On Nature and Grace: Part 9, The de Lubacian Balance of Post-Progressive Christianity

As I described in the last post, I resonate with Jordan Hillebert's reading of Henri de Lubac in his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence because it confirms how I have attempted to navigate between the views Hillebert calls intrinsicism and extrinsicism.

For several years now I've been calling myself a "post-progressive" Christian. I know many people dislike the constant proliferation of labels in online Christian discourse. But I've found this label helpful in locating myself within the Christian landscape. If you're a new reader and aren't sure what "post-progressive Christian" means, it simply means that I formerly identified as a "progressive Christian," with all that implies by way of beliefs and politics, but have since become disillusioned with progressive Christianity. Not in the sense of a wholesale rejection, but because of growing concerns about many of progressive Christianity's reductionisms, blind spots, hypocrisies, heresies, and ailments. My stance, then, is not anti-progressive but one that has moved through progressivism, retaining much within that worldview to arrive at something different. Post-progressive. Or perhaps we could simply say after-progressive.

I bring this up because much of what de Lubac attempted in navigating between intrinsicism and extrinsicism is exactly the same navigation I'm trying to capture with the label "post-progressive."

Very much like de Lubac, I rejected the extrinsicism I observed on the Christian right, the pessimistic conviction that humanity is totally depraved and devoid of grace. I gravitated toward and embraced the generous and inclusive humanism found on the progressive side of Christianity. Over against "original sin" there is "original blessing," the conviction that creation is good and that humanity is very good. I also appreciate the conviction that, within the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, human experience carries as much weight as--if not more weight than--Scripture and Tradition.

And yet, as I traveled with the progressive tribe, I began to notice the problems with the intrinsicism that I've described throughout this series. Specifically, an already-and-always graced humanity has no need of a Savior. Sin, judgment, and atonement are set aside. Christ comes to us as a guru of enlightenment rather than as the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. And because of the reductive and totalizing intrinsicism found in many progressive spaces, large portions of the Bible are dismissed as "problematic."

Thus, still very much like de Lubac, I began to push back against the intrinsicism espoused by progressive Christianity. But not in order to embrace its opposite, the pessimistic extrinsicism of conservative Christianity. Following de Lubac, the goal is to navigate between these two distortions. We must reject the pessimistic view of humanity found within evangelical spaces. Human beings are good and touched by grace. But at the same time we must reject the affirmational humanism found in many progressive Christian spaces that refuses to speak of sin and sidelines the atoning work of Christ. 

This is the de Lubacian balance I'm trying to capture with the label "post-progressive Christianity."