• America’s Role in the World
• The Bible in Christian Life
• The Creation and Christian Stewardship
• Economics and the Common Good
• Faith and the Political Process
• Faith and Science
• Gender and Sexuality
• Immigration and Christian Hospitality
• Perspectives on Progressive Christianity
• Race, Pluralism, and Justice

• "Beyond Just War and Pacifism: Jesus’ Nonviolent Way," Walter Wink
  Nonviolence is at the core of the Gospel, argues Wink, emeritus professor of biblical interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary, New York City. He re-examines three of Jesus’ most powerful instructions: turn the other cheek, give up your garment, and walk a second mile beside the one who would make you walk one mile.
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• "Easter Faith and Empire," Ched Myers
  Ched Myers, who leads Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries in Southern California, focuses on the challenge Jesus offered to the disciples while they are on the road to Emmaus, asking what that challenge would sound like for the contemporary American church.
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• "Love Your Enemies—Even in the Age of Terrorism," Laurie Johnston
  The contemporary "war on terrorism" provides a particularly challenging environment in which to seek to interpret and apply Jesus' commandment to love our enemies. Johnston, a teaching fellow in the theology department at Boston College, argues for the broad applicability of the commandment and explores how it can be interpreted in the wake of 9/11.
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• "Religion and Violence: A Protestant Christian Perspective," S. Wesley Ariarajah
  The author traces biblical descriptions and prescriptions on violence, historical developments of just war and non-violence in theory and practice, and the emerging focus on terrorism and state terrorism within the global community. Ariarajah is professor of ecumenical theology at Drew University, Madison, NJ.
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• "Why America Is Not a Christian Nation (and Pray God Never Will Be)," Hubert Locke
  Hubert Locke, dean emeritus of the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, reminds us that the reasons America did not and could not become a Christian nation reveals the heart of what this nation, in its finest moments, is all about.
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• "A New Teaching with Authority: A Re-evaluation of the Authority of the Bible," Mary A. Tolbert
  Tolbert observes that a gulf has emerged between the way the Bible is read and interpreted in academia and in the pews, and she lays out four principles which should underlie a reading of Scripture. Tolbert is George H. Atkinson Professor of Biblical Studies and executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion.
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• "Authored by the Book: A Plain Account of the Bible’s Authority," Delwin Brown
  Defying a rigid “liberal vs. conservative” dichotomy, the author offers an extensive discussion of biblical authority that calls for Christians to engage the Bible with creativity rather than with conformity. Brown is dean emeritus at Pacific School of Religion.
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• "Biblical Authority: A Personal Reflection," Walter Brueggemann
  The author explores his lifetime relationship with the Bible and how it has led him to focus on six principles for interpreting scripture. Brueggemann is professor emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological School in Decatur, GA.
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• "Reading with New Eyes: Social Location and the Bible," Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan
  An examination of the dynamic interaction between the reader and the text, utilizing stories of the Exodus and David and Bathsheba to demonstrate how social location shapes the construction of biblical meaning and interpretation. Kuan is associate professor of Old Testament at Pacific School of Religion.
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• "God's Household: Christianity, Economics and Planetary Living," Sallie McFague
  To be a member of a household is to live in harmonious co-existence with all those who share the residence. Planet Earth is God’s household, and to be responsible residents here, humanity must learn to co-exist in harmony with all that makes up God’s creation. So argues Sallie McFague, distinguished theologian in residence at the Vancouver School of Theology in Canada and Carpenter Professor of Theology Emerita, Vanderbilt University.
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• "The Significance of the Incarnation for Ecological Theology: A Challenging Approach," Cristina Vanin
  The author utilizes James Nelson’s work in sexual ethics as a gateway for exploring the connecting points among incarnation, embodiment, and ecology. Vanin is associate professor of theology and ethics at St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo, Canada.
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• "Poverty and the Bible," Edward Campbell
  Edward Campbell, professor emeritus of Hebrew Bible at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, reminds us that the biblical injunction to care for the least of those among us comes from a sense of relationship, and it is in those terms that he frames a call to economic justice.
