The Liberal Programme

By Vincent Schmid

Translated by Jack McDonald

In Liberalism there is liberty. To my mind, this means an approach of spiritual and intellectual liberty much more than a specific set of doctrines. Freedom in faith makes room for the needs of the heart at the same time as giving rise to questioning and a thirst for understanding. This approach to faith belongs historically to Protestantism, even if it has now spread largely beyond Protestantism’s borders. Evangile et Liberté is nourished by this vein of thought, which we can characterise under these headings:

Liberals want to think their faith through by building bridges between religion and the world which surrounds religion. Our times are marked by a tangible decline in a sense of reason, which now has to capitulate before collective emotion, fundamentalism and identity-aggressions, whereas scientific development and technology have never made such spectacular progress as they now do. It has become necessary to think through what we believe to avoid sliding into schizophrenia and obscurantism.

Liberals support the separation of Church and State. Church-State separation is a historic victory as well as a deep wisdom, which owes something to the genius of Protestantism. No one has found a better way of facilitating the peaceful coexistence of those who believe in heaven and those who don’t. The need for Church-State separation lies not just on the State’s side but on the Church’s. The frame of mind of this separation should act as an inner critical tool to counter the temptation inherent in organised religion to trespass onto the State’s domain.

Liberals are robustly tolerant. The Gospel idea itself of God becoming human implies a wide variety of spiritual approaches. The signs today are all of the rise of absolutisms, and tensions run high. Tolerance passes for a weakness. But we call for a firm tolerance, strong in its own virtue and resistant to manipulation by others.

Liberals are concerned about the spiritual needs of their neighbours today. Each generation aspires to its own authentic expression of faith. We are experiencing changes today as far-reaching psychologically as those which occurred at the Renaissance, the period when the Protestant Reformers responded to the anguish of the humanity of their day. Today we need to have the same will to formulate spiritual responses to the anxieties of our contemporaries caught up in the whirlwind of change at every level. The true place for Church fathers and teachers is the street.

Liberals think that the Reformation is still happening. The Church is an instrument of service for spiritual life and for those who come to her. If the Church’s ways of being are no longer appropriate, we must reform them. We need to think change and put it into practice.

Evangile et Liberté has been a laboratory of ideas and experiences of open Christianity for a century. We hope that this continues for the next century!

Pour faire un don, suivez ce lien