religion and spirituality

I have a lot of respect for Brian and this book is a rare gift. I fear that some won't hear the essential message because they'll get bogged down criticizing some of the details. I walked away from it disturbed and refreshed - disturbed because Brian challenged me to a deeper understanding of faithfulness; refreshed because he takes the first steps toward clearing a path for those willing to set aside preconceived notions about what it means to be a Christian. Pastor Dan and his mentor Neo address some of the key issues concerning how we can be faithful followers of Jesus in a world that has largely rejected institution-propped faith as out of touch with both current reality and the original message of Jesus. This book made me rethink my own journey both as a disciple and a pastor trying to navigate new terrrain. Aspects of this book are guaranteed to distress Bible worshippers, denominational loyalists, and institutional addicts. With a firm but loving challenge, McLaren dares 20th Century evangelicalism to pack up and move out of the house of its introverted individualistic salvation and onto the front porch of a 21st Century faith where it can once again be engulfed in the fresh air of a world where God is at work and people are hungry for authentic faith.

Brian McLaren has writen a great little book here- Whatever your oppinion is about post-modernism, its undenyable that culture is changing and McClaren contends that the church will have to look different in the future to accomidate those changes. He challenges many traditional views in Christianity, going strait to scripture to point out that many of the traditions and views Christians hold are based on modern interpretation. I was very surprised as I read at many of the statements he made, because I first found them near blasphemous. However, he justifies his views well and changed my thinking. The meat of this book has provided a basis for deeper conversation with other people and I feel more excited about the future of my faith. This book left me wanting more and I think thats a good thing. The one downside to the book are gaps in the writing. The theology and ideas here are deep and McClaren is smart enough to realize that narative will make this stuff more interesting. It becomes obvious pretty early that narative isn't his strength, as conversations between the characters are often clunky and slip into a mode that seems very unrealistic to personal conversation. But it doesn't really matter. The whole point here is not the story, but the conversation, questions, and answers to tough questions. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels dead or dry in their faith. It will excite and inspire you in your walk.

Many diverse voices in the church today are calling for a radical change in Christianity. Of course, how much can you change and still call it Christianity? Ultra-liberal ex-bishop John Shelby Spong, for example, goes to the extreme left edge of liberalism and throws out any traditional belief in God and the historical, biblically-based creeds to come up with something that cannot in good conscience be counted in the Christian camp. Brian McLaren's new vision of Christianity is still recognizable as Christianity, but has he sacrificed the essence of the Gospel on the altar of post-modernism?

McLaren, using the device of a dialogue between a burnt-out pastor and a high school science teacher (who is a former pastor), makes the point that both liberal and conservative theology is based on modernism, and that for a post-modern society neither Biblical literalism or Bultmannian demytholization is adequate for this generation. The Bible must be read as a pre-modern document, as the story of people on a faith-journey towards (or away from) God and must not be codified to a rigid theology, according to the thinking presented in this book. Although McLaren desires to transcend the labels of "conservative" and "liberal", many conservatives would see this as a liberal theology. There is much space given to struggling with the question of how other religions fit into the equation, and how much of our modern Christianity is culturally based.

Although I found much food for thought here, I could not wholly embrace all the concepts presented in this book. Other writers on post-modern Christianity concentrate more on methodology of presenting the gospel to a post-modern society than actually coming up with what might be considered a "different gospel". There are undoubtedly some excellent ideas presented (I particularly liked the ideas concerning the overhauling of seminary education), but there are some I'm not comfortable with (isn't teaching evolution to a youth group more of a modernist idea than post-modern?). I would like to see some of these ideas more fully developed, but then, that might start taking it in the direction of a systematic theology, which is anathema to the post-modern mindset! Three stars for being a well-written, thought-provoking book.