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• "The Rich and Poor in James: Implications for Institutionalized Partiality," Duane Warden
  In this article Warden, professor of Bible and associate dean of the College of Bible and Religion at Harding University in Searcy, AR, focuses on the good news for the poor in the Book of James. A self-identified evangelical, he examines the economic policies evangelicals have tended to support and questions whether they are in line with biblical ideas on the rich and the poor.
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• "What Does the Bible Say About Economics?," Rebecca Blank
  This broad overview of economics in the biblical tradition argues that the economic wisdom in the Bible can inform the way we structure our personal lives as well as our public institutions. Blank is dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
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• "A Time for Heresy," Bill Moyers
  In a piercing call to courage and, yes, heresy, journalist and ordained minister Bill Moyers explains how America’s deepest values have been undermined by a triumvirate of money, power, and religion. He delineates the national and systemic problems of greed and corruption that we face today and relates them to the challenges that Jesus faced in his own time.
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• "Bullies in the Pulpit," Randall Balmer
  For much of American history, evangelicalism was aligned with progressive political causes, says American religious history professor Randall Balmer. Nineteenth-century evangelicals fought for the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage, and public education. But contemporary evangelicals have defaulted on this majestic legacy, embracing instead an agenda virtually indistinguishable from the Republican Party platform.
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• "'Call to Renewal' Keynote Address," Barack Obama
  In this speech, given at Sojourner’s Call to Renewal conference, Senator Obama explores the relationship between faith and politics and between religious and secular America. Powerfully affirming faith as the source of hope in our nation, he calls on progressive Christians to speak out about their convictions and the way they relate positively to politics.
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• "Decoding the Religious Right," Randall Balmer
  In this helpful appendix to his book, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament, Randall Balmer lays out a glossary as an aid to understanding some of the rhetoric commonly used by the Religious Right.
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• "Faith Seeking Articulation: Doing Theology in Politics," Robin W. Lovin
  It has often been asked what place religion has in politics, but in this intriguing essay, Dr. Lovin reverses the question, asking “What happens to religion if we take politics seriously as a formative context for faith?” Noting that, at its best, politics provides a wide-ranging forum for discussions of the common good, Lovin argues that subjecting our religious perspectives to the views of others allows for self-discovery and challenges Christians to reassess their motives and virtues in light of these other points of view.
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• "Old Time Religion," Harvey Cox
  Professor Cox recounts the history of the modern evangelical movement and asserts that, at its core, the movement was socially progressive. He finds a new generation of leaders, deeply concerned about the country’s current agenda, returning to the progressivism of the early evangelical movement. These new evangelical leaders are guided by two fundamental teachings of Jesus—to love the neighbor and, especially, to care for the poor.
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• "Wrestling with Progress," Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
  A seminary president and professor of theology finds herself as an expert witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee, defending the Constitution's separation of church and state as a boon to religion, and reflecting on the progressive and the prophetic traditions of Christian witness in a pluralistic society.
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• "Evolution and God's Humility: How Theology Can Embrace Darwin," John Haught
  John Haught, professor of theology at Georgetown University, sketches the history of the debate within religious and scientific circles over evolution. He takes the standard idea that evolution is a challenge to God because there is too much "chance" involved, and turns it on its head, asking what happens when we view God as "outrageously irrational and mysteriously humble love."
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• "Theological Implications of an Evolving Creation," Keith Miller
  An evangelical Christian and professor of geology at Kansas State University, Keith Miller presents a biblical foundation for evolutionary theory and considers the theological implications that arise from a view of God’s activity as a continuous process.
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• "A Retelling of the Parable of the Samaritan," Richard Cleaver
  This excerpt from Cleaver’s Know My Name: A Gay Liberation asks us to consider how members of the gay and lesbian community are like the Samaritan: persecuted outcasts who, from their own experience of pain, recognize and reach out to help suffering others. Cleaver is a priest of the Orthodox Catholic Church of America.
