Red Pill #3: Christianity & Liberalism

posted by Curious George

The third in our series of Red Pill Books is Christianity & Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen

Christianity & Liberalism is an attack on the liberal or modernist theology espoused by critics of the old Princeton theologians and other "Fundamentalists". This book argued, not only that theological liberalism was wrong, but that it was a different religion from Christianity. According to Machen, Christianity and liberalism were antithetically opposed in their concepts of doctrine, God and man, the Bible, Christ, salvation, and the church. The liberals taught that doctrine is secondary to experience, that God is father to all apart from redemption, that the Bible is a book of mere human testimonies, that Christ is merely a moral example, that salvation is to be found by following that example, and that the church should accept this liberal gospel as orthodox.

It should be noted that Machen's attack is upon "theological liberalism" in this book and does not make a direct attack upon modern "political liberalism" per se. For Machen, any charges leveled against political liberalism were only coincidential due to the fact that "theological liberalism" begat "political liberalism" and the "social gospel."

Despite his conservative theological beliefs, Machen was never able to fully embrace popularist fundamentalism either. Machen agreed with key elements of fundamentalism: the inerrancy of the Bible, Sola Scriptura, the virgin birth of Christ, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and the imminent return of Jesus Christ. However, Machen's scholarly work and ability to engage with modernist theology was at odds with Fundamentalism's anti-intellectual attitude.

On that point, the ability and importance to engage opposing viewpoints intellectually, is what makes this book of such importance to awaken conservatives from their comfortable unfreedom in today's society and their ability to be effective in resisting the attacks of liberals, both theological and political.