6. Progressive Christians as Theologically Flexible and Politically Optimistic

Abstract

This chapter looks at how progressive Christians construct their social identity and empirically address the philosophies, values, and beliefs that emerged as commonalities among theologically progressive Christian interviewees. These commonalities point to progressives having a flexible theology that is Jesus-centric, rejects traditional interpretations of hell, and stresses what this book has conceptualized and termed a “humanistic ethic of social justice.” With this ethic, progressive Christians maintain, in varying proportions, a loyalty to Jesus but distinguish themselves from their conservative counterparts in their willingness to learn from and accept non-Christians. They even embrace many of the beliefs of non-Christians, particularly individuals and beliefs perceived as marginalized in Western culture. Their identity is not simply based on partisan loyalty, but it is established through an adherence to their humanistic ethic of social justice, which contains important political implications that significantly separate them from conservative Christians. Namely, it is clear that progressive-leaning Evangelicals were more optimistic about politics and political solutions than conservatives. Still, politics itself does not drive their political optimism, but rather their political optimism is a consequence of their flexible theology that stresses the humanistic ethic of social justice.