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​Reimagining Christ for an Evolving World:
​
A Progressive Christian Vision

​by Austin Roberts

This vision of progressive Christianity is shaped by the insights of process theology and offered in the spirit of an ongoing conversation about what is true, good, and life-giving—for people and the planet alike. It began, for me, with a sense of loss and renewal. After the passing of theologian John B. Cobb Jr. in December 2024, two close friends and I decided to revisit his Christ in a Pluralistic Age together. What began as a reading group became something more: a space to engage Cobb’s vision deeply, and to give voice to a version of it shaped by my own questions, context, and commitments.

In this vision of faith, Jesus of Nazareth is not a supernatural exception to human nature but a profound example of what it means to be genuinely human: someone who responded, in a rare and powerful way, to the divine call present in every moment. This divine lure is a persistent invitation toward beauty, justice, peace, and compassion. It is not imposed from above by an omnipotent and coercive deity. Rather, it flows in and through the cosmos, drawing every element of the universe forward in a creative evolution toward greater complexity, the emergence of life, and the rise of consciousness. From subatomic particles to hydrogen and helium, then to heavier elements, molecules, DNA, living cells, ecosystems, and conscious organisms—this unfolding has occurred within conditions remarkably suited to the development of life and awareness, reflecting a cosmos shaped by the lure of the divine. Within the human story, this same lure beckons us toward the deeper flourishing of love and justice.

Any theology that takes science and contemporary knowledge seriously must also approach scripture with a critical, historically informed reading. The Bible is not approached as a perfect or unified revelation, but as a diverse collection of human texts, shaped by particular communities and cultures, seeking to make sense of the sacred. It offers insight, imagination, and moral vision, while also reflecting divergent perspectives: some texts portray a God of compassion, liberation, and care for the vulnerable; others depict divine violence, vengeance, and cruelty. These views cannot always be harmonized. Interpretation requires discernment—and in this vision, that means choosing to side with love, nonviolence, and the healing of the world. Drawing on historical criticism and progressive theologies, this approach treats scripture as a source of ongoing dialogue—inviting critical engagement in the search for meaning, moral insight, and ways of living that promote both human and planetary well-being.

Amid the diverse voices of scripture, the life of Jesus stands out as a compelling embodiment of love and nonviolence. Jesus thus incarnated the divine lure with startling clarity. Known in his own time as Yeshua, he was a Jewish teacher living under Roman occupation. His life was a radical enactment of compassion, crossing boundaries of gender, class, and belonging through solidarity with the marginalized and love extended even to adversaries. He recentered faith in widening inclusion rather than exclusionary purity and committed himself to nonviolence. In this way, he gave form to a messianic (or “christic”) vision—not of domination or supernatural rescue, as imagined by imperial or otherworldly theologies, but of collective emergence: a world transformed by love through relational power. The title “Christ” does not refer to exclusive divinity but, in this context, to a life that uniquely expressed the unfolding work of divine incarnation: love made flesh in relational life. The pattern he revealed was not confined to his life alone; it points to a wider, ongoing process of divine transformation throughout the cosmos, what Christian tradition has called the cosmic Christ.

In this cosmic vision, ‘Christ’ becomes a sacred nickname for a mystery that unsettles and exceeds all human attempts to capture or contain it: the divine becoming manifest wherever greater beauty and flourishing emerge. Within human life, this divine creativity finds expression in acts of love, justice, and compassion. Other traditions recognize and respond to ultimate reality in different ways—naming it, for example, as the Great Spirit, Saguna Brahman, Waheguru, or Shekinah—sometimes converging with this christic sense of divinity, sometimes disclosing other dimensions of the sacred. This vision of Christ invites dialogue, collaboration, and shared commitment to the common good for both people and the planet. It honors the hopes for justice and peace found across many religious and indigenous traditions and draws wisdom from secular humanists who seek dignity and compassion beyond religious frameworks. It stands alongside all who work for justice, compassion, and the flourishing of life, whatever path they follow. Together, these varied hopes point toward a world more fully transformed by love.

While this cosmic process of divine transformation is glimpsed in many lives and traditions, it found a powerful expression in the life of Jesus, whose radical embodiment of love brought him into conflict with the forces that shaped his world. In a society built on exclusion and control, his solidarity with the oppressed could not go unopposed. The cost of this way of love led inexorably to the cross.

The cross, then, is not interpreted as a cosmic transaction or a demand for blood. It symbolizes the tragic collision between the way of divine love and the powers of human sin—systems of domination built on empire, religious hypocrisy, patriarchy, and violence. Jesus did not die for human sins in the sense of substitutionary sacrifice; he died because of the sins embodied in the very structures he challenged—systems that rely on exclusion and injustice to maintain power. In this vision, the cross becomes part of the work of healing and liberation by exposing the wounds of a fractured world and revealing the divine refusal to answer violence with violence. It bears witness both to the cost of radical love in a fractured world and to the enduring call into a way of life shaped by compassion, justice, and peace.

As a poor Jewish peasant, Jesus stood in deep solidarity with the marginalized—the poor, the imprisoned, the displaced, the refugee, and the excluded. His crucifixion does not reveal divine absence but rather divine presence among those who suffer. For people wounded by injustice, the cross becomes a sign of solidarity—a divine protest against systems that deny creaturely dignity. It serves as both mirror and sign: a mirror reflecting the violence that courses through our world, and a sign that the divine stands uniquely with the broken and cast aside—with the cross bearers, not the cross builders.

