Living the Questions (LtQ) is a “DVD and web-based curriculum" designed to help people evaluate the relevance of Christianity in the 21st century, especially from a progressive Christian perspective.[1]
Overview
LtQ was co-created in the US by the ArizonanUnited Methodist ministers Jeff Procter-Murphy and David Felten[2][3] as part of the larger movement of Progressive Christianity. It is distributed online and through several denominational publishing divisions.
As of 2023[update] the LtQ curriculum is in use in nearly 8000 churches across North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.[4]
Living the Questions Session at St. Luke's Anglican, North London
Curriculum
The curriculum was original developed for use at Asbury United Methodist and Via de Cristo United Methodist in Arizona. It started out as one DVD series and is now a growing catalogue of curriculum. Units include;
Living the Questions 2.0: An Introduction to Progressive Christianity
DreamThinkBeDo (a remix of LtQ's other work intended for young adults[5])
LtQ does not offer a systematic theology, but is rather a thematic overview developed from questions raised in local parishes.[1] LtQ seeks to expose lay people to the complex theological questions and perspectives that are taught in seminaries, but that often don't “trickle down” into the local churches.
Reception
Reviewers have called LtQ both “enlightening and inspiring” [6] and “fascinating”, stating that the series raises questions many have “thought about but have been afraid to ask, and topics they know are important but don't hear mentioned in church”.[7]
In her book, Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass notes that both the LtQ program and its methodology were part of the success of one of her subject churches, Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, California.[8]
In Big Christianity: What's Right with the Religious Left, author Jan G. Linn wrote: “Living the Questions is a welcomed … alternative to literalism that has promise in helping Christians find the biblical grounding for Bigger Christianity".
The US liberal church magazine The Christian Century criticized the original 12-session version of LtQ for taking a fundamentalist-like position, “close to a mirror image” of “fundamentalists”.[9]
Book
Based on the LtQ curriculum and written by the series creators, the book Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity was released by HarperOne (an imprint of HarperCollins) in August 2012.[10]
Contributors
All of the following contributors appear in "Living the Questions 2.0"; some appear in other curricula in the LtQ catalog;
^Bass, Diana Butler, Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. San Francisco, Harper Collins Publishers, 2006, pg 282.
