Well, I don't mean that Hall bought into the secular religion of Progress (with its technological trappings and medical sacraments): in fact, he's quite clear that these steps come at the cost of spiritual progress and will come back to bite us someday soon. Rather, I mean that he seems to believe in the notion of progress in the abstract, but he applies it to the spiritual destiny of mankind.

But as you note, I'm probably not in on the game—I think the whole notion of progress of any sort is as weird as the whole male body thing that the Greeks totally had going on. So it's a little difficult for me to grasp!