Religious liberalism is a conception ofreligion (or of a particular religion) which emphasizes personal and groupliberty[1] andrationality.[2] It is an attitude towards one's own religion (as opposed tocriticism of religion from asecular position, and as opposed to criticism of a religion other than one's own) which contrasts with a traditionalist ororthodox approach, and it is directly opposed by trends ofreligious fundamentalism. It is related toreligious liberty, which is the tolerance of different religious beliefs and practices, but not all promoters of religious liberty are in favor of religious liberalism, and vice versa.[3]
In the context of religious liberalism,liberalism conveys the sense ofclassical liberalism as it developed in theAge of Enlightenment, which forms the starting point of both religious andpolitical liberalism; but religious liberalism does not necessarily coincide with all meanings ofliberalism inpolitical philosophy. For example, anempirical attempt to show a link between religious liberalism and political liberalism proved inconclusive in a 1973 study inIllinois.[4]
Usage of the termliberal in the context of religious philosophy appeared as early as the mid-19th century[5] and became established by the first part of the 20th century; for example, in 1936, philosophy professor andDisciples of Christ minister Edward Scribner Ames wrote in his article "Liberalism in Religion":[6]
The term "liberalism" seems to be developing a religious usage which gives it growing significance. It is more sharply contrasted with fundamentalism, and signifies a far deeper meaning than modernism. Fundamentalism describes a relatively uncritical attitude. In it custom, traditionalism, and authoritarianism are dominant. ... There is no doubt that the loss of the traditional faith has left many people confused and rudderless, and they are finding that there is no adequate satisfaction in mere excitement or in flight from their finer ideals. They crave a sense of deeper meaning and direction for their life. Religious liberalism, not as a cult but as an attitude and method, turns to the living realities in the actual tasks of building more significant individual and collective human life.
Religious traditionalists, who reject the idea that tenets ofmodernity should have any impact on religious tradition, challenge the concept of religious liberalism.[citation needed]Secularists, who reject the idea that implementation of rationalistic or critical thought leaves any room for religion altogether, likewise dispute religious liberalism.[citation needed]
"Liberal Christianity" is an umbrella term for certain developments inChristian theology and culture since the Enlightenment of the late 18th century. It has become mostly mainstream within the majorChristian denominations in theWestern world, but is opposed by a movement ofChristian fundamentalism which developed in response to these trends, and byEvangelicalism generally. It also contrasts with conservative forms of Christianity outside the Western world and outside the reach of Enlightenment philosophy and modernism, mostly withinEastern Christianity.[citation needed]
TheCatholic Church in particular has a long tradition of controversy regarding questions of religious liberalism. CardinalJohn Henry Newman (1801–1890), for example, was considered to be moderately liberal by 19th-century standards because he was critical ofpapal infallibility, but he explicitly opposed "liberalism in religion" because he argued it would lead to completerelativism.[7]
The conservativePresbyterian biblical scholarJ. Gresham Machen criticized what he termed "naturalistic liberalism" in his 1923 book,Christianity and Liberalism, in which he intended to show that "despite the liberal use of traditional phraseology modern liberalism not only is a different religion from Christianity but belongs in a totally different class of religions".[8] TheAnglican Christian apologistC. S. Lewis voiced a similar view in the mid-20th century, arguing that "theology of the liberal type" amounted to a complete re-invention of Christianity and a rejection of Christianity as understood by its own founders.[9]
German-Jewish religious reformers began to incorporatecritical thought and humanist ideas intoJudaism from the early 19th century.[citation needed] This resulted in the creation of various non-Orthodox denominations, from the moderately liberalConservative Judaism to very liberalReform Judaism. The moderate wing ofModern Orthodox Judaism, especiallyOpen Orthodoxy, espouses a similar approach.
Liberalism and progressivism within Islam involve professed Muslims who have created a considerable body of liberal thought about Islamic understanding and practice.[10] Their work is sometimes characterized as "progressive Islam" (al-Islām at-taqaddumī); some scholars, such asOmid Safi, regard progressive Islam and liberal Islam as two distinct movements.[11]
The methodologies of liberal or progressive Islam rest on the interpretation of traditional Islamic scripture (theQuran) and other texts (such as theHadith), a process calledijtihad.[12][page needed] This can vary from the slight to the most liberal, where only themeaning of the Quran is considered to be arevelation, with its expression in words seen as the work ofMuhammad in his particular time and context.
Liberal Muslims see themselves as returning to the principles of the earlyummah ethical and pluralistic intent of the Quran.[13] They distance themselves from some traditional and less liberal interpretations of Islamic law which they regard as culturally based and without universal applicability.[citation needed] The reform movement usesTawhid (monotheism) "as an organizing principle for human society and the basis of religious knowledge, history,metaphysics, aesthetics, and ethics, as well as social, economic and world order".[14]
Islamic Modernism has been described as "the first Muslim ideological response to the Western cultural challenge"[15] attempting to reconcile Islamic faith with modern values such asnationalism,democracy,civil rights,rationality,equality, andprogress.[16][page needed] It featured a "critical reexamination of the classical conceptions and methods of jurisprudence" and a new approach to Islamic theology andQuranic exegesis.[15]
It was the first of several Islamic movements—includingsecularism,Islamism, andSalafism—that emerged in the middle of the 19th century in reaction to the rapid changes of the time, especially the perceived onslaught ofWestern culture andcolonialism on the Muslim world.[16] Founders includeMuhammad Abduh, a Sheikh ofAl-Azhar University for a brief period before his death in 1905,Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, andMuhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1935).
