When I set out to put down on paper my revised beliefs about Christianity I began with What I do not Believe.
The popular movement of Progressive Christianity is at first a deconstruction of traditional Christian doctrine.
The Fall/Redemption. penal substitution, blood sacrifice interpretation of the Bible is being systematically demolished.
The reasons for this are clearly set out by modern radical theologians.
The cry goes up : we are destroying people's simple faith and if we continue there will be nothing left.
First of all I would say that there is rubble. We can choose what we wish to retain from the rubble.
But even without this what remains is not nothing.
What remains is unconditional love.
The theology of unconditional love has always been the bridesmaid not only of Christianity but of all the world's religions.
I believe that what remains when we strip away the concepts with which we clothe our religious figures is unconditional love.
This is the true religion and it is universal.
Whether the purveyors of the old religion of fear and guilt will allow this new flower to bloom is problematical. They will not easily give up their power.
What the future holds is yet to be seen.
Photo Credit: chrisheidenreich Flickr via Compfight cc
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