointed out over the last two posts, I describe myself as post-progressive in light of many problems, issues, and failures I perceive on the liberal and progressive side of Christianity. In naming and worrying about these issues I tend to agree with many postliberal theologians and their influences. Both Barth and Hauerwas, for example, to say nothing of Augustine and Aquinas, have had huge impacts upon me. So, while I shared in the last post why I’m staying woke, in this post let me share where I agree with the postliberal theologians. (Remember! In this series the difference is between the postliberal theologians and the postliberal political thinkers. I love the former, but I am...how to put this...not a fan of the latter, for reasons I’ll share as this series goes on.)

As I said above, I tend to land on the progressive side of moral and political debates. If so, then where am I expressing reservations about American liberalism and progressivism? Why am I post-progressive?

I did a whole series about this back in 2019, but for the purposes of this series I’ll boil my many issues with progressive Christianity down to two. To regular readers what follows should be familiar.

The first issue concerns the political reductionism that tends to characterize progressive Christians.

I could say many things here. Why progressive church attendance and membership are in free fall. Why progressives don’t do evangelism. Why progressives can’t read the Bible, especially the Old Testament and Paul, without having a hissy fit. Why progressives are squeamish about core Christian beliefs, from the resurrection of Jesus to going to heaven when you die. To my eye, it all boils down to how progressives reduce Christianity to social justice and political activism. To be clear, as I said in the last post, I’m staying woke. So I’m with the progressives on the social justice front. My problem with progressives is their political reductionism. As a post-progressive Christian, I’m woke. And I believe in God. And the historical resurrection of Jesus. And in Judgment Day. And in going to heaven when you die. I also think the Apostle Paul is amazing and that progressive Christians owe him a huge apology.

Due to their political reductionism progressives also tend toward disenchantment. This ontological vacuum leads to the existential crises we’re observing in our culture, most notably in our declining mental health. Read The Shape of Joy for my detailed treatment of this. Man does not live by politics alone.

And so here’s what I’ve noticed in many of my conversations with my more traditional (that is to say, “not progressive”) university colleagues and pastor friends. When we’re talking about morality or politics we tend to find ourselves disagreeing. They are more traditional, and I am more progressive. But when we talk about things theological, metaphysical, doctrinal, sacramental, ecclesiological, or ontological we often find ourselves in strong agreement. I’m a big church guy. I thump my Bible. I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I am religious and not spiritual. And so on. I just tend to hold all those things while espousing a liberationist hermeneutic. And it all makes sense to me. I wish more people would join this team.

My second big concern with progressive Christianity is with the content of its moral vision. Progressive morality tends to boil down to the oppressor/oppressed dichotomy and not much else beyond that. There’s not much room for things like mercy, grace, and forgiveness. In fact, if you spend any time in progressive spaces you’ll eventually hear “forgiveness” described as “problematic.” There’s not a strong commitment to loving one’s enemies. (Ask them if they love Donald J. Trump.) And as I have pointed out in The Book of Love, the cruciform shape of Jesus’ love is a challenge for both progressives and conservatives alike.

There’s also moral pathologies within the progressive political vision. As the author of Unclean, in 2015 I was one of the first to describe what I called then “the purity culture of progressive Christianity.” When the postliberals decry “Wokeism” they are typically pointing toward this purity culture, with its social justice-inflected puritanism. And much of this purity culture is due to the things I mentioned above as missing, virtues like mercy, tolerance, and grace.

Finally, beyond the moral content of the progressive vision, there’s all the missing stuff that makes our moral efforts joyful and sustainable. Things like real, ontological hope.

Again, for regular readers I’m just replaying my Greatest Hits here. I’ve written about all this stuff extensively. But I share it all again for the purposes of this series to note how much I find myself in agreement with postliberal criticisms of progressivism, culturally and in its Christian expressions. There are legitimate problems here. Progressivism is not healthy. And the postliberals have done a lot of good work pointing out these pathologies. That they throw rocks from inside a glass house escapes their attention. But still, they’ve done some good critical work. Now, that I agree with many of these criticisms of progressivism doesn’t mean I think the progressives are wrong on their moral or political positions. It just means you can be right and profoundly unwell at the same time.