A New Kind of Christianity - Brian McLaren [0]
Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith
Brian D. McLaren
Never accept and be content with unanalyzed assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the people, about the church or Christianity. Never be afraid to ask questions about the work we have inherited or the work we are doing. There is no question that should not be asked or that is outlawed. The day we are completely satisfied with what we have been doing; the day we have found the perfect, unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer, never in need of being corrected again, on that day we will know that we are wrong, that we have made the greatest mistake of all.
—VINCENT J. DONOVAN
Contents
Epigraph
Preface
1. Between Something Real and Something Wrong
2. The Quest and the Questions
3. A Prayer on the Beach
Book One
Unlocking and Opening
Part I: The Narrative Question
4. What Is the Overarching Story Line of the Bible?
5. Setting the Stage for the Biblical Narrative
6. The Biblical Narrative in Three Dimensions
Part II: The Authority Question
7. How Should the Bible Be Understood?
8. From Legal Constitution to Community Library
9. Revelation Through Conversation
Part III: The God Question
10. Is God Violent?
11. From a Violent Tribal God to a Christlike God
Part IV: The Jesus Question
12. Who Is Jesus and Why Is He Important?
13. Jesus Outside the Lines
Part V: The Gospel Question
14. What Is the Gospel?
15. Jesus and the Kingdom of God
Book Two
Emerging and Exploring
Part VI: The Church Question
16. What Do We Do About the Church?
Part VII: The Sex Question
17. Can We Find a Way to Address Human Sexuality Without Fighting About It?
Part VIII: The Future Question
18. Can We Find a Better Way of Viewing the Future?
Part IX: The Pluralism Question
19. How Should Followers of Jesus Relate to People of Other Religions?
Part X: The What-Do-We-Do-Now Question
20. How Can We Translate Our Quest into Action?
21. Living the Questions in Community
22. Conclusion: A New Kind of Christianity
Notes
Searchable Terms
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Preface
In hot ramshackle urban slums in Latin America, in tree-shaded rural villages in Africa, in well-appointed conference centers, church basements, and coffee shops in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, I’ve had the opportunity to enter into conversation and friendship with an amazing array of Christian leaders from across the denominational spectrum: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, historic Protestant, Evangelical, and Pentecostal. They have convinced me of some bad news and some encouraging news. The bad news: the Christian faith in all its forms is in trouble. The good news: the Christian faith in all its forms is pregnant with new possibilities.
Some might recall the stories of Sarah and Elizabeth, older women in the Bible who confounded the biological clock and gave birth when everyone thought it was too late. Some see the Christian faith that way: an old woman past her prime, closer to a nursing home than to nursing new life. But I see it differently. I believe that in every new generation the Christian faith, like every faith, must in a sense be born again. That means the Christian faith has the possibility of being forever young. (Imagine strains of the Bob Dylan classic playing here.) So in the womb of the Christian faith in all its wild diversity, I see a new generation of Christian disciples being formed, coming alive and coming of age, disciples who hold amazing promise, even as they face huge challenges (not the least of which are misunderstanding and criticism from some of their elders).
I know the Christian faith from the inside. I grew up in conservative Evangelical churches. Then, having become a passionately committed disciple in my teen years through the early 1970s Jesus movement, I gained exposure to mainline Protestant and Catholic churches. I married a Catholic woman, and together we opened our home to a fellowship group that morphed into a little house church that eventually