\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>As
\na result, I’ve spent the better part of 2009 in mainline churches and with
\nprogressive Christian groups talking about history and why history is important
\nto both our spiritual lives and to enacting social justice.<\/p>\nAnd I’ve listened to many mainline Christians share their
\nreticence about engaging history, thinking about tradition, and the stories of our saints.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOf all Christians, liberal and progressive ones have the
\nmost awkward relationship with history and tradition.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>After all, liberal Christianity developed from “modernism,” a way of
\nlooking at the world that privileged new ideas, philosophies, and sciences as
\npart of God’s revelation in human culture.\u00a0 <\/span>Modernists broke with tradition. \u00a0They looked to the human past and saw much
\nwanting–superstition, violence, and repression–and willingly abandoned that
\npast, especially the religious past, in favor of reason and enlightenment.\u00a0 <\/span>In the nineteenth century, many
\nChristians accepted modernism and worked to adapt their faith to the new
\nintellectual climate.\u00a0 <\/span>At its
\nbirth, progressive religion was the offspring of a certain sort of historical
\nambiguity.\u00a0 <\/span>In the last two
\ncenturies, western Christians willingly shattered memory because the past was
\ntoo painful, too oppressive, and too morbid for modern sensibilities of
\ntolerance and equality.\u00a0 <\/span>Better
\nforget than remember.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe other reason that progressive Christians don’t engage
\nhistory as eagerly as more conservative ones is that progressives are more
\ncritical and less given to hagiography.\u00a0
\n<\/span>Indeed, progressive Christians actually look for flaws in their “saints”
\n(I once heard William Sloan Coffin make this point) instead of celebrating the
\ncontributions of the wise leaders in their community.\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, we will often dismiss the insights of an otherwise good
\nleader or role model by whispering, “Well, did you know that he wasn’t very
\nopen about women?” or “She was really a racist…” Over the years, we’ve
\ndeveloped a bad habit of undermining the wisdom of the past on the basis of
\ncontemporary attitudes–thus displaying a spiritually unpleasant lack of historical
\nhumility.\u00a0 <\/span>Not a nice trait in
\npeople who claim to believe in human goodness.<\/p>\nOn this All Saints Day, I’d like to call progressives back
\nto history for two important reasons:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFirst, progressive faith takes new ideas seriously and we
\ntry to bring the best of contemporary thought into our theology and congregations.\u00a0 <\/span>That’s who we are and we will always
\nbe.\u00a0 <\/span>But–and this is
\nimportant–western societies no longer suffer from too much history.\u00a0 <\/span>We are suffering from too little
\nhistory.\u00a0 <\/span>Two hundred years ago, it
\nwas a very good idea to step away from the past’s darkness.\u00a0 <\/span>Today, however, most people suffer from
\nspiritual amnesia–that we have no idea what our history is, and have little
\nidea who we are because we are disconnected from that past.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Younger generations of seekers
\nare yearning to find their story–and to experience meaning that comes through
\nbelonging to a community that remembers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSecond, one needn’t engage in uncritical ancestor worship in
\norder to celebrate our past.\u00a0
\n<\/span>Hagiography is one thing; a realistic view of history is another.\u00a0 <\/span>In our quest for realism, we’ve
\nforgotten that people may do good as well as evil.\u00a0 <\/span>Every great leader in the history of Christianity had
\nflaws–some had seriously misguided ideas and violent prejudices.\u00a0 <\/span>Our ancestors were both saints and were
\nprofoundly human at the same time. \u00a0<\/span>To use the language of prayer, they did things they “ought
\nnot to have done.”\u00a0 <\/span>They were, as
\nwe are, men and women of their own times–even sparkling insights of the divine
\nwere mixed with their own personal sins and the sins of their own cultures. We
\nneed to engage a practice of historical generosity when studying the past.\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed, one day, we too will be held
\naccountable for what our great-great-grand children deem hypocritical, stupid,
\nor wrong.\u00a0 <\/span>We hope they might be
\nkind to us; we hope they will understand that we were doing our best.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nA few months ago, I heard Jon Meacham explain why he’d
\nwritten about Andrew Jackson–a flawed historical character if ever there was
\none.\u00a0 <\/span>Meacham explained, “History
\nis to a country what memory is to an individual.”\u00a0 <\/span>Indeed.\u00a0 <\/span>History
\nis to a religious movement, a tradition, a denomination, a church what memory
\nis to an individual.\u00a0 <\/span>Loss of
\nmemory isn’t funny.\u00a0 <\/span>Loss of memory
\ncan be fatal.\u00a0 <\/span>Progressive
\nChristians have much to celebrate about the past.\u00a0\u00a0We have much to learn from history. \u00a0<\/span>And we have much to reclaim.\u00a0\u00a0Progressive faith is a great Christian tradition–and we have many great saints. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThis All Saints Day, remember. \u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve often wondered why progressive Christians don’t typically celebrate All Saints Day on November 1 with more enthusiasm.\u00a0 It is, next to Christmas and Easter, my favorite church holy day–I eagerly await reading the texts of our Christian ancestors and the communal singing, “For All the Saints,” in my Episcopal church. Earlier this year, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians"],"yoast_head":"\n
All Saints Day: A Progressive Call to Remember - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/10\/all-saints-day-a-progressive-c.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"All Saints Day: A Progressive Call to Remember - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve often wondered why progressive Christians don’t typically celebrate All Saints Day on November 1 with more enthusiasm.\u00a0 It is, next to Christmas and Easter, my favorite church holy day–I eagerly await reading the texts of our Christian ancestors and the communal singing, “For All the Saints,” in my Episcopal church. Earlier this year, I…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/10\/all-saints-day-a-progressive-c.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-30T15:56:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Diana Butler Bass\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"All Saints Day: A Progressive Call to Remember - Progressive Revival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/10\/all-saints-day-a-progressive-c.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"All Saints Day: A Progressive Call to Remember - Progressive Revival","og_description":"I’ve often wondered why progressive Christians don’t typically celebrate All Saints Day on November 1 with more enthusiasm.\u00a0 It is, next to Christmas and Easter, my favorite church holy day–I eagerly await reading the texts of our Christian ancestors and the communal singing, “For All the Saints,” in my Episcopal church. Earlier this year, I…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/10\/all-saints-day-a-progressive-c.html","og_site_name":"Progressive Revival","article_published_time":"2009-10-30T15:56:23+00:00","author":"Diana Butler Bass","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/10\/all-saints-day-a-progressive-c.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/10\/all-saints-day-a-progressive-c.html","name":"All Saints Day: A Progressive Call to Remember - Progressive Revival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-10-30T15:56:23+00:00","dateModified":"2009-10-30T15:56:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/af0e5483b7a3dbedba88a766dea6dbe2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/10\/all-saints-day-a-progressive-c.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/10\/all-saints-day-a-progressive-c.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/10\/all-saints-day-a-progressive-c.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"All Saints Day: A Progressive Call to Remember"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/","name":"Progressive Revival","description":"Politics from the New Religious Progressives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/af0e5483b7a3dbedba88a766dea6dbe2","name":"Diana Butler Bass","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/be3\/be314a8e22e069cf178a04394ae14af2x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/be3\/be314a8e22e069cf178a04394ae14af2x96.jpg","caption":"Diana Butler Bass"},"description":"Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of seven books including A People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History of Christianity: the Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009) Her best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us (2006) was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christian Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She regularly comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. From 1995-2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality\u00e2\u20ac\u201da project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Diana also serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society. Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/dbbass"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}