Progressive Commentaires?

elliott siu

Hey folks. While I would not consider myself a progressive Christian, I would be interested in reading from that point of view to broaden my approach to sermon application. Does anyone have recommendations for commentaries or study Bibles that have a progressive Christian perspective on Logos?

Ken

Hey folks. While I would not consider myself a progressive Christian, I would be interested in reading from that point of view to broaden my approach to sermon application. Does anyone have recommendations for commentaries or study Bibles that have a progressive Christian perspective on Logos?

That's a good question. I know of plenty of "conservative" and "liberal" commentaries, but not "progressive".

Funnily, I think the whole notion of "progressivism" was actually stolen from Christianity. Particularly stolen from Post-Millenialism (and partly Amillenialism) which was the view that was prevalent with the Abolitionists. It was partly the view of the larger landscape of the Church as well, with it's massive push for missions, education, hospitals, charities, and other helps. The idea of a progressive outlook on history and postmillennialism are one and the same - that is, the idea that it is the Church's duty to build the Kingdom of God here and now and slowly improve the world. To be a "light to the world", as Jesus said. You even hear echos of this in old hymns of the 1700s and 1800s, like "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "Joy to the World".

This was the dominant view especially in much of Protestantism until WW1 and WW2, when people finally lost hope in some kind of ongoing "improvement" of humanity. It ended with a big thud and mushroom cloud. The main people who kept up a bright spirit were the people who were actually beat down the most: the black churches. They kept the fire alive in things like the Civil Rights movement. Which wasn't political, but originated in and motivated within their church communities. But the church largely didn't listen to them or join the fray (see MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail for insight to this and his plea to other clergy). Some helped, but not on a large scale like in the Abolitionist days. Instead, it was the secular world who saw hope in Rosa Parks and MLK Jr., not their fellow Christians. And eventually it was secular people who slowly took up the mantle of postmillennialism and it became what we now know as "progressivism"... except they don't have the same spark or religiosity. It's anemic. And it's controlled by equally anemic politicians. And half of the time, people don't truly know WHY they fight for justice. It's certainly not to build God's Kingdom. Just saying that would be alien to their ears. At this point, I think it's just to get Twitter likes, or merely display performative gestures. They're not motivated to do any hard work (let alone suffering or dying like Abolitionists or Civil Rights people did). In short, you can't truly fight for justice without God on your side. Progressivism is a sham. It's divorced from it's original motivation, which was imitating Christ. They don't even want to hear about Christ, but it's Christ who is the fountain of justice:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

Basically, I doubt you'll find a good progressive commentary anytime soon. They don't even know why they're doing what they're doing or where their ideas come from. They don't even appreciate where morality itself comes from - they think they invented it themselves or it's from "humanistic" principles. But it was the Church who spread these things to the world. It's the Church who spread this light. And it's the Church's mission to do all of this to begin with and take it back as her birthright.