Brian McLaren
[from Rick Warren's
website: www.pastor.com]
"Nature, tortoises and
evolution figure prominently in McLaren's book, The
Story We Find Ourselves In. It's a sequel to his
popular, but somewhat controversial, A New Kind of
Christian. Both books are written in an unusual
narrative non-fiction style - using fictional
characters, rather than sterile discourse, to incarnate theological truths...."
[But many of those "truths" are
contrary to Biblical truths]
"McLaren is... a key
figure in the 'emerging church'...
"What can nature teach us?
Two key lessons are diversity and interdependence.
Both will characterize the future church, in McLaren's
view."
[In the next paragraph, notice the
emphasis on CONVERSATION -- especially with those who hold contrary
beliefs and values. Implying dialectical uncertainty rather than
"divisive" certainty, such conversation (dialogue)
is key to today's global transformation:]
Interdependence, though imbedded
in nature, is foreign to the Western individualism so ingrained
in American (U.S.) Christianity. That's why McLaren's 'new kind
of Christian' often uses words like 'journey' and 'conversation' to describe Christian life beyond the
postmodern divide. Conversation implies Christians can
learn a lot by interacting with - and listening to - the
world, especially non-Christians. 'Their questions are
an essential facet of our discipleship,' McLaren says.
'They change us.' ...
'Certainty is
overrated,' McLaren declares.... 'History teaches us
that a lot of people thought they were certain and we
found out they weren't.'... [Despite the postmodern hostility toward certainty,
God's Word and values are true, certain, unchanging and
right.
See
God's eternal, unchanging Word]
McLaren first bumped up
against postmodernism much earlier than most seminary
students or pastors. 'In graduate school in the '70s,
postmodernism was first hitting the academy through
literary criticism. I was exposed to deconstructionism and postmodern thought. I remember
thinking, If this kind of thought catches on,
Christianity is in real trouble.'
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While many pastors and church leaders have written books that describe
this spiritual transformation, the message of Pastor Brian McLaren
carries more weight since he is an acknowledged leader in this movement.
Some of his articles are posted at www.pastors.com, a website founded by Pastor Rick Warren, author of
The Purpose Driven Life. McLaren's book, A New Kind of Christian,
is written as a semi-fictional dialogue, so that readers can experience
the thrill of questioning old truths and discovering new truth through
the dialectic process. Notice how the introduction touts
the postmodern worldview while raising doubts about Biblical faith:
"I realize, as I read and reread the Bible, that many passages
don't fit any of the theological systems I have inherited or
adapted. Sure, they can be squeezed in, but after a while my
theology looks like a high school class trip's luggage--shoestrings
hanging out here, zippers splitting apart there....
"I read what other people who are having similar experiences are
saying, including people writing outside of the religious
context -- like this from Peter Senge: 'In any case, our Industrial
Age management.... our Industrial Age way of living will not
continue.... It's not sustainable in ecological terms, and it's
not sustainable in human terms. It will change. The only question is
how....'
"Doesn't the religious community see that the world is changing?
Doesn't it have anything fresh and incisive to say?...
"I meet people along the way who model for me, each in a
different way, what a new kind of Christian might look like. They
differ in many ways, but they generally agree that the old show is
over, the modern jig is up, and it's time for something radically
new.... You begin to wonder if maybe you're at the front
edge of something -- if your tentative and anxious steps 'off the
map' are actually the beginning of a new adventure into terra nova,
new ground, fresh territory."[3,
page xiv-xv]
"...if we have a new world, we will need a new church. We won't
need a new religion per se, but a new framework for our theology.
Not a new Spirit, but a new spirituality. Not a new Christ, but a new Christian."[3,
page xvi] Emphasis added
Something new and fresh! That's an ongoing quest of the Church Growth Movement.
Leaders like Rick Warren may not stray as far from God's guidlines as Brian McLaren, but
they know well that the diverse seekers want something more contemporary
than the old gospel that has opened eyes and changed hearts for the two
millennia. As Pastor Warren wrote on page 325 in The Purpose-Driven
Life, "I have deliberately used paraphrases
in order to help you see God's truth in new, fresh ways."
[emphasis
in the original] Are our leaders forgetting that the
freshness comes when the
Holy Spirit breathes God's life-changing message through those treasured
old words? [See
Psalm
119:11]
A little later, Brian McLaren describes -- through the mouth of
his leading character "Neo" -- what
many postmodern leaders see as changing mental "Models" or worldview.
