Liberal Theology: Wrap-Up

On this, the final day of our Liberal Theology class, we discussed James Luther Adams extensively.  The challenge he posed to liberal theologians in  1940 is still very much the challenge of today. I am thinking specifically of his plea "for a religious liberalism which, though permitting and encouraging variety and breadth, will acquire a precise character, a cutting edge of its own . . . if it is to be effective in the arena of competing world-views today, [liberalism] must know pretty definitely what its convictions are and expect at least its own adherents to take them seriously."

So what is it that we take seriously or ought to take seriously? This whole week has been helpful for me in refining my personal vision for ministry and my vision for what liberal religion and Unitarian Universalism must take most seriously.  I believe it comes down to this:

We must be a church that ministers not to ideas but to people and the world--people and the world just as they are at this moment. Liberal religionists do not minister in order to save souls but to practice radical acceptance and radical service. We do not minister in order to convince everyone else how wrong-minded they are and how right-minded we are. We do not minister to make idols of the status quo or white, educated middle-class ideals or anything else.  We minister because we love human beings and we love the world.

At least, I believe that's what we ought to do, and to follow the Kantian turn I learned this week, because we ought to do so, we can do so. So may it be!