Another What is a Liberal Christian

David F. Watson of United Theological Seminary (Dayton, OH), has written a post title What is a Liberal Christian? (HT: Methoblog).

I’m not going to dissect his post, because much of what I would have said, he summarized already here:

Part of the reason for the difficulty is that “liberal” has at least two meanings that are really quite different from one another.

Having said that, however, I would also point out that many liberals of my acquaintance don’t fit into the box he describes. Yes, I know he admitted the difficulty. He may even have understated it. But concepts of liberal stray even further from the box than …. well, than whatever we may try to say.

I’m editing a book titled just Process Theology for my Topical Line Drives series. I challenged Bruce Epperly to describe process theology in 12,000 words or less. I’m hoping to release the result in a couple of weeks. The result might surprise you.

Then there is my own statement, On Being a Liberal Charismatic Believer. not to mention my book, Not Ashamed of the Gospel: Confessions of a Liberal Charismatic. There are those who have told me I don’t deserve the label “liberal.” Some meant that as a compliment, as in “you’re not really a liberal, bless your heart.” Others meant it negatively, as in “you’re not really a liberal, you imposter!” And then I mess it up by using “passionate” and “moderate” as well. Each of those four labels I use in this site’s description say something about my approach to Christianity. Or so I believe!

Slippery things, labels, but necessary!