Faith in Progress vs. "Just like Jesus"

One of the books that blew my mind wide open, haunting me, popping into my brain during the most unexpected of conversations is the book "Capitalism and Progress: a Diagnosis of Western Society by Bob Goudzwaard. It is a book I read during school, so don't think that I read Adam Smith, or Ayn Rand, or Pascal just for fun or so that I can be pretentious. No, I had to read it, but I'm glad I did.

Its main tenant is that throughout history society has believed in different things. These things have been as various as fertility gods, emperors, queens, nobles, holy men, ideals like socialism, religion, psychology, even nihilism. It seems that people been to believe in something.

Goudzwaard makes a compelling case that our current social faith is placed upon the the idea of progress, and that this belief in progress can rightly be called religious.

"These motives can be described as religious because they embrace hope for the future, faith in God or man, and love for self or others. From this depth level we have always received, and still receive today, the impulse to think, to live, to work, and thus to contribute to the ongoing construction and reconstruction of that gigantic coral reef which is called western society."


If then, western society in general has a faith in progress in the same way a Christian believes in Christ, that is, as the underlying principles guiding every aspect of life, where does this belief evidence itself? The answer is everywhere. Television commercials tell us that our skin can always get smoother. Politicians convince us that we can always live in a better tomorrow. Economist believe in an ever-improving economy. I'll let you find more examples of this yourself, perhaps in your own life.

Which is all a set up to ask this question, "How much does this idea of infinite progress influence the way the church presents the message of Christ?" I have been thinking about this ever since I read two books that blew my mind even wider open, both my Mr. Fred Rogers. That's right, the same Fred Rogers who hosted Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. His books, while being accessible and short, I would feel place alongside the most terse of systematic theology textbooks. He has the same message that he always had, "You are enough, just the way you are. You are worthy of love, right now, just as your are."

These books were such a healing balm to me because I had been living in a world where the dominate religious communities have intertwined a faith in Christ with a faith in progress. Churches call believers to become more like Jesus, which on the surface seems like a good thing. But we should pause a moment when our faith fits too neatly alongside the dominate faith of the surrounding culture.

Does Jesus really want to improve me? I'm not so sure, and if he does, I'm not so sure I'm not confusing my faith in Jesus with my faith in progress.

Our faith in progress is slick, tricky, and so subtle that it is often undetectable. Despite what we are told, there are limits to human growth, consumption, self-actualization, intelligence, and economic growth, even if I don't know what they are.

I derive some unique comfort knowing that there may also be limits to just how much "like Jesus" I can be. Maybe I'm just as like Jesus as I'm ever going to be, and maybe He's just fine with that.