Ponder his quotes from The Discarded Image, apparently the last
book written by C. S. Lewis. But first he gives an interesting
description of the dialectic process. The proper Hegelian (and Soviet)
dialogue doesn't allow a participant to argue a point from his own point
of view. Instead of taking a stand on God's unchanging Word, you
are trained to let go of your own convictions in order to empathically (or
emotionally) enter into the convictions of
the other members and, in the process, question and criticize your own
beliefs in light of the new suggestions:
"Most modern people love to relativize the
viewpoints of the others against the unquestioned superiority of their own
modern viewpoint. But in a way, you cross the threshold into postmodernity
the moment you turn your critical scrutiny from others to yourself, when you
relativize your own modern viewpoint. When you do this, everything
changes. It is like a conversion. You can't go back. You begin to see that
what seemed like pure, objective certainty really depends heavily on a
subjective preference for your personal viewpoint. In this next quote, Lewis
makes exactly these very postmodern moves and emphasized how one's subjective
posture affects what one sees and 'knows objectively.'... Listen to Lewis in his
own words:'[3,
page 35]
"There is no question here of the old Model's being shattered by the
inrush of new phenomena.... When changes in the human mind produce a
sufficient disrelish of the old Model and a sufficient hankering for some
new one, phenomena to support that new one will obediently turn up...."[3,
page 36] [4, 221]
"We must recognize that
what has been called 'a taste in universes' is not only pardonable but
inevitable. We can no longer dismiss the change of Models as a simple
progress from error to truth. No Model is a catalogue of ultimate realties,
and none is a mere fantasy. Each is a serious attempt to get in all the
phenomena known at a given period, and each succeeds in getting in a great
many. But also, no less surely, each reflects the prevalent psychology of
an age almost as much as it reflects the state of that age's knowledge...."[3,
page 37]
[4, 222]
'Lewis concludes his book with a
fascinating prediction...
"It is not impossible that our own Model
will die a violent death, ruthlessly smashed by an unprovoked assault of new
facts -- unprovoked as the nova of 1572. But I think it is more likely to
change when, and because, far-reaching changes in the mental temper of our
descendents demand that it should. The new Model will not be set up without
evidence, but the evidence will turn up when the inner need for it
becomes sufficiently great. It will be true evidence.'
[3-page 37]
[4,
222-223] Emphasis added
"What Lewis imagined to be 'not impossible'
some generations away--the death of the modern model or worldview--turns out to
be happening just a single generation after he wrote...'[3-page
37]
McLaren didn't complete the above sentence but his point was made.
Two paradigm shifts have
occurred in the last thirty years, and the years ahead promise to be
more wrenching than any previous time. The world's hostility will surely
be aimed at those who continue to walk in "the old paths, where the good
way is...." Jeremiah 6:16. [See "Dealing with
Resisters"
Brian McLaren
endorsed
the book
The Seeker's Way:
Cultivating the Longings of a Spiritual Life,
by Dave Fleming, who wrote the following:
"My walk through the labyrinth before
my visit with Alan [Jones, dean of
Grace Cathedral] would become, for me, a metaphor for my
questions about the sacred mundane. When I entered the back of Grace
Cathedral, I knew I would find a labyrinth. I was familiar with the
work of Lauren Artress, a canon at the cathedral who has an intense
passion to help people discover the transformative potency of the
labyrinth. Feeling certain that these moments would be infused with
the sacred, I knew this was a labyrinth I wanted to walk.
"I was alone in the cathedral. Great, I thought.
... No one else is here. I can share this moment with the Mystery by
myself. Off came my shoes." 50
"Finding Meaning. Early in our conversation, Alan and I talked about
what we through it meant to be a seeker. 'Seekers,' he said, 'live
in the rhythm of holding and letting go.' This idea connects to
this longing to move from activity to meaning. Part of the seeker's
way is to discern, in the action, what we are to hold and what we
are to release. There is no manual for this.
[Actually, we have God's guidelines in the
Bible] It requires us to live awake and alert." 52
"We could say that when we find the sacred dimension we will find
ourselves, and when we find ourselves, we will find the
sacred dimension." 54 [Pantheism? "God"
is in and through all things?]
"The conversation of Seekers. Beyond honoring all people, seekers
are interested in traveling the spiritual path with others, both
those who share their beliefs and those who do not. If there is one
thing we need in the twenty-first century, it is people from
different traditions who make community while maintaining their
diversity. For too long the only conversation many people have had
with those of different faiths is about conversion. We really must
get beyond this..... I am not about to pronounce judgment on one
who feels called to share his faith in order to invite another to
consider that faith tradition.... Seekers enter relationship
with others, not to convert them but to travel the road together as
friends and seekers of the Mystery.
"Even within a tradition , it is sometimes hard
to converse with those who not agree on what the tradition is and
should be.142
"I am most attuned to the ridiculous infighting that goes on in
Christianity over things like doctrines, appropriate versions of the
Bible, and social issues. Christians who say they are marked by
radical love, end up despising each other and verbally attacking
each other over these differences.... Perhaps a good starting point
for this renaissance in conversation should be the six longings
(and others) that are important to life and spirituality. I would
encourage seekers to truly listen to the faith stories of others
in order to celebrate them, learn from them, and enhance them
through their own stories. I also would encourage seekers to
allow others' diversity to take them deeper into their own
convictions and beliefs for the purpose of reformation and
purification of those beliefs and convictions. This is what my
Muslim friends are teaching me. .... My hope is that seekers will
listen to each other's insights and allow those insight to shape
their hearts." 143
[The last two points,
especially, illustrate the dialectic process]
More
will be added
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