By the time we arrive at progressive Christianity, many of us have already come to the conclusion that faith and thinking don’t mix. We have heard, loud and clear, if not always directly, that questions lead to weakening of belief, that doubt must be squashed, that faith should feel certain.
For some, faith became something fragile that had to be protected—from science, from new ideas, and sometimes, even from our own experience. The fifth core value of progressive Christianity challenges that narrative. It says, “Progressive Christians are open to seeking truth wherever it may be found, affirming that both the insights of science and the depths of spiritual wisdom are necessary to fully understand life and faith.”
It’s a promise to approach truth relationally. It is listening with both heart and mind, fully embracing the quest for truth that science provides and the spiritual wisdom that has been revealed to us over thousands of years.
It sounds simple. But for many of us, it is revolutionary.
Because when we commit to seeking truth with both heart and mind, we don’t have to sacrifice our brains to have faith. We can belong without hiding our questions. We can acknowledge evidence, scholarship, and our own experiences without losing our beliefs.
Progressive Christianity calls us into an understanding of faith that welcomes honest questions and inquiry as part of spiritual practice. It means trusting that we don’t have all the answers now, and that we can continue to discover truth. We enter into a posture of humility that reminds us that we see only partial glimpses of truth at a time.
It’s not about how sure we are about what we think we know. It’s about how wide we are willing to search. It’s about how truth-seeking reshapes every other part of this progressive journey.
It means we take science into consideration. Instead of letting fear toss out new discoveries as threats to our faith, we listen. We learn.
Truth-seeking also calls us to pay attention to history. To study and understand the context in which we find ourselves. It requires listening to the voices of people who have too often been silenced or marginalized in our churches and in our world.
When we seek truth, we understand that approaching scripture requires some thought. It’s not a flat set of instructions to live by. It is a record of hundreds of voices, writing through and about their own humanity.
It’s about showing up. Searching for truth with both heart and mind reminds us we were never meant to do this alone. It requires us to meet each other, to search in community, and to have difficult conversations with people who have different experiences than we do.
Listening becomes worship. Conversations become prayers and disagreements are not something to fear or despise. They become opportunities to understand more deeply.
In a world where claiming to have the truth is often used to draw battle lines in the sand and weaponize faith against others, progressive Christianity marches to a different beat.
Seeking truth with heart and mind keeps us from clinging too tightly to our own authority on a topic. It disrupts our impulse to assume we have all the answers. Instead, this core value invites us to lean into truth in a more honest, relational way.
It reminds us that being right is not what faith is about. Rather, it is about growing in love, seeking justice, and becoming more compassionate.
Seeking truth with both heart and mind isn’t always easy. It challenges us to let go of our need for things to be black-and-white so we can embrace the nuance of gray. It means sitting in the questions longer than we’re comfortable with. It means confessing that we’ve been wrong before and allowing ourselves to be changed.
Letting go of faith as a set of answers and embracing it as a way to fully engage with the world around us. That’s what it means to seek truth with heart and mind.
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Rev. Dr. Mark Sandlin is a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister who currently serves at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is the President and Co-Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org.