Sensible progressive spirituality. The bane of the absurd
In the midst of the obvious contrast with, if not outright reaction to, conservative Christian ideas about eschatology and apocalyptic; well-intentioned and, for the most part, well-reasoned folks react in spiritual embarrassment, and then project universal or transcendentalist renderings of hope onto the particular narrative of the gospel. Such universalism shames the past and buries the meanings in stories that allow for us to makes sense of the exodus and the cross. It allows those embarrassed of claims of miracles and resurrection to marginalize the eschatological and apocalyptic nature of Abrahamic religions. Progressives favor of a spiritual or religious presentation that has relevance to social, economic, and political realities (or better yet, apparent necessities).
I propose that the progressives refuse to recognize or value the primary peculiarity of Christian eschatology, which is, I believe, indicative of the present failure of the church catholic. This is a failure to identify the basic presupposition that Jesus, the cross, and his resurrection are at the heart of Christian eschatology, and as such, it is Christian eschatological and transformational hope that is the fuel of a Spirit-driven church, and not a cataclysmic end-of-the-world event that will punish the pagan and apostate alike in a scorching dragon-ignited lake of fire. Regardless, progressives take such imagery as literally as fundamentalists without bothering to even inspect it. Progressives resist judgment without accepting that they are at potential risk of judgment for benefitting from injustices without aknowledgment. progressives, like conservatives, actually believe they deserve the things they have.
The eschatological hope of Christian faith is that the fact and nature of sin has been revealed, and is realized in ever-changing sociopolitical circumstances and physical phenomenon. In response, the church does not acquiesce to sin or evil, but recognizes the need to explore faith and text and embody a new manner of witness that not only challenges a growing acceptance of sin or emergence of latent evil, but also tests limitations that the secular world places upon what might constitute preferred subsequent outcomes.
Thus, the church subverts both sin and the increasingly normative conditions that have allowed for newly transpiring evil to germinate and break through the darkness into a light of false legitimacy.
Eschatology indicates the end of an age, and an inauguration of God’s justice that can be recognized as embodied by believers, rather than liberal social justice which often that reacts to corporate sin but fails to change the manner of exploitation inherent to the system. American liberalism does little more than welcome once marginalized individuals into the exploiter role because it is America and democracy-centered, rather than Christian and Christ-centered.
