Delwin Brown of the Pacific School of Religion gives a good summaryof the various strands that led to current progressive theology: the evangelical, the liberal, the neo-orthodox, and the liberationist.
An excerpt:
There is one more conviction, one more that sweeps like a driving wind through every faithful soul in each of the four periods I have identified as our modern heritage. The evangelical Christians of the 19th century, the liberal Christians that came after them, the neo-orthodox Christians in the middle of the last century, and the family of liberation Christians who rose up toward the end of the century and now carry us forward into this new time—from the earliest to the most recent, all of these our ancestors in a progressive Christian faith have been driven, absolutely driven, by a conviction called “hope,” the belief that a radically better day is possible, the confidence that a radically better day is possible, the determination that a radically better day will be made possible and is coming, by God’s grace and human faithfulness. They have held this hope not so that their vision would be validated, their beliefs warranted, or their efforts justified. They held this hope because it is the promise of God. This conviction, too, is part of the heritage of progressive Christianity, under girding each of the others. And I believe it must be ours.
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