I have been a little hesitant to post, but Thursday evening was spent with David Stoddard, and I have felt a little better about my conclusions. Recently I read Brian McLaren’s book A Generous Orthodoxy. To be honest, it has been a difficult read, especially because I do not know anyone else who has read it, so there wasn’t anyone I could talk to about the book.
As I mentioned David S. was over here for dinner on Thursday night, saw the book sitting on the end table and asked me what I thought. I was a little nervous to say anything, and finally my Dave exclaimed “that book angers her.” Yes, it is true…I have thought about throwing it against a wall, so that was a fair assessment. David S. asked me why and I dove head first into my reasons. I was worried because David S. is WAY smarter than I will ever be, has read WAY more than I will ever read, is a seminary grad, a pastor, a missionary, etc. As I finished my explanations I realized he was nodding his head, as if he agreed. Was I ever relieved! Not just because he agreed with me, but because I felt a little validated in my concerns.
So, anyway, this isn’t a book I would recommend…if you want a good non-scary…non-angering book check out Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll. I am not going to go through all the reasons why I didn’t like McLaren’s book, but I will mention one. I can slightly appreciate why someone would not want to be pigeon holed into a belief system…and stereotyped by it. However, while I can appreciate not necessarily wanting to be called Reformed or Wesleyan, or dispensational, I think there are some non-negotiables and we should not be afraid to say these things. For example, I would say, and believe that scripture is very clear that there is not salvation apart from Christ. Will there be people from other religions in heaven, only if they claim Christ as their salvation. Now, McLaren might believe that, but he doesn’t make that distinction and seems to take pride in the fact that no one can nail him down. To me, there are some things that are too important to play around with.
If there is anyone else who has read the book I would be interested in talking with others and hearing other thoughts.
2 comments:
hey ami!! so i have lots of ?s re: this McClaren dude, too, esp. as the emergent church is brought up more and more. Piper has a book about the supremacy of christ in the postmodern world where they talk about McClaren and dispute him a little, in the interviews at the end and then on page 134, I think. You can download the pdf book from piper's website. It's been really helpful to understand where each side is coming from and what I consider a more biblical approach. Reading about some of the theology behind folks like McClaren, I imagine I would have hurled the book against the wall too!
Yeah, I also struggled a lot with the one McClaren book that I read (New Kind of Christian). I am interested in the Driscoll book, though.
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