Progressive Literalism

Faith Beyond the Second Gate

Many progressive Christians believe they've moved beyond biblical literalism.
This book asks a harder question: Have we really?

In Progressive Literalism, Brad Jagger challenges one of the quietest and most persistent assumptions in modern progressive faith-the belief that once we've rejected fundamentalism, our work is done. With pastoral honesty and intellectual rigor, Jagger exposes how literalism doesn't disappear; it simply changes shape.

Progressive literalism shows up when we treat Moses as unquestionable history but dismiss Genesis as myth. When we quote the red letters as if they were transcripts. When we cling to comforting images of Jesus, the early church, or resurrection-not because they're historically certain, but because letting them go feels too dangerous.

This book is written for readers who have already walked through the first gate of deconstruction-and discovered that something still feels fragile.

Across ten bold, accessible chapters, Progressive Literalism explores:

• Why progressive Christians still cling to selective historicity

• How beloved biblical stories can quietly preserve injustice

• The danger of red-letter literalism

• The evolving understanding of Jesus and early Christianity

• How worship, theology, and certainty can become idols

• What faith looks like when it finally releases the need to be right

Drawing on biblical scholarship, historical criticism, psychology, and lived pastoral experience, Jagger does not tear faith down-he invites it to grow up.

This is not a book about abandoning Christianity.
It is a book about refusing to stop questioning too soon.

Progressive Literalism is for readers who are tired of fragile faith, allergic to easy answers, and still hungry for awe. It offers a vision of belief that is honest without being cynical, critical without being cold, and spiritual without being naïve.

If the first gate freed your mind,
the second may finally free your imagination.