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A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith |  | Author: Brian D. Mclaren
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
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Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 2890
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0061853984
Dewey Decimal Number: 230
EAN: 9780061853982
ASIN: 0061853984
Publication Date: February 1, 2010
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Product Description
"Wherever the willingness to rethink has been squelched, wherever that sense of quest has been buried under convention and complacency, the Christian faith in all its forms is in trouble. But even there, something is trying to be born. Even now, right here, among us, inside you, inside me. You may feel it as a curiosity, a desire for better answers than you inherited so far. You may experience it as frustration, knowing that there must be more to faith than you currently know. You may know it as hope, hope that God is seeking humble people whose hearts and lives can be the womb of a better future. . . . In you, your family, your faith community, and circles of friends, among people of peace and faith everywhere, something is trying to be born."
—from A New Kind of Christianity We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the church. Not since the Reformation five centuries ago have so many Christians come together to ask whether the church is in sync with their deepest beliefs and commitments. These believers range from evangelicals to mainline Protestants to Catholics, and the person who best represents them is author and pastor Brian McLaren. In this much anticipated book, McLaren examines ten questions facing today's church—questions about how to articulate the faith itself, the nature of its authority, who God is, whether we have to understand Jesus through only an ancient Greco-Roman lens, what exactly the good news is that the gospel proclaims, how we understand the church and all its varieties, why we are so preoccupied with sex, how we should think of the future and people from other faiths, and the most intimidating question of all: what do we do next? Here you will find a provocative and enticing introduction to the Christian faith of tomorrow.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Faith is the Quest is the Tension - is the Faith August 17, 2010
Alwyn Lau (Petaling Jaya, Selangor Malaysia)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A gripping introduction, swash-buckling hermeneutics (they're not exactly going to roll out the red carpet for McLaren at the next Inerrancy convention), wonderful metaphors and charts (McLaren plays his role of cultural popularizer very well; you won't read many better explanations on how the book of Job throws spanner after spanner into the idea that 'everything' the Bible says is true), heavy borrowing from the New-Perspective-of-the-Mosaic-Law and post-foundationalist theologians, lots of touches of vintage McLaren creativity (e.g. on eschatalogy, on 'fundy-sexuality', etc) and a very personal and timely call for Christians to go on a bold yet compassionate quest for, well, a new kind of faith.
McLaren declares that the Christian church is in a mess despite being the custodian of a priceless tradition; there is something wrong in the midst of something real. He locates the chief cause of the problems in perceptive flaws borne of the evolutionary nature of the faith-community's understanding of God's revelations. The writer of Genesis presumably worshiped the God who sent the Flood but McLaren can't find it in himself to do so, almost declaring (therefore?) that the writer of Genesis lied about who God was. So earlier equals wrong-er and/or more deceptive cum deceived. Does that really fly? Wouldn't it be more responsible to ponder the complexity of God's role as cosmic meta-governor, a responsibility no human can shoulder and thus no human mind can fully grasp? Wouldn't it have been more philosophically robust to question how the God-made Flood differs from man-made genocide and how in fact the story of Noah presents wondrous divine mercy and initiative despite a divine right (due to divine governance) to refuse any of the sort?
That said, I'm not entirely pro-anti-McLaren either. I'm at a loss to explain why the likes of Mohler, Ware and Carson pay so little attention to the questions and issues McLaren raises, preferring instead to focus how much he diverges from traditional doctrines. These anti-Emergent folks embody an utter refusal to even look at where McLaren is pointing, they don't want to engage, they don't want a conversation. This is beyond missing the point; it's missing as a way of life.
Still, maybe the problem of Christianity today is less a problem of incorrect interpretations, evolving meanings and developing paradigms (and even less of heresy and apostasy) but one of irreducible dialectic. This is to say that there simply is no such thing as a God's Eye view of Christian/Biblical truth. Christian truth is in essence this phenomenon of opposing doctrines clashing with no clear resolution in principle (let alone in sight). The new kind of Christian has to listen and learn from the old kind and, quite critically, vice-versa too. It's the listening and learning (and admitting and correcting of mistakes) which matter, which makes, which manifests the kingdom.
The day the tension dies is the day there's no longer any uncertainty, no longer any openness, no longer any quest and thus barely any kind of faith at all.
 A New Kind of Christianity July 28, 2010
Katherine C. Snuggs (North Carolina)
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have not read this book by Brian McLaren. I have read two other of his books. So I want the opportunity to read this one also.There was a review in a local newspaper.
