Are there any actual liberals here?

[MaximumCrust]

Is there actually anyone here who is liberal theologically and/or politically, or is this forum just conservatives arguing against liberalism?

 

[RileyG]

There are. It just isn't as active as it used to be.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Is there actually anyone here who is liberal theologically and/or politically, or is this forum just conservatives arguing against liberalism?

What defines someone a Christian liberal?
Not voting for Trump? Thanks for clarifying!

 

[Philip_B]

I am not sure what liberal means other than being identified as such by others when you don't fit a narrow construct of what they determine you should think.

 

[RileyG]

What defines someone a Christian liberal?
Not voting for Trump? Thanks for clarifying!

I don’t know, I think this forum is dedicated to liberal denominations.

 

[MaximumCrust]

What defines someone a Christian liberal?
Not voting for Trump? Thanks for clarifying!

I didn't think I had to clarify what a liberal is. It's not an obscure or ambiguous concept. A liberal is a liberal.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

I didn't think I had to clarify what a liberal is. It's not an obscure or ambiguous concept. A liberal is a liberal.

" Christian"Liberal to be exact. Everyone has their own threshold and understanding when speaking of such a person. It would be nice if you shared you're definition so there are no misunderstandings. Shining clarity is never just a concept, it is a necessity when calling out a certain group of people. Thanks for your help.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

It is not hard to find:

Liberal Christianity - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

But in reality there is a spectrum

I am certainly a theological liberal, which means I do not take the Genesis account of creation as literal. I embrace higher scripture study.
I think Vatican II was a good thing. I embraced liturgical reform.

 

[FireDragon76]

Is there actually anyone here who is liberal theologically and/or politically, or is this forum just conservatives arguing against liberalism?

Yes. I am a theological liberal. Politically, I am Left-Libertarian.

 

[Paidiske]

I am not sure what liberal means other than being identified as such by others when you don't fit a narrow construct of what they determine you should think.

I was going to say something like this. I don't think of myself as particularly liberal - pretty much middle of the road orthodox for my own denomination - but I've found that on CF (which seems to be dominated by conservative Americans) I fit their idea of what "liberal" means.

So I agree that some definition by the OP of what they're really asking would be helpful.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Is there actually anyone here who is liberal theologically and/or politically, or is this forum just conservatives arguing against liberalism?

I look at the scripture in parallels. For example, Genesis can be applied literally and figuratively, at the same time.

There can be multiple parallels, so it provides lee way for various interpretations.

I tend to look at the sermon on the mount as a foundation passage. Though this is taking the ending of the speech literally, it results in liberal conclusions.

However, among liberals, using too much scripture results in being "not liberal" so .. it depends on what one means by liberal.

 

[FireDragon76]

I was going to say something like this. I don't think of myself as particularly liberal - pretty much middle of the road orthodox for my own denomination - but I've found that on CF (which seems to be dominated by conservative Americans) I fit their idea of what "liberal" means.

So I agree that some definition by the OP of what they're really asking would be helpful.

Liberal theologies of various sorts are more or less mainstream in Anglicanism in the developed world. That's been the case since the late 19th century.

 

[Philip_B]

Liberal theologies of various sorts are more or less mainstream in Anglicanism in the developed world. That's been the case since the late 19th century.

Yet many on CF appear to use it as a pejorative term.

 

[Paidiske]

Liberal theologies of various sorts are more or less mainstream in Anglicanism in the developed world. That's been the case since the late 19th century.

This is what I mean when I ask, "What do you mean by liberal?"

In my own context, the Anglican Church of Australia, if I described someone as "theologically liberal" I would mean something like, rejecting basic Christian beliefs like the virgin birth or the resurrection (neither of which apply to me). On CF, it seems to mean something like, "anything other than completely fundamentalist on every point." But fundamentalism is a very recent, and mostly American, phenomenon, and - to my mind - not at all intellectually coherent.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

a common usage is a group of people are "this strict" and people perceived as backsliding were "liberal"

so it comes off as a relative term depending on denomination.

 

[hedrick]

a common usage is a group of people are "this strict" and people perceived as backsliding were "liberal"

so it comes off as a relative term depending on denomination.

Perhaps. But there is a specific liberal Christianity, which goes back to people like Schleiermacher. Their goal was to produce an interpretation of Christianity that was consistent with Enlightenment understand such as new science and scholarship. In the US I think the key figure was Rauschenbusch.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Perhaps. But there is a specific liberal Christianity, which goes back to people like Schleiermacher. Their goal was to produce an interpretation of Christianity that was consistent with Enlightenment understand such as new science and scholarship. In the US I think the key figure was Rauschenbusch.

Oh that's why the true meaning got lost. The enlightenment ended with the holocaust.

 

[FireDragon76]

This is what I mean when I ask, "What do you mean by liberal?"

In my own context, the Anglican Church of Australia, if I described someone as "theologically liberal" I would mean something like, rejecting basic Christian beliefs like the virgin birth or the resurrection (neither of which apply to me).

It depends on what you mean by "rejecting basic Christian beliefs". Far fewer would insist on a literal, historical interpretation of the creeds as a boundary marker. Many would simply say they are religious symbols that describe the experience of the early Christian community, but shouldn't necessarily be confused with biological or cosmological events (in my old Lutheran denomination , that was the position of Carl Braaten, who was an esteemed American professor of Lutheran systematic theology).

 

[RDKirk]

I didn't think I had to clarify what a liberal is. It's not an obscure or ambiguous concept. A liberal is a liberal.

Yeah...no.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

Oh that's why the true meaning got lost. The enlightenment ended with the holocaust.

That is an interesting statement. Where did you get it.
I think it may be true since it became clear that humanism and rationalism were incinerated.