Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion

liberal theology

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

September 2020

September 04, 2020

Recovering the Atonement

The doctrine of the atonement--that on the cross Christ bore our sins and endured the...

July 2020

July 07, 2020

Protestantism without the Christianity

"Post-Protestant" refers to the Protestant mindset that continues, even though the Protestant religious beliefs that...

June 2020

June 16, 2020

The Liberal Theology of the Nazi Church

Christianity--especially Lutheranism--is sometimes blamed for Nazism. It is true that the German state churches were...

March 2020

March 13, 2020

From Shallow Evangelicalism to Shallow Liberalism to Deep Christianity

An account of a young man who found his childhood evangelicalism too shallow. He moved...

October 2019

October 17, 2019

The Christology of the Pope’s Now-Denied Quotation

The Vatican has denied that the Pope said what journalist Eugenio Scalifari ascribed to him,...

September 2019

September 20, 2019

Confessing to Plants

Union Theological Seminary in New York City has long been one of the most respected and...

March 2019

March 22, 2019

Christianity without the Bible

The New York Times has published a discussion of the anti-semitism of Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment...

November 2018

November 08, 2018

African Christianity & the Bible

The Church is growing so rapidly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that by 2050...

October 2018

October 16, 2018

The Hermeneutic of Harm

Some churches teach that gay marriage, abortion, and other violations of traditional morality are not...

September 2018

September 20, 2018

The Catholic Sex-Abuse Scandal Is Bigger Crisis Than the Reformation?

The priest sex-abuse scandal is the biggest crisis to hit the Roman Catholic church since...

September 07, 2018

The Beliefs of Sexual-Abusive Priests

How could Catholic priests, leaders of a church with some of the highest standards of...

July 2018

July 03, 2018

Catholic Disillusionment

Many Christians are attracted by Roman Catholicism, with its universal scope, its living authority, its...

June 2018

June 08, 2018

Europe Is Neither Secularist, nor Devout

The Pew Research Center has carried out a study of religion in Europe, finding that...

June 01, 2018

Marcionites Then and Now

Fellow Patheos blogger Tom Hobson, a Presbyterian pastor with a doctorate from Concordia Seminary, has...

March 2018

March 20, 2018

Secularism or Liberal Religion?

Having spent time lately in the "happiest" countries that are also allegedly among the least...

March 01, 2018

The Pope’s Efforts to Reverse Birth Control Ban

It appears that Pope Francis is trying to reverse the Catholic Church's unpopular and widely-ignored...

January 2018

January 29, 2018

Postliberal Theology

George Lindbeck has died at the age of 94. The Lutheran (ELCA) theologian and...

January 25, 2018

How Should Churches Respond to the New Findings about American Religion?

In our recent post "Only Moderate Religion Is On the Decline," we reported on new research...

January 12, 2018

“The Church of Tomorrow” Is For Sale

The church had no creeds. You could believe whatever you wanted! Surely that's a formula...

January 11, 2018

The Protestant Reformation & the Protestant Revolution

Yesterday's post on the Reformation of America, made me realize that the distinction between revolution...

December 2017

December 07, 2017

Is This Still Christianity?

At what point does a religious expression cease to be Christian altogether?

July 2017

July 25, 2017

The social gospel

The "social gospel" is the teaching that the purpose of Christianity is to work for...

July 20, 2017

Liturgy for transgender transitions?

There are liturgies that go with birth, coming of age, getting married, and dying....

June 2017

June 08, 2017

From preoccupation with society to preoccupation with the self

Still more things I've picked up from Kenneth L. Woodward's Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and...

June 07, 2017

“When the secular was sacred”

I grew up in a liberal mainline denomination in the 1950s and 1960s, going to...

May 2017

May 04, 2017

Does mainline liberal Protestantism have just 23 years left?

More on the plight of mainline liberal Protestantism. . . . Evangelical scholar Ed Stetzer calculates...

May 02, 2017

Shouldn’t liberals be going to liberal churches?

Mainstream liberal Protestantism is dying, with a decreasing number of people bothering to go to their...

December 2016

December 16, 2016

Theology & church growth

Canadian researchers conducted a study of mainline Protestant churches (Anglican, Presbyterian, Uniting, and Evangelical Lutheran...

December 09, 2016

Thomas Oden, ex-liberal theologian turned classical Christian, has died

Thomas Oden has died. A prominent liberal theologian who replaced pastoral care with psychotherapy, Oden...

October 2016

October 18, 2016

What about the Christian left?

A listener whose religious beliefs make him a political progressive asked NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben why...