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• "Christianity and the Family: Ancient Challenges, Modern Crisis," Rosemary Radford Ruether
  In an analysis that is both historically and biblically grounded, the author challenges the prevailing notion that a nuclear (heterosexual) family with one working husband and a non-working wife is the “God-given, biblical form of family.” Ruether is professor emerita at Pacific School of Religion.
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• "Gentile Wheat and Homosexual Christians: New Testament Directions for the Heterosexual Church," Jeffrey Siker
  The author offers the biblical model of gentile inclusion as a way of looking at how gay and lesbian Christians should be included in the church, using Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares to express the transformative importance of this type of inclusion. Siker is professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
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• "Homosexuality and the Bible," Walter Wink
  What guidance does the Bible offer the church as it considers the morality of homosexuality? The author argues that the debate centers on the way we use and interpret Holy Scripture. Wink is emeritus professor of biblical interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City.
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• "Homosexuals: Civil Rights? Civil Unions?," Linda Seger
  Dr. Seger presents a clear, simply-articulated discussion of what the Bible does and does not say about homosexuality. She considers the historical contexts for Scriptural passages used to condemn homosexuality and questions contemporary concerns about same-sex marriage. Seger, who holds a doctorate in theology, is an author, lecturer, and screen-writing consultant.
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• "The Bible and Same-Gender Marriage," Mary A. Tolbert
  Tolbert, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion at Pacific School of Religion, challenges the belief that the Bible condemns same-gender marriage through a social scientific biblical exegesis of references to marriage and homosexuality in the Bible.
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• "Transgendered Theological Thought," Justin Tanis
  This chapter from Tanis’s book, Transgendered: Theology, Ministry and Communities of Faith, examines how theology is shaped by the binary divides we take for granted, and explores how the transgender community can support a deepening theological experience for all Christians.
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• "The Ethics of Hospitality in a World of Nation-States," Dana Wilbanks
  Dana Wilbanks, professor emeritus of Christian ethics at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO, argues that the Christian narrative tradition of hospitality and care for the stranger calls us to seek justice for the marginalized in our midst.
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• "The Immigration Dilemma," Progressive Christians Uniting
  This essay discusses the history of immigration in the United States as well as the Christian mandate to be hospitable to the stranger in our midst, offering ways that churches can aid individual refugees and immigrants while keeping in mind “systemic considerations of the common good.” Progressive Christians Uniting is an ecumenical Christian organization headquartered in Southern California.
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• "A Normative View of Progressive Christianity," John B. Cobb, Jr.
  Viewed for decades as a leading liberal theologian, the author now concludes that American Protestantism cannot remain liberal in the tradition of the Enlightenment if it is to resist those aspects of American society that are contrary to an authentic Christian vision of life. John Cobb is co-founder of Progressive Christians Uniting. Until his retirement in 1990 he was professor of theology at Claremont School of Theology.
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• "A Pastoral Care Response to Spiritual Colonization in the Chicana Context," Linda Jaramillo and Brenda Vaca
  The authors issue a prophetic call to progressive Christianity to resist dominant social and cultural powers. Advocating a team approach to pastoral care within Chicano communities which involves reviving the practice of story telling, Jaramillo and Vaca share their own narratives, as well as the story of La Llorona. At the heart of this essay lies the challenge of social transformation, forgiveness and healing.
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• "Life Together: An Agenda For Progressive Religion," Daniel Schultz
  The author warns progressive religious people against “being political” and seeking to convert others to the cause. Progressives need to be guided only by the vision of a world in which no one is separated from the love of God. This is the Christian way of describing a communal life lived with compassion, justice, and responsibility, a vision that all progressives share, whether or not they are religious.
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• "Of Rural Margins and Unbridled Hope: Toward a New Awakening," David Ostendorf
  The author rejects “progressive” Christianity in favor of a truly radical Christian faith. The future of radical faith lies with the marginalized rural and urban folk of many faiths, classes, and races who are coming together around the Word. Among them a new Pentecost is exploding in our midst. David Ostendorf is executive director of the Center for New Community in Chicago.
