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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The Republic of Doug
In his next chapter of A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren addresses the question of why he is a “post/protestant.” He hangs the discussion on two ways the word protestant can be taken. The first is the common one. “The dominant meaning of protestant relates to the verb it contains: protest” (p. 123). This is great …
Being Evangelical For the Time Being
Time for our daily dose of squirting water down the hole into the postmodern rabbit warren, as part of my on-going project of trying to prevent these guys from emerging into the garden of orthodoxy in order to nibble on the carrots of truth. In his next chapter, Brian McLaren discusses why he is still …
The Central Culprit Here
When the enemy is at the gates besieging your city, swinging the battering ram, there are many things to dislike about what they are doing. But we would not usually think to describe the problem of the repeated thuds as “boring” and “repetitive.” It is the same way with this postmodern foolishness, but in some …
Postmod or Postmill?
In this chapter of the McLaren saga, I intend to simply address one thing, and so it may not take as long as the reviews of the other chapters. Or maybe it will. If somebody puts the nickel in, maybe I will just go off. This chapter is on why McLaren is “missional.” And of …