We have now come to the chapter where McLaren describes how he is “Anabaptist/Anglican.” This has been quite a slog, and the cumulative effect of reading through these chapters on how Brian McLaren is evangelical, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, fundamentalist/calvinist, and so on, is similar to a $400 dollar whirlwind tour of Europe. “If it’s Tuesday, this …
More Thanks to God
We are very grateful to God for yet another setback for the intolerista brigade. Last night the Moscow City Council voted (5 to 1) to amend the zoning code in such a way as to permit NSA to remain in its current location. I thank everyone who has prayed for us, and would ask them …
Evil, Be Thou My Good
“These forces are brought to fruition not so much in films of the horror genre itself as in more mainstream and critically acclaimed movies like Cape Fear and Silence of the Lambs (both 1991). These stories exalt the artistic boldness of their evil supermen, who put into question the timid mores of conventional society and …
Scribes Haven’t Changed
I shouldn’t really be surprised anymore. McLaren devotes the chapter entitled “Why I Am Fundamentalist/Calvinist” to a detailed explanation of why he is not a fundamentalist or a Calvinist. Not surprisingly, in order to make this case, an old workhorse in the debate against Reformed folk is brought out of the stables and made to …
Sneaking Standards Back In
“The need of most human beings to believe in a moral universe is proof for Nietzsche that lies and self-deception are essential conditions of human life . . . . But there is a tension in Nietzsche between an amoralism that repudiates all objective standards and a distinctively hierarchical kind of thinking that ranks souls …
Deep Confidence or Deep “Confidence”?
Some of McLaren’s chapters are outrageous, some are stupefying, some are intellectually dishonest, while others, like this next one, are just plain sad. This is the chapter where McLaren explains how he is a “charismatic/contemplative.” I am not really going to say anything about the sad parts, and there were only two other comments worth …
That Good Old Narrative Trajectory
On the first page of the next chapter (“Why I Am Biblical”), Brian McLaren states this: “My regard for the Bible is higher than ever” (p. 159). And this about sums the whole problem up. Regard? After having read through the chapter, this is like hearing a divorced couple say they are still the “best …
Propositional Dust Bunnies
Okay, let’s be honest. Context matters. If someone had handed me a xerox copy of McLaren’s next chapter (the one on being “mystical/poetic”), I would have thought most of it was pretty okay. In fact, because he quotes Lewis and Chesterton repeatedly, bits of it were much more than okay. But the irony was not …
Check It Out
My son Nate wrote a review of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for Books and Culture. That review is now on-line and can be found at the Christianity Today site here.
Trying to Freeze the Linebackers
McLaren goes on to explain in his next chapter why he is a liberal/conservative. In this chapter, his use of these terms is primarily in a theological context, as opposed to the political one. This chapter is an attempt to get beyond “the confining boxes of liberal and conservative” (p. 131). Of course, since conservatives …