'A neglected minor classic of modern English theology [is] D. R. Davies' On to Orthodoxy, the personal reflections of a disillusioned liberal.

The idea that Christianity is basically a religion of moral improvement... has its roots in the liberal Protestantism of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century... It is this stereotype which continues to have influence today... But then came the First World War... What had gone wrong was that the idea of sin had been abandoned by liberal Christianity as some kind of unnecessary hangover from an earlier and less enlightened period in Christian history.' Alister McGrath, Bridge-Building: Effective Christian Apologetics, IVP, 1992,  pp. 102-3.

'There has been a widespread collapse of confidence in the Enlightenment's trust in the power of reason to provide foundations for a universally valid knowledge of the world, including God... Evangelicalism has [thus] suddenly found itself with an unexpected advantage over its rivals... As study after study demonstrates, evangelicalism is drawing people - especially young people - away from mainline churches... Evangelicalism owes its successes partly to the failures and irresponsibility of the dominent liberal trends in Western Christianity since the Second World War... For example... liberalism has managed to gain control of most of the seminaries and bureaucracies of the mainline Protestant churches in North America. Many of those now in positions of leadership in such denominations gained their theological education during the 1960s and 1970s, when theological liberalism was at its zenith... They have failed to realize that liberalism is losing its academic appeal; through their involvement with the bureaucracy, rather than pastoral work, they seem to have been shielded from the realization that liberalism has depressingly little to say which can console the world in its grief, or challenge it in its apathy.' Alister McGrath, Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity, H&S, 1993, pp. 186-7

'In 1873 Moody floated in [to Scotland] from America and had the greatest success of his life when Scots responded to his preaching of God's love for all; this had probably been the actual faith of the Scottish churches for decades before they realized that it was so. The theological formularies had to make way for this development. The United Presbyterians were embarrassed by having to try ministers for rejecting election as set forth in the Westminster Confession when nobody actually believed it any more.' Gavin White, How the Churches Got to Be the Way They Are, SCM, 1990, p.44.

'Conservative theology, however rational it may be in its method, tends to _deduce_ from the tradition. Liberal theology, however much it may emphasize the necessity of faith, tends to _induce_ from generally accessible experience... The problem of making faith plausible is not new. It was Augustine who formulated it with the sharpest accuracy when he said: 'Nullus quippe credit aliquid, nisi prius cogitaverit esse credendum' - 'No one, indeed, believes anything, unless he previously knows it to be believable.' Peter Berger, A Rumor of Angels, Anchor Books, 1970, pp. 76-77.

'Notice how Jesus [in the "Sermon on the Mount", especially Matthew 5:17-20] now leads into his teaching on the Law: "I have not come to abolish the Law" (Cool it, liberals!); the Law will not disappear "until its purpose is achieved" (Beware, mindless legalists!); "Your virtue must go deeper than the scribes and Pharisees or you will never enter the kingdom" (it's about Kingdom values and depth, not just external behavior.)' Richard Rohr, Jesus' Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1996, p. 147. 

'In 1960, [Karl] Barth was asked to provide some comments on the future of "liberal theology", a term which was to exclude existentialist theology, but to cover virtually all the rest of theology apart from that branch which Barth himself represented... The average liberal theologian, Barth remarked, is like a man entering a boat a hundred yards or so above the falls of the Rhine and finding himself drifting past the point of no return. [But] Barth's insight into the majesty of God and his emphasis on the Word of God could, and unfortunately did, degenerate into a kind of theological triumphalism.' John Bowden, Karl Barth, SCM Press, 1971, p. 106. 

'The prominence of Bible-onlyism, at the expense of well-articulated theology, meant that when new conditions arose [in the twentieth century] there was little ground from which to reason. Evangelicals throughout the nineteenth century had not worked very self-consciously at thinking about the best ways, consistent with the Bible itself, to push thinking from Scripture to modern situations and back again... As a result the Christian cause suffered. The effective evangelism and moral fervor of an earlier age had not been matched by comparable Christian attention to the mind. A theological liberalism emerged that had little concern for human sinfulness, God's grace, or the supernatural work of Christ.' Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Eerdmans, 1994, p. 107.

'Those who are theologically liberal tend to be too soft on doubt, lionizing such notions as _ambiguity_ and _uncertainty_. This spiritual permissiveness becomes a slipway to unbelief. On the other hand, those who are theologically conservative tend to be too hard on doubt, demonizing the dire consequences of unresolved doubt and verging on a spiritual perfectionism that leaves doubters in such a state of guilt or despair they dare not acknowledge their doubts to others or even to themselves.' Os Guinness, 'I Believe in Doubt' in R.C.Sproul (ed.) Doubt and Assurance, Baker, 1993, pp. 31-2.

'What is meant by "liberal" theology? If it means only that the theologian to whom the adjective is applied has an openness to other points of view, then liberal theologians are found in all schools of thought. But if "liberal" becomes itself a party label, then it usually turns out to be extremely illiberal.' John Macquarrie, Jesus Christ in Modern Thought, SCM Press, 1990, p. 253.

'The Jesus of the school of critics represented today by Harnack and Bousset was... of his time. He believed in miracles, in diabolic possession; above all he believed in the imminent end of the world... The Christ that Harnack sees, looking back through nineteen centuries of Catholic darkness, is only the reflection of a Liberal Protestant face, seen at the bottom of a deep well.' George Tyrrell, Christianity at the Crossroads, Longmans Green, 1909, pp. 46-49.

'It is often said that the uncertain happenings of history cannot lead to faith. No, but they can destroy it; history is the great destroyer of myths. If it could be shown, as clear historical evidence, that the bones of Jesus of Nazareth had mouldered away in a Palestinian grave like the bones of anyone else, I would cease to be a worshipping Christian. I would still regard the Gospels as the best news ever brought to man, and Jesus as our one hope in a wintry sea, his teaching as our guide in the way in which we ought to live, his example as the inspiration to effort and to self-sacrifice. But I could not proclaim a victory which is some eschatological event to be proclaimed in some distant day at the end of time. I could not partake in a Holy Communion which was simply the commemoration of a long-departed friend. I could not pretend that a fortuitous collection of individuals is the body of Christ. As to the "how", I still maintain a reverent uncertainty; as to the "that", I can no longer feel any manner of doubt.' Bishop Stephen Neill, God's Apprentice: an Autobiography, H&S, 1991, pp. 66-7.

'One day I was having lunch with two students who were talking about whatever they were talking about - the weather, the movies - when without warning one of them asked the other as naturally as he would have asked the time of day what God was doing in his life. If there is anything in this world I believe, it is that God is indeed doing all kinds of things in the lives of all of us including those who do not believe in God, and would have nothing to do with him if they did, but in the part of the East where I live, if anybody were to ask a question like that, even among religious people, the sky would fall, the walls would cave in, the grass would wither. I think the very air would stop my mouth if I opened it to speak such words among just about any group of people I can think of in the East because their faith itself, if they happen to have any, is one of the secrets that they have kept so long that it might almost as well not exist. The result was that to find myself at Wheaton among people who, although they spoke about it in different words from mine and expressed it in their lives differently, not only believed in Christ and his Kingdom more or less as I did but were also not ashamed or embarrassed to say so was like finding something which, only when I tasted it, I realized I had been starving for for years.' Frederick Buechner, Telling Secrets: A Memoir, HarperSanFrancisco, 1991, pp. 81-2.