 A New Kind of Christianity July 26, 2010
J. Lindner (Gem Lake, MN United States)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
A New Kind of Christianity is an important book that seeks to illustrate how the Christian religion is in need of a major overhaul. Author Brian Maclaren poses his thesis in the form of ten questions ranging from God and Jesus to sex and the future of religion. He states that the classic theological understanding of God, which he calls the Greco-Roman Theos, really accomplishes nothing that Jesus truly taught his followers to believe. Instead, he introduces a new vision of God, Elohim, based on the original Hebrew scriptures. This God is loving, helpful, and wants his followers to live Christlike lives.
Maclaren will find many who willingly take his ideas and run with them, but will also find many who will scoff and reject those same ideas. This mainly happens because the God Theos is so ingrained in our culture and society that people do not want to leave their comfort zone. Theos requires strict obedience. He fosters hate and killing in his name. This is an imperial God. Maclaren points out that this is not the message of Jesus. And if God and Jesus are one, then it cannot possibly be the message God wants his followers to embrace.
This imperial God has been in the vangaurd of religion ever since Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity and authorized it in ancient Rome. We are inheritors of that legacy. It is regal, kingly, authoritative, and some people make a good living selling that God. But as in the scriptures, Jesus upsets that apple cart every chance he gets. Samaritan women and men, harlots, tax collectors all were received by Jesus into God's kingdom. In our modern age we need to follow this example and open our church doors to all regardless of their sins and flaws. After all, Jesus came to save the world, not judge it (John 3:17). When will people listen to that message?
Maclaren's writing style is provocative and engaging. He presents his message in the form of responses, not answers, to his ten questions. Anyone who picks up this book will not become lost in a theological quagmire, but instead, if they keep their minds open to new ways of looking at things, will see how simple the message of the Bible truly is. Maclaren says the Bible must be taken in its sum total, not just bits and pieces. He doesn't admit it, but the evangelicals have been saying this same thing all along. But one must take the Bible in its entirity with an open mind fixed on the end message of Christ's love, not God's vindictiveness towards those currently outside the church (homosexuals, unbelievers, etc.). This book should be required reading at all churches, not just the progressive churches who want to make the changes Maclaren proposes. If all did read it, old Theos will finally be relegted to the dustbins of history where he belongs.
The Quest For Something New July 13, 2010
Thurman L. Faison (Florida)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Brian McLaren has written a most thought provoking book and is asking for a collective response from the church to help find solutions. He acknowledges the fact that we have in the church, "something real and something wrong". He is challenging the church to a kind of faith deeper than mere beliefs. In modern language he is asking the church universal, "are we there yet"? He says we need a new kind of reformation, not like Martin Luther who said, "here I stand" which so often typifies our creedal positions and we become stagnated in them. Sometimes, so much that we will kill anyone who diverges from the official clerical positions ie, "The Inquisitions". So McLaren says we should adopt a new posture,not "here we stand", but, "here we go". The point being, we move forward in truth and understanding and try to express it in our age and in our circumstances. He is making this point so we will not be restricted by "hierarchal constraints". He talks about the early church, the church of the middle ages, and the church of today and how each representation and expression of the church became a quagmire of theologies,creedal positions, and ecclesiastical authority. This has tended to stifle new interpretations and new inquiries into the nature of Christ and the meaning and effect of redemption and the kingdom of God in us and in the world around us. Although many will disagree with some of his assumptions and conclusions, it is well worth the readers time to ponder and consider his premises. He brings to our attention the diversity of the church at large in teachings, emphasis and interpretations of the scriptures and points out it has always been that way. The early church took many forms and broke off into many groups with various leaders emphasizing points and ways of thought that was not accepted by the others. He boldly asks the question, "what if the christian faith is supposed to exist in a variety of forms"? In other words, what if we sometimes differ in our opinions and conclusions, it can never stop the activity of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of those who believe. The book is replete with scripture and presents a lot of truth.
Thurman L Faison Author To The Spiritually Inclined (Volume 1)
Provocative July 12, 2010
Joel M. Usina (Lillington, NC)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It may go without saying, but this is a must read for anyone interested in the development of the Christian faith, especially (maybe only) in America (or the West). The challenge of certain long-standing paradigms brings fresh questions to the table; questions that do need to be asked. Although I may land in a different place responding to the same questions, there are some beneficial (and appropriate) gleanings to be found in McLaren's work.
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