Week 11: Chapter 11 — Putting It All Together: How to Identify a Different Gospel

1.Childers offers several markers that she argues characterize progressive Christianity as a system: a low view of Scripture, a revised understanding of Jesus, a denial or redefinition of the atonement, a rejection of hell, and a reordering of the gospel around social transformation. Looking back over the book, which of these markers do you find most significant? Which do you think is most foundational — the one that, if changed, changes everything else?

2.She acknowledges that none of these issues exists in isolation — that they form a coherent (if wrong) system, and that once a person accepts the progressive approach to Scripture, the rest tends to follow. Do you agree that these positions form a logical package, or do you think it is possible to adopt one without the others? Why?

3.Childers revisits the concept of 'orthodoxy' — not as a dirty word for rigid traditionalism, but as the carefully discerned, communally tested, historic consensus of the church about the essentials of the faith. How do you relate to the idea of orthodoxy? Does it feel like a constraint or a gift — and why?