Yet the cross does not end the story. In this vision, the resurrection is not a supernatural confirmation of Jesus’ divinity, but an affirmation that the way of love he embodied endures—even in the face of death, rejection, and apparent failure. Whether understood as a historical event or a profound spiritual truth conveyed through story and symbol, the resurrection proclaims that violence cannot ultimately extinguish compassion, nor death overcome the unfolding of divine transformation. It bears witness to the same creative movement named earlier as the cosmic Christ—a process calling all creation toward beauty and all people toward compassion. While many Christians have envisioned a literal earthly return of Jesus to set things right, this vision reimagines that hope—not as a once-and-for-all second coming from a heavenly beyond, but as the endless becoming of the cosmic Christ within the world. Christ comes again and again—wherever love is embodied, injustice is challenged, and life is renewed through the interplay of divine incarnation and human response.

While the resurrection points first to the enduring power of love and transformation in this life, it also opens, for many progressive Christians, a hope that death is not the end of the story. In this vision, the life of each creature is not ended by death, but enfolded, remembered, and renewed within the divine life. Though mystery remains, this hope rests in the trust that every life and every experience is drawn into the enduring memory and love of God. For those who have lived far from the way of love, the experience of being gathered into divine life may at first be one of grief or estrangement; yet even this is held within a hope that healing and deeper communion remain possible within the life of God. Resurrection hope, then, embraces both the healing of this world and, for many, the trust that our lives are never lost to God.

Within this perspective, what tradition calls sin is not inherited guilt, but the condition of disconnection and disharmony into which every life is born—a world already shaped by suffering, inequality, violence, and alienation. Sin is not merely a personal failing, but participation in patterns of harm that stretch beyond any single life. In this sense, sin is not something to be punished, but a wound to be healed. Grace, then, is the gift of possibility: the divine insistence that something new can emerge, even in the most wounded places. It is the ever-present invitation within each life and relationship, calling forth healing, liberation, and ever-unfolding transformation. Grace does not erase the world’s wounds but works within them—opening unanticipated paths and drawing each being toward greater wholeness and deeper life. To live within grace is to live in creative partnership with the divine, trusting that even amid the world’s disconnection and disharmony, the perhaps of healing and renewal remains possible.

To follow the way of Jesus, then, is not to subscribe to a set of doctrines but to walk a path—one that seeks to love boldly, resist injustice, cultivate peace, and contribute to the healing of the world. This includes standing with all who are marginalized or excluded because of their race, gender, sexuality, or identity. In a time of ecological crisis, it also calls for the urgent work of climate justice and care for creation—a work that echoes Jesus’ vision of a “commonwealth of God,” where love, justice, and renewal shape not just human communities, but the life of the earth itself. The focus, then, is not on escaping the world but on participating in its healing and transformation.
 
 
Austin Roberts holds a PhD in theological and philosophical studies in religion. He teaches philosophy and environmental ethics at College of the Redwoods, and religious studies at Cal Poly Humboldt in Northern California. Rooted in process thought, his work explores the intersections of spirituality, ecology, and social transformation. He lives in Humboldt County, where the redwoods meet the Pacific.
 
Further Reading:

For those interested in exploring these ideas more deeply, the following books are recommended.
 
Core Theology and Vision:
​

• Marcus Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time
  An influential look at Jesus as a spirit-filled prophet of compassion and justice.
• Catherine Keller, On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process
  A poetic and profound introduction to relational, process-based theology.
• John B. Cobb Jr., Christ in a Pluralistic Age
  A groundbreaking rethinking of Christ as the cosmic lure toward transformation.
• Marjorie Suchocki, God, Christ, Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology
  An accessible and inspiring introduction to process-relational theology.
• Philip Clayton, The Predicament of Belief: Science, Philosophy, and Faith
  A defense of a rational, evolving faith in a scientific and pluralistic world.
• John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus' Final Days in Jerusalem
  A historical and theological exploration of Jesus’ final days, his confrontation with power, and the meaning of the cross.
• Thomas Jay Oord, The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence
  A vision of divine power as persuasive love rather than coercive control.

 
Wider Echoes of This Vision:

• Rosemary Radford Ruether, Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing
  A profound ecotheology linking environmental justice to faith.
• Brian McLaren, Do I Stay Christian?
  A courageous exploration of why many continue the journey of faith today.
• Monica A. Coleman, Making a Way Out of No Way: A Womanist Theology
  A powerful vision of divine relationality and resilience through the lived experiences of suffering, healing, and hope.
• James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree
  A searing reflection on the cross as God's solidarity with the oppressed and a call to justice.
• Elizabeth A. Johnson, Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God
  A compelling vision of a living, relational God emerging through liberation, feminist, ecological, and interreligious theologies.
• Jay McDaniel, Of God and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life
  A process-inspired vision of the sacredness of all life and the call to ecological compassion.
• Tripp Fuller, Divine Self-Investment: An Open and Relational Christology: A process-based exploration of Christ as God's self-giving love in history.
• Joerg Rieger and Kwok Pui-lan, Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude
  A bold call to reclaim faith as a force for justice and community transformation.
• John J. Thatamanil, Circling the Elephant: A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity A profound invitation to embrace the diversity of religious traditions as different windows onto ultimate reality.
• Walter Wink, The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium
  A profound rethinking of how systemic powers can be engaged and transformed through nonviolent resistance grounded in divine love and justice.
• John D. Caputo, What to Believe? Twelve Brief Lessons in Radical Theology
  A bold reimagining of faith where God is not a being, but the event of love and justice.