The early Islamic modernists (al-Afghani and Muhammad Abdu) used the termsalafiyya[17] to refer to their attempt at renovation of Islamic thought,[18] and thissalafiyya movement is often known in the West as "Islamic modernism," although it is very different from what is currently called theSalafi movement, which generally signifies "ideologies such aswahhabism".[18] According toMalise Ruthven, Islamic modernism suffered since its inception fromco-option of its original reformism by both secularist rulers and by "the officialulama" whose "task it is to legitimise" rulers' actions in religious terms.[19]
Examples of liberal movements within Islam areProgressive British Muslims (formed following the2005 London terrorist attacks, defunct by 2012),British Muslims for Secular Democracy (formed 2006), orMuslims for Progressive Values (formed 2007).[citation needed]
Eastern religions were not immediately affected by liberalism and Enlightenment philosophy, and have partly undertaken reform movements only after contact with Western philosophy in the 19th and 20th centuries.[citation needed] ThusHindu reform movements emerged in British India in the 19th century.[citation needed]Buddhist modernism (or "New Buddhism") arose in its Japanese form as a reaction to theMeiji Restoration, and was again transformed outside of Japan in the 20th century, notably giving rise to modernZen Buddhism.[20][21]
The termliberal religion has been used byUnitarian Christians,[5] as well asUnitarian Universalists,[22] to refer to their own brand of religious liberalism; the term has also been used by non-Unitarians, such asQuakers.[23]The Journal of Liberal Religion was published by the Unitarian Ministerial Union,Meadville Theological School, and Universalist Ministerial Association from 1939 to 1949, and was edited byJames Luther Adams, an influential Unitarian theologian.[24] Fifty years later, a new version of the journal was published in an online format from 1999 to 2009.[25]
The first of all the requisites in such a religion is that it shall be Liberal. Wemention this condition even before that of Truth, because a religion that is not liberal cannot be true. The devout and intelligent demand a liberal religion, a religion large, free, generous, comprehensive in its lessons, a religion expansive in its spirit, lofty in its views, and with a sweep of blessings as wide as the range of man's necessities and sins. This is what is meant by a Liberal Religion, or Liberal views of religion, or Liberal Christianity. ... Thoughtful, earnest, and devout minds now demand a liberal religion. Liberal in the honest, pure, and noble sense of that word. Not liberal in the sense of license, recklessness, or indifference; not in making a scoff of holy restraints and solemn mysteries. Not liberal as the worldling or the fool uses the word, for overthrowing all distinctions, and reducing life to a revel or a riot. ... Such a faith cannot afford to raise an issue with reason on a single point, so far as their road on the highway of truth will allow them to keep company together. When they part for faith to advance beyond reason, they must part in perfect harmony.
All theology of the liberal type involves at some point—and often involves throughout—the claim that the real behavior and purpose and teaching of Christ came very rapidly to be misunderstood and misrepresented by his followers, and has been recovered or exhumed only by modern scholars.(From an essay titled "Modern theology and biblical criticism" written in 1959.)
Islamic modernism was the first Muslim ideological response to the Western cultural challenge. Started in India and Egypt in the second part of the 19th century ... reflected in the work of a group of like-minded Muslim scholars, featuring a critical reexamination of the classical conceptions and methods of jurisprudence and a formulation of a new approach to Islamic theology and Quranic exegesis. This new approach, which was nothing short of an outright rebellion against Islamic orthodoxy, displayed astonishing compatibility with the ideas of the Enlightenment.
Salafism is, therefore, a modern phenomenon, being the desire of contemporary Muslims to rediscover what they see as the pure, original and authentic Islam, ... However, there is a difference between two profoundly different trends which sought inspiration from the concept of salafiyya. Indeed, between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, intellectuals such as Jamal Edin al-Afghani and Muhammad Abdu used salafiyya to mean a renovation of Islamic thought, with features that would today be described as rationalist, modernist and even progressive. This salafiyya movement is often known in the West as "Islamic modernism." However, the term salafism is today generally employed to signify ideologies such asWahhabism, thepuritanical ideology of the Kingdom ofSaudi Arabia.
Does liberal religion have a future? If we answer in the affirmative, can we begin to imagine the outlines of liberal religion in the next century? What will the Unitarian Universalist movement look like in the decade of the 2090s?Cf.Miller, Robert L'H. (Spring 1976). "The religious value system of Unitarian Universalists".Review of Religious Research.17 (3):189–208.doi:10.2307/3510610.JSTOR 3510610.
The repetition of the distinctive pattern in both higher and lower ranking of both terminal and instrumental values leads one to a firmer basis for sensing a distinctive Unitarian Universalist pattern of religiousness. It is, perhaps, more accurately defined as a pattern of liberal religion which further research may disclose is typical, for example, of such groups as Reform Judaism.
This is the first book of its kind and is intended to be the beginning, rather than the final word. It adds considerably to the study of Quakerism but also to the study of Liberal religion per se.And onIslam as liberal religion:Foody, Kathleen (October 2016). "Pedagogical projects: teaching liberal religion after 9/11".The Muslim World.106 (4):719–739.doi:10.1111/muwo.12167.
