Theo-Liberal Watch: "Liberal Theology in Decline"

The liberal Old Testament Professor
who taught my Dad at Knox Seminary,
University of Toronto.  A H/t and salute
to all liberals.

A global and rising chorus of voices is singing the refrain we have sung for years, to wit, that liberal Christianity is dying.  Or, quite often as in the leaders, these liberals are just not Christians at all.  There are rank-and-file Christians in liberal churches who have not figured out the history, theology, Bible, confessions or specifics of theological liberalism.  For the leaders, why not be honest, turn in the collar, and get out of the church?  That would be the honourable thing to do.   Here’s a voice from Australia, another voice speaking to the collapse of theological liberalism.
One upshot?  "Reverend Professor Andrew Dutney says that liberal theology is in decline." A second upshot?  Infertile, aged and dying people do not reproduce themselves;  they are sterile through their own self-inflicted vasectomies;  it's a generational thing and the old folks will die off.  Will something arise in its place? Perhaps, but no thanks to the liberals.

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=16357 

AUSTRALIA: Liberal theology in decline, says new UCA President

ByJohn Sandeman
http://www.biblesociety.org.au/news/liberal-theology-in-decline-says-new-uca-presidentnity Newspaper
July 25, 2012

The new President of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA), Reverend Professor Andrew Dutney says that liberal theology is in decline.

Andrew Dutney recently spoke to Eternity on the decline of liberal theology, and an update from UCA's national assembly

"There is no question that the liberalism with which the Uniting Church and its predecessors were associated with in the past is very much in decline," Dutney told the ABC's Andrew West.

"As horizons have been broadened by the contact that different kinds of Christians are having with each other, people who might formerly have been liberal are discovering that there are other ways of reading the Bible that are not liberal. That you don't try to explain away all the difficult stuff, but you can sit with some of the paradoxes and read the Bible more directly into your own life and your own situation."

Dutney became President of the UCA at a meeting of its national assembly in Adelaide last month.

Eternity asked Dutney whether the term "post-Liberal" described the UCA approach. He responded "'Post-liberal' is too narrow a category to describe the Uniting Church's approach to the Bible. There is certainly room for that approach, but it doesn't completely capture how we work with Scripture."

"The Uniting Church is guided by its 'Basis of Union' as it deals with the various questions and issues that come up from time to time - including questions about the Bible. The Basis of Union affirms the Bible as 'unique prophetic and apostolic testimony, in which [the Uniting Church] hears the Word of God and by which its faith and obedience is nourished and regulated'.

"It says that the Uniting Church's message is to be "controlled by the Biblical witnesses", and that the Church 'lays upon its members the serious duty of reading the Scriptures'".

Dutney however included Liberal scholarship as part of the formation of the UCA approach.

"The Basis of Union also says that "God has never left his Church without faithful and scholarly interpreters of Scripture...In particular [the Uniting Church] enters into the inheritance of literary, historical and scientific enquiry which has characterised recent centuries, and gives thanks for the knowledge of God's ways with humanity which are open to an informed faith".

A proposal (motion) to ask the national assembly to commit to develop "a UCA position on same gender marriage" failed to be adopted. Instead the assembly "has acknowledged the Church's existing understanding of marriage and has decided to continue a respectful conversation on marriage within the Church" according to a statement made by the organisation.

"The 265 members of the Uniting Church's national assembly have tasked the Church's Doctrine Working Group with preparing a discussion paper on the theology of marriage within the Uniting Church. This process will involve wide consultation within the Church."

UCA observers, conservative and liberal, at the Adelaide assembly meeting have noted that the Church seemed to have little appetite to make a move on same sex marriage.

The UCA's aboriginal and ethnic church bodies remain opposed to same sex marriage in general, although some leaders of these groups may be in favour.

Andrew Dutney told Eternity he does not see the UCA moving towards an authorised service of same sex blessings and/or marriage during his presidency. "No, it won't. The recent assembly agreed to acknowledge our existing understanding of marriage and to continue a respectful conversation about marriage within the church. Questions about same-gender unions are likely to come up in that conversation but the focus is more on deepening our understanding of marriage, sharing insights from the many different cultural and linguistic communities that form the UCA. The Doctrine Working Group was asked to prepare a discussion paper on the theology of marriage - involving consultation across the breadth of our diverse church. A report on this work will come to the next assembly."

END