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'''Liberal Christianity''' or '''[[Modernism]]''' refers to a movement within American Protestant denominations to stress the social role of Christianity, as in the [[Social Gospel]] of the early 20th century. It stressed a basic continuity between man and God--stressing the imminance of God rather than the transcendance. It saw mankind as inherently perfectable, and called on Christians to speed up that perfection by rooting out social evils and immorality, such as drunkenness and abject poverty. It saw religious knowledge emerging from research and the use of reason. Thaus the liberal emphasis is on religion as a personal relationship with Christ, rather than a set of orthodox theological beliefs. The spirit of the Bible mattered greatly, but not the specific wording. The approach dominated most Protestant denominations until it was challenged by [[Neo Orthodoxy]] and [[Fundamentalism]] after 1940.

'''Liberal Christianity''' or '''[[Modernism]]''' refers to a movement within American Protestant denominations to stress the social role of Christianity, as in the [[Social Gospel]] of the early 20th century. It stresses a basic continuity between man and God, emphasizing the immanence of God rather than His transcendence. It sees mankind as inherently perfectable, and calls on Christians to hasten that perfection by rooting out social evils and immorality, such as drunkenness and abject poverty, rather than primarily working for the conversion of the lost. It sees religious knowledge emerging from research and the use of reason. Thus the liberal emphasis is on religion as a personal relationship with God, but largely free from a Biblical doctrinal basis, in contrast to such resulting from faith in the Biblically substantiated gospel of grace, in conformity with orthodox theological beliefs. In liberal Christianity the spirit of the Bible is emphasized, but in such a way that its specific wording can be ignored or negated. Rather than the Bible being wholly inspired by God, it is seen as the work of numerous editorial redactors<ref>The 'Documentary Source Hypothesis' http://www.ukapologetics.net/docu.htm</ref> - [[homophobic]] ones in cases where pro-homosexual writers wish to see homoeroticism positively portrayed between Bible characters. This approach dominated most Protestant denominations in the early 1900's, and was challenged by [[Neo Orthodoxy]] and [[Fundamentalism]] after 1940. It yet prevails today among most mainline denominations.<ref>http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/RevealingStatistics.html#Sec4</ref> Two issues usually indicative of liberal denominations are abortion and homosexuality. {{Main|Homosexuality and Christianity}} 

===Origins of liberal Christianity===

===Origins of liberal Christianity===