ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the obscure remarks by calling attention to the title of John Cobb's paper, "The Christian Reason for Being Progressive”. Cobb starts with the confession that he really is deeply conservative, since he belongs to a community that faithfully shapes its life according to norms derived from ancient events. This is not to deny that Cobb is right in presuming that most Christians, whether conservative or liberal theologically, assume that they ought to be on the side of a history that favors such social systems. Forgotten in that presumption is the Christian practice of singleness as the necessary form of the church's eschatological convictions. Thus Cobb celebrates the development of "modern democracy, human rights, science, technology, and historical consciousness and criticism", even while acknowledging their ambiguity. Cobb would like to reject the economic character of modernity while preserving its cultural, theological, and political character.
