Across families
Progressive Christianity and Reconstructionist Judaism
Different families with 10 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.13 (0 would be identical).
Keeps the practice, the story and the ethics while reading the metaphysics as metaphor. Scripture is human testimony rather than dictation, other paths are treated as genuinely valid, and the point of the whole thing is how you live now.
Judaism as an evolving civilisation rather than a revealed religion: God is reconceived as the process that makes for salvation, while practice is retained because it is how a civilisation lives. Non-supernatural and strongly peoplehood-centred at once.
Where they agree
C2 Shape of time
Both sit at one life, then judgment — a gap of 0.00.
B2 Reading of sacred text
Both sit at metaphorical, or no text at all — a gap of 0.02.
E1 Exclusivity
Both sit at many valid paths — a gap of 0.02.
A4 Locus
Both sit at leaning fully present within it and fully present within it respectively — a gap of 0.03.
D3 The body
Both sit at leaning to be celebrated — a gap of 0.04.
E4 Standing of nature
Both sit at leaning animate and itself sacred — a gap of 0.04.
A3 Plurality
Both sit at strictly one — a gap of 0.05.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at leaning reason and direct experience — a gap of 0.05.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound — a gap of 0.07.
B3 Institutional authority
Both sit at leaning individual conscience decides — a gap of 0.10.
Where they part company
E3 Locus of belonging
Progressive Christianity: leaning an individual choice. Reconstructionist Judaism: leaning a people, inherited. A gap of 0.58 on an axis running from “a people, inherited” to “an individual choice”.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Progressive Christianity | Reconstructionist Judaism | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | between nothing beyond the natural and a divine reality certainly exists | between nothing beyond the natural and a divine reality certainly exists | 0.20 |
| A2 Personhood | between impersonal principle or order and a personal being one can address | leaning impersonal principle or order | 0.30 |
| A3 Plurality | strictly one | strictly one | 0.05 |
| A4 Locus | leaning fully present within it | fully present within it | 0.03 |
| B1 Source of truth | leaning reason and direct experience | leaning reason and direct experience | 0.05 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | metaphorical, or no text at all | metaphorical, or no text at all | 0.02 |
| B3 Institutional authority | leaning individual conscience decides | leaning individual conscience decides | 0.10 |
| C1 Survival of the self | between ends at death and continues in some form | leaning ends at death | 0.17 |
| C2 Shape of time | one life, then judgment | one life, then judgment | 0.00 |
| C3 The human condition | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.07 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight | leaning achieved by effort or insight | 0.20 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | between essential and prescribed and optional or absent | leaning essential and prescribed | 0.22 |
| D3 The body | leaning to be celebrated | leaning to be celebrated | 0.04 |
| E1 Exclusivity | many valid paths | many valid paths | 0.02 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | between an intentional act and beginningless or natural | between an intentional act and beginningless or natural | 0.20 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | leaning an individual choice | leaning a people, inherited | 0.58 |
| E4 Standing of nature | leaning animate and itself sacred | leaning animate and itself sacred | 0.04 |
Positions for Progressive Christianity rest principally on Borg, Spong and the Center for Progressive Christianity’s Eight Points; for Reconstructionist Judaism, on Kaplan, Judaism as a Civilization (1934). Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.