This is a book about finding, creating, and inhabiting, "gracious space". [22]

Part I identifies Christian identity, and preaches recovery from CRIS (Conflicted Religious Identity Syndrome). The world is so constituted, so diverse, that our choice is not between kindness and hostility, but between kindness and nonexistence.

McLaren echoes the invitation of William Stacy Johnson with the quote: "It is an infinity that claims us and will not let go in its call to move us beyond the constraints of our selfhood, beyond the limitations of our versions of reality and truth and toward the Other, the God in whom we live and move and have our Being." [19, note 12] He makes way, with Phyllis Tickle and Paul Knitter, for another "axial shift in the history of religions", forging a "community of communities", guided by a genuine, Christ-like, model of benevolence toward other faiths. He takes to heart the 1972 warning of Dean Kelley about the "growth" of fanatic faith groups. [35-38] {Kelley accurately predicted the motivations of the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City, the Twin Tower attack on 9/11, and the shooting of nine African Americans in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, 2015.}

McLaren writes about re-forming religious identity, by creating space for people to "consider the unsettling proposal" that gentleness can be the greatest power. [45] In a chapter about group psychology, he quotes Jonathan Haidt: "The key to understanding tribal behavior is not money, it's sacredness" because a group will circle around a revered object, neglecting personal profit and money. [59] Who "I am" is embedded in "who we are", often united by a shared hostility to "the other". We use oppositions as a short-cut to building our identity. McLaren illustrates this reformation with history, examples in the creeds of consumerism, the daily indoctrination by corporate media. [65ff] He clearly exposes the real dangers of privatized consumerism, while also arguing that the antidote to bad religion is not no religion, but a strong and benevolent one. [67] Confronted by a "religion industry" relying upon oppositional identity today, he argues for building a grassroots movement with a strong and benevolent identity giving new direction to our history.

Our author concludes Part I with two short chapters drawn from the actual history of faux Christians--how Constantine prepared Columbus, and today's headlines. We are walked through the great debate about slavery and souls between Sepulveda and Las Casas. We hear the Christ-cry of Montesinos who witnessed the genocide of the Taino. [93] McLaren points out that what is at stake is "identity", and without love in action, that identity can never be called "Christian". [95]

Part II is entitled "The Doctrinal Challenge", and it completely changed my understanding of Christian "doctrine". Far from abandoning Christian doctrine, McLaren shows that the idea of using it as an instrument of healing makes it essential. Any orthodoxy, or any use which is not healing, is just a false "bug" of the old imperial program. Let me just present his chapters: Doctrine of Creation leads to Human-kindness. Doctrine of Original Sin can help Christians avoid the catalogue of Sins which just seized political power. Doctrine of Election (chosen-ness) helps us choose benevolence--this is one of the most fascinating applications. Doctrine of Trinity can foment harmony--a real gift inside this analysis. Deeper Christology saves us from Hostility. Doctrine of Holy Spirit empowers us in accepting the Other. And Faith can make our Orthodoxy "more generous". This is a specific, rich and rewarding walk through the "healing" of doctrine, its true meaning and purpose.

Part III is entitled "The Liturgical Challenge". McLaren brings Baptism, catechism, Bible studies, and the Eucharist into perspective. He reads scripture as reconciliation. [194] He walks us through the calendar of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost ("the most underrated holiday"), Kindomtide (aka "ordinary time") as a time of gratitude for the nine fold fruit of the spirit. In a Chapter on Baptism, the author reminds us his thesis was on the work of the converted modernist novelist, Walker Percy. [179] McLaren deconstructs the idea of washing as "purification" and separation from the "unclean". How radical the vision of John the Baptist, son of a priest, but far from the Temple, baptizing people in dirty river water in the wilderness. In Luke's version of the story, the "brood of vipers" epithet echoed from Jeremiah 46:22 contrasts with a Holy Spirit descending "like a dove". Baptismal repentance is peaceful, but powerful, transformative. [184]. Luke 3:7ff. Hostile identities can be "washed away", and replaced by a grasp of the attitude of Christ. In a chapter on the Eucharist, McLaren shares his love for the endlessly-enthralling banquet modeled by Christ. He gently condemns the use of it as a "food fight" between sects. [208 ff] He defines "ritual" as an act that employs the body to bond to a meaning. For example, the Eucharist is a celebration of hospitality, amazing grace, and reconnection "sitting down at a table". Why close off this table, why dis-fellowship, or wall-off this celebration? Another meaning-made sense of the liturgy is as an altar, pacified by body and blood sacrifice--a doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement. McLaren spells out the problematic dimensions of this repulsive and fear-based view of God. [210] The altar-based meaning is contrasted to the shared banquet table. We can choose the more biblical resistance to torture and numbness and be more human and benevolent, with even more rich meaning, physically bonding "to a love story of mutual self-giving". [214]

