“The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity" by Michael J. Kruger
There is something so wonderful about a book small enough to start and finish in one sitting and dense enough to leave you mulling over the ideas for days, weeks and months. Michael Kruger’s latest book out of Cruciform Press, The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity, is exactly that.
In fifty short pages Kruger sums and responds to the major premises of modern liberal Christianity, as they are laid out in Philip Gulley’s book If the Church Were Christian: Rediscovering the Values of Jesus. Relying heavily on J. Gresham Maschen’s classic work, Christianity and Liberalism, Kruger masterfully breaks down Gulley’s ten main principles, recognizing both the slivers of truth in them and the many reasons why they fail to give life and succeed at distorting the Gospel.
In an increasingly liberal/progressive Christian culture, this is a much needed book. The church needs people like Kruger who are willing to be a voice in the wilderness; willing to stand up to liberal claims and to intelligently explain to the church why they just don’t work.
A lot of the tenets of liberal Christianity initially seem very appealing. The gentle, clever and seemingly unconfrontational language they are often cloaked in makes them appear to be the very things Jesus would be about. It is not until you slow down and begin to examine each one through a biblical lens that you start to realize how unbiblical, unloving, and ultimately destructive the tenets are. That slowing down and examining is what Kruger has done here. He has done the hard work for us, and then has packaged it into the simplest and most accessible form possible: a fifty-page book that requires no prior expertise to grasp what is being written
This is a brilliant book. An informing book. A transforming book.
The size, the price and the content makes this one a must-read for every Christian living in the midst of an increasingly liberal Christianity.
Do yourself a favour.