Just finished Brian McLaren's latest offering, Everything Must Change. Brian is changing, he is a moving target, he is morphing at an alarming rate. I am not sure what he believes, and I have read all his books.
He now hangs with Jim Wallis of Sojourners fame, he is very "green" as regards the environment, and he takes several shots at Republicans in his latest work. I think running with the left requires one to take a obligatory shot at George Bush and the war in Iraq.
I am not sure why moving theologically left requires one to go politically left, it does seem like a package deal. Brian is a brilliant thinker, a great writer, a warm and personable man, and asks some of today's best questions.
His questions are so good that he has yet to come up with answers with equal stature. Questions do not constitute a theology, I am still waiting for some definite word from him on Scripture, who goes to hell, on how one is saved, the atonement, original sin and a number of other issues of orthodoxy.
It seems his answers at present are that the sin of Adam was over consumption, that selfish capitalists are candidates for hell, and anyone who watches Fox News regularly is suspect. I don't doubt his sincerity, nor his personal faith in Christ, or for that matter his commitment to scripture. All of us have been known to do the same, but it should be noted that he is still attempting to wrestle with scripture as his base of authority.
Now before you chop off my head, please know that I understand that he has now changed his hermeneutic so that he is interpreting scripture in such a way as to fit his new ideology. No doubt he has left the historic interpretation of Justification, the atonement and the second coming.
The second coming has become the enemy of a better world, and if Jesus is a pacifist, why would he resort to a bloody violent solution. It seems he has assigned The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the world of the Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, or some other fantasy.
Having said all this, I think Brian is a gift to the church, he forces us to think, he challenges us to ask bigger questions and to come up with bigger answers. I know some people who won't read him, or ask questions because it threatens their sense of security and need to have everything well defined. I don't think Brian is as dangerous as those who believe they have it all right and don't need to change.