In the concluding section, Part IV takes up "The Missional Challenge", and presents a "live and let be even more enlivened" role for the church and each of us. Friendship can change the world, because it can subvert the impersonal "corporate entities" focused on short-term profiteering, and hostilities fade in the face of it. McLaren proposes evangelizing the evangelists who have lost the meaning of Christianity. Hindus can help Christians discover their true identity, where both can thrive in the reality of a diverse (and multi-faith) world. ( )

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and I really appreciate McLaren's approach to Christianity and the Bible. I find his search for a strong and kind Christianity inspiring. That is we can have a strong Christian identity, while seeking to understand, love, empathize and work with those of other faiths. ( )

Really enjoyed this book - perhaps because the concept so resonates with me. As with "A New Kind of Christianity," Brian McLaren proposes a new way of looking at how we (as Christians) have always done things. Bits of the book, particularly toward the end, can feel a bit preachy but, thankfully, those bits are rare. All in all a great read that will make you think. ( )

McLaren seeks to answer the question how do we maintain Christian identity without compromising in a pluralistic world. Perhaps the deeper journey is how do we do this that is still gospel for those that aren't Christian. Most answers have been to either diminish Christ or to flatline all paths or to make the Christian journey a game of us versus them. In all three of the above systems, it leaves the gospel neutered and for the most part doesn't represent the gospel at all for those that are outside and inside too if we're honest. McLaren speaks to a different way of viewing and holding Christian identity, which is gospel to all, and enables Christians to journey with people instead of to or for. I had a few quibbles here and there, but for the most part this is spot on and would make a fabulous small group study.
Additional notes:
I loved his integration with the liturgical calendar/church year.
Admit the past - good and bad - in other words a church history 4th & 5th step
Doctrines were meant to give people a healing instrument. They were supposed to be life giving words giving people a deeper engagement with the Divine experience. When they become fences to mark heresy they lose their spiritual energy. Doctrine can be a balm and not a theological scalpel used to wound and exclude people.
Our identity is to be a blessing to others who can also receive blessings as well - mutuality.
Religion - reconnecting broken relationships to God, neighbor, ourselves, and all of creation. The problem isn't organized religion but the effectiveness of the organization. What if religious communities were organized to bond broken relationships - haves & have nots, witness & withness, seek mutual understanding, experience hospitality, setting examples and serving.
We respect the freedom of all religion including our own to be hostile. Religious people are hostile because they perceive things they love as under threat. Hostility boils over from a loving defensiveness. Don't condemn, guilt, or shame the other. Instead exemplify the gospel - non retaliation, non defensiveness, patience when wrong. Only from a position of vulnerability can we embody good news - weakness not strength, the Jesus way. ( )

Not bad at all. Lots of red meat to chew on, and I love that a post-evangelical is implementing Rene Girard and James Alison. But like most of his books that I've read, I'm with him right until the last couple of chapters when he begins imploring his readers to "imagine" these possibilities and seals it essentially with 'Now go get your Jesus on.'

Now these aren't bad things to say of course, but it's hard for me to imagine that a pastor of his experience and insight isn't able to speak or narrate to more actual events to illustrate his thesis, and allow the readers to judge for themselves on the merits rather than simply bidding them to imagine. Perhaps I'm too demanding.

Overall, totally worth the read if only for his positing of a 'strong benevolent' X-ian identity, his helpful (non-hostile) illuminations of other faiths (particularly Islam), and his use of Girardian concepts. ( )