Glossary of Liberal Theological Terms

According to the presupposition of form criticism, these various forms of folk literature, legends, tales, myths and parables were evoked when a community had a problem and even the working through of the problem produced even further modifications in the story. Therefore, what we have today in the gospels or Old Testament are not basically a witness to the life of Christ but rather are considered to be the evolving beliefs and practices of the early church. (More Evidence that Demands a Verdict, p. 183).

Redactor - a theory that a compiler, reviser or editor shapes the literary sources he had available. Part of form criticism, this school assumes that differences in gospel accounts or perspectives are inconsistencies or errors and therefore points to a redactor. The task of the critic is therefore to determine the motive of the redactor and separate tradition and cultural bias in theological interpretation (Ibid., p.196).

Literary Criticism - another historical-critical method which contemplates underlying literary sources, stylistic variances, types of literature and questions relating to authorship, unity, and dates of Biblical texts (Biblical Criticism: Historical, Literary and Textual, p. 20).

A priori assumptions are made about what Jesus must be like, what His message must have been. Scriptural authors were not allowed stylistic changes or innovative or novel teachings without being rejected as genuine.

Liberalism - a recurring impulse throughout the history of Christianity currently assaulting historical Biblical Christianity. Liberalism receives its philosophical inspiration from the dialecticalism of Immanuel Kant and religious thought from Friedrich Schleirmacher, Rudolph Bultmann and Paul Tillich.

Liberalism in seminaries reflected social Darwinism's influence in our culture, believing that the Bible merely reflects man's evolving ideas about God and reality. It therefore directly challenged and denied the Bible's accuracy and God's providential design. It rejects God's revelation to man in propositional truth and is instead man centered.

Liberals contended that experience and feeling, not creeds and doctrine, provide the foundation of Christianity. Liberals embrace naturalistic and rationalistic views of interpreting Scripture, employing form criticism, literacy criticism, documentary hypothesis, and redactionism to understand the Bible.

The result is that they deny Moses wrote the Pentateuch, a denial of Christ's virgin birth, penal substitutionary atonement, resurrection, miracles, etc. Instead they teach that the Bible reflects only man's basic "inspired" purposes which will be reflected in any age. Therefore, religion, or doctrine, is dynamic and will change to reflect contemporary trends and ideas. (Dictionary of Christianity in America, pp. 647-648, 1063).

Paul Tillich went so far as to teach that God is an impersonal "Ground of Being", giving impetus to the beliefs of the New Age Movement. (Ibid., p. 810). Schleirmacher, too, placed supreme theological importance upon man's inner consciousness; his feeling of the divine, direct, intuitive contact or experience with God. This becomes a greenhouse for new age occultism (A Layman's Guide to the Inerrancy Debate, p. 43.).

Neo-Orthodoxy - Swiss theologians Karl Barth and Emil Brunner reacted strongly against the barrenness of liberalism and set forth the idea that the distance between a holy and transcendent God and sinful man is so great that inerrancy of Scripture cannot be held.

But Scripture written by fallible men, capable of errors, could be used by God to accomplish His purposes. Thus the Bible becomes inspired in its proclamation when the Holy Spirit quickens faith and obedience in its hearers. This, like liberalism, results in a subjective, existential encounter, which denies absolute propositional truth in revelation (Dictionary of Christianity, p. 1063).

Process Theology - built on the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, process theology holds that reality is becoming rather than being, in process rather than static. Scripture has authority in that it concurs with one's own self-evident experiences. It teaches panentheism (all-in-Godism); that even though God is somehow transcendent, He also includes the world within Himself. Therefore, God is in process as evolving along with creation into future possibilities.

Process theology tends to be pluralistic, inclusive of all religious symbols and "Christ figures of other religions, redefining Christ as a loving cosmic entity" (Ibid., pp. 947, 1064).

Universalism - a belief that all people will be saved. Many different groups hold to universalism from various perspectives. Some liberal Protestants and Catholics attempt to base it on Scripture noting that Christ died for all and by holding that eternal punishment is inconsistent with a loving and merciful God, who desires all to be saved.

Others influenced by rationalism and Biblical criticism, became humanistic (Unitarian Universalists) and hold that all religions or simply the study of poets and philosophers and philanthropists are valued as means to realize the inherent goodness of man's potential (Ibid., p.1205).

Radical Feminists - a radical outgrowth of the more moderate feminist movement which sought to influence societal views and laws to reflect equality and opportunity with men in all areas of culture. Radical feminism pushes for a revolution to free themselves from male enslavement and exploitation. At home in this camp are lesbians which help to perpetuate an actual anti-male position.

Radical feminism in theological circles draws heavily from liberal and liberation theology. Feminist theologians attempt to claim Scriptural support by reinterpreting Biblical texts in light of contemporary feminist consciousness.

Claiming that Scripture and historical doctrine actually evolved out of a patriarchal culture, radical feminists seek not only to rid Scripture of as many male terms as possible but to actually recast essential doctrine into their feminist hermeneutic.

Many groups find communion in this camp including lesbians, witches and neopagans, new agers and liberals. They redefine God as a Goddess to denote Ultimate Reality. She is a personification of life, death, rebirth, energy in nature (Gaia), who or which can be invoked by prayer and ritual.

Gnosticism (occult) - a religious movement widespread at the time of Christ, which has its roots in the actual temptation of Eve and Adam in the garden and in many pagan religions of antiquity. Paul encountered the Stoic pantheists at the Areopagus (Acts 17:16-31). Several portions of the New Testament were written to distinguish Christianity from gnosticism and to refute it.

Gnosticism basically teaches that true spirituality is found only in the spiritual realm and not the temporal or physical. Through the acquisition and use of secret or hidden knowledge or mystical/magical arts can one experience transformation and become at one with the One.

This is the underlying belief in the New Age Movement, Witchcraft, eastern mysticism (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, etc.).

Animism - the idea that all things in the universe are invested with a life force, soul or mind inherently. It is an important constituent of primitive religions. It appears commonly in occult and spiritism circles (Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions, and the Occult, p. 22).

Taken from: The Watchman Expositor