Progressive Faith and Practice

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel has said that there is a new commandment: Thou shalt not stand idly by. This book articulates a progressive faith that represents a true marriage of the academic work of the modern biblical critical movement and the historical Jesus work of the Jesus Seminar applied within the life of an active parish. Setting aside the magic and superstition found in much of traditional religious life and affirming an evidence-based approach to faith, author Roger Ray strives to apply Wiesel's injunction to actively respond to the injustice, violence, and discrimination in the world. In concrete terms, Ray describes what progressives can embrace intellectually and morally, and how those convictions can be lived out in a faith community.

Roger Ray wants to build a Christianity based neither on the magic and superstition of our ancient world nor on the creeds and liturgies that reflect an intellectual framework that no longer exists. This book is both his manifesto as to why that is urgent and a blueprint to guide its creation.
--John Shelby Spong. author of The Fourth Gospel

Progressive Faith and Practice delivers a vital theological foundation to Christians for whom social justice is central. Roger Ray uses sound scholarship in his critique of status quo manipulations of biblical texts and church tradition and provides credible and accessible exegeses that negotiate historical, philological, and theological disputes. Ray's work gives the progressive Christian the resolute missive that has been lacking: a coherent, scholarly yet accessible theology upon which to build a vibrantly relevant new Christianity.
--Teresa Hornsby, author of Sex Texts from the Bible


Roger Ray is a progressive pastor of the Community Christian Church (www.spfccc.org) in Springfield, MO, where he also teaches college courses in philosophy and world religions. His sermons are among the most popularly downloaded progressive messages on YouTube (CCCSpringfield) and iTunes (Progressive Faith Sermons).