In an interesting essay by the Irish priest Paul O'Callaghan entitled "Challenges between faith and culture. Two blood brothers in the dynamics of modernity."(Rialp, 2023), includes a lucid chapter on the expansion of the notion of gratitude through an integration of conservatism and progressive liberalism. I will try to summarize the ideas that I found most relevant by using the word "progressive" instead of "liberal", as I believe it is better understood in the Hispanic context.
Modern culture is clearly marked by a choice between conservatism and progressivism. People are drawn in one direction or the other, but not both: two opposing cultural styles are offered that meet and clearly mark the kind of decisions people make, how they relate to each other and how they respond to ultimate questions. Which of the two best represents the profile of a Christian believer who tries to thank God for the gifts received or is it really possible and desirable to integrate them?
Conservatives
The designation of conservative and progressive is temperamental and personal. Some people want to hold on to what they have, to what has been handed down to them, to what comes from the past; they clearly prefer practical experience and wisdom. Perhaps they do so out of fear of losing what is good in exchange for acquiring what is promised to be better; or perhaps out of an attitude of recognition and gratitude for what is available to them through those who have gone before them.
Conservatives are generally a bit fearful of losing what they have, perhaps lazy, not always generous with their possessions, although they tend to be satisfied and pleased with life as it is, are often nostalgic, more realistic than idealistic, inclined to lead others to adjust their priorities "for their own good", attached to the predictable, accepting and defending the collective, the status quo, the way things are. As a result, they can be perceived as authoritarian and, at times, pessimistic. On the other hand, most of the time they humbly thank God for what they have received and express their gratitude by using the created world as it was made and not abusing it. In brief terms, we could say that the conservative is a person of faith.
Progressives
Others, however, are convinced that what has been handed down to them, what they have received from the past and from others, is imperfect or even decadent and needs to be renewed or changed, not just received with unconditional gratitude. They feel free, entitled and able to challenge the status quo. "By definition," says Maurice Cranston, "a liberal is a man who believes in freedom. They are convinced that change and progress are possible and necessary, whether in law, structures or established ways of doing things. They are substantially pro-rights, impatient with the rigid and static, often willing to discard what they have received from others, from the past. They are often averse to tradition and sometimes give the impression of being ungrateful.
The progressive impulse is motivated by a sincere and generous desire to improve things and overcome evil in society or by an improper lack of appreciation for what has been received from others in the past. They may be overconfident in their ideas and projects, more idealistic and theoretical than realistic, less prepared to listen and learn from the past, to rectify or correct their ideas or vision as necessary, to be dissatisfied with their own identity; they may be impatient, restless and agitated, easily willing to allow "others" to change them, more individualistic than collectivist. They want to change things, they live for the future, impatiently dreaming of "the new heavens and the new earth" spoken of in Revelation (21:1-4). The progressive fundamentally waits.
Speaking of conservatives, Roger Scruton observes that "their position is correct but boring; that of their detractors, exciting, but false." For this reason, conservatives may have a kind of "rhetorical disadvantage" and as a result "conservatism has suffered philosophical neglect." As historian Robert Conquest used to say, "one is always right-wing on the issues one knows first hand" or Matthew Arnold who criticized progressivism by stating that "liberty is an excellent horse to ride, but to ride somewhere."
Religion, conservatives and progressives
Although many believers regard religion as a liberalizing force, for the most part religions are generally regarded as "conservative" elements within society: they help people hold on to things, to reality. However, the idea that religion is conservative cannot be applied univocally to all religions, and certainly not to Christianity. That is why we can ask ourselves: is true Christianity conservative or progressive? Christianity concerns all aspects of human life and society. Christian anthropology is essentially integrative, as is Christian life and spirituality. The only thing that Christians reject and flatly exclude in man is sin, which separates them from God, from others, from the world and from themselves, destroying life in the broadest sense of the word.
Christianity, affirmative synthesis
Since Christianity excludes nothing substantial from the human composite - neither body nor spirit, neither freedom nor determination, neither sociability nor individuality, neither the temporal nor the eternal, neither the feminine nor the masculine - it would seem that both the "conservative" and the "progressive" aspects of individual human life and of society as a whole should be held simultaneously, if possible, in an affirmative and overcoming synthesis. A Christian can be either conservative or progressive by temperament, but his true Christian identity must have something of both.
As Methodist (progressive) pastor Adam Hamilton once said, "When people ask me, 'Are you conservative or progressive,' my answer is always the same: Yes. But which? Both! Without a progressive spirit we become dull and stagnant. Without a conservative spirit, we are unanchored and adrift." What hinders this integration is precisely the divisive presence of sin in the heart of man.
Christians are and must be conservative, in the sense that they receive God's gifts through the Church of Jesus Christ, make them their own and transmit them with generosity and creativity to those who succeed them. At the same time, they are and must be progressive, because Christian revelation affirms the reality and value of time as a space in which God acts and man responds freely and personally to his grace and word. Fundamental concepts are time, freedom and the untouchable and irreplaceable dignity of every human person who lives with and for other people. In addition, Christianity gives particular weight to conversion (in Greek "metanoia") which literally implies "going beyond death" and evokes the need to overcome one's own conviction and present situation.
Christianity was originally an enormous novelty in the personal lives of millions of men and women who broke with their personal failures and sins, with the Judaism of their time, with the common lifestyle in society, with idolatry, establishing a profoundly renewed vision of the dignity of all people, especially women and children, of the value of marriage and sexuality, a new liturgy, a new approach. A new beginning, a progress, a projection into the future, into eternity. The power of God injected into the lives of sinful men produced an amazing transformation and liberation in personal and social life; it released previously unknown energies among men; it launched them out into a life of meaningful and passionate work and evangelization. It did it before, it does it now; it will continue to do so until the Lord comes in his glory.
