“I wonder,” continued, “what would happen if we approached the text less aggressively but even more energetically and passionately. I’ll probably come back and explore some in future posts. There's so much in the book that challenges and jars with traditional thinking (ie, thought out a long time ago and passed on with little new thinking). But one with a different way of relating to the world, able to engage with a changed world. Not one worshipping a different God, not one with a different Jesus. The book’s title comes from Neo’s suggestion that we need a new kind of Christian. Yet Dan recognises that his doubts, and his possible conclusions, may be less than agreeable to his congregation who will hear a heretic preaching and not a prophet. He's started to question the stock answers he has been using to convince others over the years.Ĭan the doctrines and theological positions he has grown up with - and been coached in while training at the seminary - be so simply explained? Black and white issues turning grey. How his hands darted across the tiny keyboard.)ĭan is a pastor, struggling to keep running around the hamster wheel he finds himself on.
(While I write, the guy sitting in the next seat on this late night squeasyJet flight to Gatwick has opened up his laptop, but not to do some work, or watch a DVD, but to play Lara Croft Tomb Raider with the sound off.
Their lives and past experiences are slowly unravelled as the chapters describe their journey, exploring the issues that they face. The two main characters - Dan (based loosely on the author) and Neo (a teacher at Dan's daughter's school - meet up at a local gig (by the Amish Jellies), get talking, and continue to meet up to talk over a period of months. He makes his points - serious and sometimes controversial - points by telling a story. McLaren sets out from the start to engage with his readers.
Reading them feels like making a pilgrimage, doing penitence, rather than an enjoyable act that might inform, challenge and stretch. When I got back to it recently, it was well worth the read.īooks by Christian authors - the non-fiction tomes anyway - tend towards being dry. (Do any of you read about 10-20 books in parallel? For me it's normal, though I get the feeling it's just as inefficient as trying to multi-task half a dozen activities in work.) I got about half way through the first chapter, and then got distracted by another title on the bedside table. She'd raced through the three books in the series. My wife recommended I read Brian McLaren’s A new kind of Christian at Easter.
0 kommentar(er)