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• "Our Church’s Liberal Theology," Jerry Stinson
  This pastor and congregation represent one version of the liberal strand within progressive Christianity. They identify their understanding of religion and their common theological affirmations in this statement. The First Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) is located in Long Beach, CA.
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• "Progressive Theology: Some Musings from a United Methodist Perspective," Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan
  If we take the Bible seriously, the author says, we will appreciate our theological diversity as a gift, not a hindrance, to the United Methodist Church. But genuine diversity requires that we clarify rather than obscure our differences. Professor Kuan, a biblical scholar teaching at Pacific School of Religion, identifies the direction of his own theological reflection by appeal to the Book of Discipline and to five important strands of current Christian reflection.
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• "Prophetic Evangelicals: Toward a Politics of Hope," Peter Heltzel
  Heltzel provides a thorough and enlightening analysis of historic evangelicalism’s engagement with social justice issues. He notes the enormous political influence of evangelicals in the United States over the past 40 years. In questioning the assumption that all evangelicals are neo-conservatives, he argues for a return to “prophetic” evangelicalism. Heltzel is an assistant professor of theology at New York Theological Seminary.
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• "Rediscovering Our Progressive Christian Heritage," Delwin Brown
  Brown contends that progressive Christian faith is a family of contemporary perspectives. They draw in varying ways from mid-19th century evangelicalism, the liberalism of the early 20th century, neo-orthodoxy between the world wars, and, especially, the voices of liberation Christianity today. Brown, dean emeritus of Pacific School of Religion, is the director of Progressive Christian Witness
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• "What Is Progressive Christianity?," Jim Burklo
  Progressive Christianity is grounded in the direct encounter with God and the desire to emulate humble faith of a humble man. The test of Christianity is loving the unlovable, not believing the unbelievable. Rev. Burklo, pastor of the Sausalito Presbyterian Church, explains the “mystical spirituality” of a progressive faith through stories and personal reflection. This essay also appears on the website of The Center for Progressive Christianity. Burklo is on the Executive Committee of TCPC.
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• "When Narrative Identities Clash: Liberals Versus Evangelicals," Wesley J. Wildman
  The author debunks the common caricatures of “liberal” and “evangelical” (though he does find humor in them) and contends that, when understood historically and theologically, they belong together. To support this view, Wildman examines their histories. His conclusion is passionate and pastoral. Wesley Wildman, an Australian, now teaches theology and ethics at Boston University School of Theology.
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• "Celebrating Diversity: Negotiating Difference, Exploring the Color White," Joseph Driskill
  Associate professor of spirituality at Pacific School of Religion and dean of the Disciples Seminary Foundation in Berkeley, CA, Joseph Driskill urges those sharing his position of white privilege to see with new eyes and hear with new ears as they reach out to those of differing social, ethnic, and racial positions.
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• "Let Us Break Bread Together: The Church and Multiculturalism in America," Samuel Elolia
  Born and raised in Kenya, Samuel Elolia, associate professor of Christian doctrine and missiology at Emmanuel School of Religion in Tennessee, provides a biblical and theological basis for engaging the other in our midst.
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• "Not Somewhere Else, but Here: The Struggle for Racial Justice as a Struggle to Inhabit My Country," Rebecca Parker
  President of Starr King School for the Ministry (Unitarian Universalist) in Berkeley, CA, Rebecca Parker draws on her own experience in detailing the forces that keep white Americans uninformed about the diverse world we live in, and calls for re-education as the path to healing racial injustice.
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• "The Special Opportunity of Missions in a Multicultural World," Fumitaka Matsuoka
  Fumitaka Matsuoka challenges churches and society to recognize racism and oppose it by imagining an alternative way of relating to each other that utilizes the redemptive tradition. Matsuoka is professor of theology at Pacific School of Religion and executive director of the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion (PANA Institute).
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• "Theology's Great Sin: Silence in the Face of White Supremacy," James H. Cone
  Drawing on the legacies of Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and others, James Cone, Charles A. Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, calls on theologians to break their silence about white racism.
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