A New Kind of Christianity - Brian McLaren [157]
evolution, 14–15, 47–48, 50–53,229–233, 267n4
evolving understanding of God: away from violence, 101–103, 105, 110; as continuing process, 105–107, 122; and danger of fixed approach, 110–111, 115–116, 118; evidenced in scripture, 99–102; fundamentalists’ aversion to, 102–103; guiding forward motion in, 111–114; role of Jesus in, 110–111, 114–118, 120; in stages of human development, 229–231, 273n5; and story of Noah, 108–110; through progressive understanding, 103–105
exclusivity, 102, 143, 148–149,185–186, 211
Exodus, 22, 56–59, 131–132, 229
experiential learning, 250
Ezekiel, 64
faith, 148–149, 156
faith communities, 246
Fall, 34, 37, 41–43, 48–51, 128, 139
final judgment, 195, 203–205, 286n33
First Corinthians, 166–169,171–172, 198
forgiveness, 43, 124, 125, 138, 151
formation, 58
frontwards reading: engaging in a, 46–47; of Exodus, 56–59; of Genesis, 48–53; Greco-Roman narrative dismissed in, 47–50; honoring Jewish heritage, 41, 45; location of Jesus in, 36–37; revealing less-violent God, 98–99. See also three-dimensional biblical narrative
fundamentalism, 68, 69, 102–103,173–175, 189, 191–193
future events. See eschatology
Future of Faith, The (Cox), 11–12
Galileo, 15, 68, 177
Gamaliel, 225, 226, 241, 242, 251
Garden of Eden, 34, 41, 47–51,130–131
Generous Orthodoxy (McLaren), 10–11
Genesis: earth as good/evolving in, 47–48; God as patient/merciful in, 48–49; Greco-Roman narrative undone by, 47–50, 54; human evolution in, 50–53, 229; Jesus’s new, 129–131, 140, 149; scenes of, 49–54; setting stage for biblical narrative, 54, 56, 58; in 3-D universe, 194–195
genocide, 108–109, 118, 213, 231
geographical images, 133–134
Gilgamesh flood story, 109–110
God: danger of fixed approach to, 110–111, 115–116, 118; encountering the living, 96–97; eschatology and, 194, 196, 203–205, 286n25; faithfulness/mercy of, 52–54, 56, 277n5; in frontwards reading of Genesis, 48–53; as God of all, 152–154; “God’s voice,” 94–95; in Greco-Roman narrative, 42–44, 98–99, 266n16; Jesus as manifestation of, 222–223; and Jonah, 202–203; as liberator in Exodus, God (continued) 56–59; and the quest, 45, 225–227, 239–240, 251, 258. See also evolving understanding of God
God and violence: in dispensationalist teachings, 193, 272n1; evolving away from, 101–103, 105, 118; in
Greco-Roman narratives, 98–99; in heterosexual tribalism, 178–179; and Noah’s flood, 108–110; questions about, 19–20; reinforced by fundamentalists, 102–103, 108–109
Golden Rule, 211–212
goodness, 47
gospel: homosexuality and the, 179–180; need for fresh reading, 137–138, 140–142; outside of the
Greco-Roman narrative, 124–126, 214; and pluralism, 211–212, 222–224, 292n32; proclaiming a new kingdom, 28, 139–142; questions about the, 20; reconciling Paul’s writings with the, 142–146, 156–157; on social issues, 127–128, 135, 142–143, 179
grace to differ graciously, 243, 245
Great Emergence, The (Tickle), 11, 12
Greco-Roman tradition: betraying Jesus’s life and teaching, 256; breaking Christianity out of, 214–216; in conventional eschatologies, 193–194, 196, 198; dualism and the, 38–41; God in, 42–44, 266n16; handling of peaceable kingdom scriptures, 62; homosexuality and the, 175–176; identity of Jesus in, 120, 124–126, 128, 135–136, 223–224; Paul released from, 156–157; reframing biblical data, 41–42, 264n3; sin/ salvation and hell in, 43–44; “soul-sort” universe, 195, 203; tension with pluralism, 210–214; undone by frontwards reading, 47–49, 54. See also constitutional approach; Platonic-Aristotelian dualism
Gregory of Nyssa, 238, 239
heaven: in Greco-Roman narrative, 34, 43, 44, 136; in last-days teaching, 192; misreading scripture on, 219–220; peaceable kingdom apart from, 20, 130, 135, 139
Hebrews, 115, 205
hell, 34, 37, 43–44, 52, 130, 195
heterophobia, 175
heterosexuality, 175, 179, 180, 186–187
hierarchical approach, 238
Hindus, 236, 237
Holy Spirit, 95, 132, 165, 171,240, 253
homosexuality, 175–180, 185, 187,274n6
honesty quest, 231–235, 237
Hosea,