A New Kind of Christianity - Brian McLaren [12]
4. The Jesus question: Who is Jesus and why is he important? Jesus appears to be a victim of identity theft. The versions of Jesus presented by contemporary Christian institutions could hardly be more different from one another—or from the four portraits of Jesus we find in the gospels. And although the versions of Jesus typically presented by churches seem to turn more and more people away, interest in and attraction to the Jesus of the gospels seem to grow and grow. So we ask: What accounts for the differences in understandings of Jesus? Which versions of Jesus are more trustworthy than others? How can we tell? Why does it matter?
5. The gospel question: What is the gospel? Some people see the gospel as information on how individuals can avoid hell and go to heaven after death. Some see it as a message of liberation and transformation for select individuals in this life. Some see it as a message of liberation and transformation for all people and all creation. So we ask: Who’s right, and why is there such a divergence of opinion on such an essential matter? Why does Jesus’s gospel of the kingdom of God seem to morph into another gospel—that of justification by faith—in other parts of the New Testament? Are the gospels of Jesus and Paul (not to mention the other apostolic writers) different and opposed to one another?
6. The church question: What do we do about the church? The questions we consider in these pages will have to be grappled with in local faith communities. As they inspire new insights and conclusions, those insights and conclusions will have to be lived out in local congregations. So we ask: In light of the new understandings opened up by the previous questions, what must change for the church—the local church, the denomination, and the larger community of Christians? How are we to conceive of God’s Spirit at work in the church and in the world? How do we cooperate with God’s work in, through, outside of, and in spite of the church?
7. The sex question: Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it? Our acute anxieties about human sexuality may be related, in general, to our discomfort with our humanity. They may also flow from our dissatisfaction with conventional Christian accounts of the human being in light of new discoveries in neurobiology, psychopharmacology, anthropology, and related fields. In particular, the issue of homosexuality preoccupies, divides, and obsesses many churches and denominations like no other issue. Not only do people disagree on the issue, but they are unwilling to tolerate disagreement among their fellow Christians—in spite of the fact that they tolerate diversity of opinion on many other issues, important issues like pacifism, nuclear war, genocide, environmental destruction, wealth and poverty, torture, and consumptive affluence. So we ask: Why is this issue so hot right now? How do the previous questions open up new ways to think about homosexuality, gender identity, and sexuality in general? Can we move beyond paralyzing polarization into constructive dialogue about the whole range of challenges we face regarding human sexuality?
8. The future question: Can we find a better way of viewing the future? For better or worse, eschatology (the theological discipline that thinks about the future and what lies beyond this life) sells millions of books, raises millions of dollars, and influences the domestic and foreign policy of some of the world’s most powerful and militarized nations (the United States and Iran both come to mind). So we ask: If eschatologies are self-fulfilling prophecies, what kind of eschatology will contribute to a more just and joyful future? How will a new kind of Christianity develop a new kind of eschatology?
9. The pluralism question: How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions? We wake up each day in a world whose very future is threatened by interreligious fear, hatred, and violence. Many of us wonder if there is a way to have both a deep identity in Christ and an irenic, charitable,