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Liberal Theology’s Sources and Norms

Liberal Theology’s Sources and Norms

Last updated on: February 4, 2025 at 7:09 pm by Roger E. Olson

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Liberal Theology’s Sources and Norms 2025-02-04T19:09:53-05:00 Roger E. Olson

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Here I continue my discussion of my book Against Liberal Theology: Putting the Brakes on Progressive Christianity (Zondervan) with Chapter 2: Liberal Theology’s Sources and Norms.

If you have read the chapter, feel free to comment. If not, feel free to ask a question. However, since the book and the chapter are so brief, inexpensive and easy to read, I sometimes just have to say to interlocutors “Read the book.”

A common misunderstanding is that here I am attacking persons. I understand that people have trouble distinguishing between persons and their beliefs. But it is not my intention in any way to harm any person. My only criticism of persons is that they would be more honest if they stopped calling liberal theology “Christian” and admitted it is a different religion. It is as different from historical, biblical, orthodox Christianity as, say, Mormonism is.

And here is an important point. I know Mormons, Latter-day Saints who I believe are Christians. I have had direct, face-to-face dialogue with LDS religion scholars and teachers at BYU. I don’t question the authenticity of their Christian faith; I question and even deny the authenticity of their belief-system insofar as they claim it is truly Christian.

In every chapter from 2 on I quote from many self-identified liberal theologians; all them speak from a self-identified Christian commitment. In chapter 2 I quote from: Delwin Brown (taught theology at Iliff School of Theology in Denver and wrote liberal theology), Gary Dorrien (held a chair in theology at Union Theological Seminary is almost certainly the highest expert on American liberal theology), Kenneth Cauthen, Washington Gladden, Henry Churchill King, L. Harold DeWolf, Donald E. Miller, John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, Peter C. Hodgson, Douglas Ottati, and Van Harvey. All are were or are self-identified liberal Christian theologians.

The gist of the chapter is that they all say, in one way or another, and I quote them, that the best of modern thought is the controlling authority for what they believe and what Christians should believe in order to be relevant to modern men and women.

Liberal theologian Van Harvey in liberal theology “‘Christianity’ became merely a re-presentation of modern self-understanding.” (51) I would not go that far! Douglas Ottati, for example, constantly appeals to “theocentric piety” in Schleiermachian fashion. But in all of the liberal theologians, traditional Christian sources and norms such as the Bible and Christian tradition, take a back seat to modern thought in terms of what can be believed by people enlightened by modernity.

The outcome in liberal theology is a belief system radically accommodated and altered, so much that it is unrecognizable as Christian. Jesus is not God incarnate even if he is “divine” in some sense such as “the Spirit-filled man.” But if you doubt me, read on. In each chapter I demonstrate the claim with quotations from self-identified liberal theologians from Schleiermacher to Ottati and many in between.

*Note: If you choose to comment, make sure you have read the chapter. If not, you may only ask a question. In any case, keep it relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, addressed to me, civil and respectful (not hostile or argumentative), and devoid of pictures or links.*

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