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    A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith
    A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith
    A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith
    Audiobook11 hours

    A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith

    Written by Brian D. McLaren

    Narrated by Sean Pratt

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    ""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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 26, 2011
    ISBN9780062100870
    Author

    Brian D. McLaren

    Brian D. McLaren (MA, University of Maryland) is an author, speaker, activist and public theologian. After teaching college English, Brian pastored Cedar Ridge Community Church in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. Brain has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and pastors for over 20 years. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings in the US and internationally.

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    Reviews for A New Kind of Christianity

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    • 5/5
      This won’t be for everybody, but it was for me. Try and see if it might be for you too. It leaves you asking more questions, like many of Brian’s books, and that is why I keep coming back to them. A great starting point for discussions within a community.
    • 1/5
      There is no longer any joy in reading McLaren. Admittedly, I've always disagreed with him, but there was always an element of excitement in previous works. He would make such provocative statements and then casually reject the face value of those same statements in the next sentence. You knew he was playing with the borders of orthodoxy, but you weren't always sure what side he was on. In his latest book, A New Kind of Christianity, McLaren is much more definitive. For this I am both grateful and discouraged. Undoubtedly, there will be the masses who read this and love every word. I am concerned that they might not understand either the history or significance.McLaren's primary point is that the last 2,000 years of Christians have misread the Bible by foisting their Greco-Roman worldview upon the text rather than the Jewish worldview that the Biblical authors intended. Stop right there. The stunning arrogance of that proposition should be enough to discredit the entire work. For two millennia, the church failed, and along came Brian McLaren to set everything right. Aren't we lucky that he showed up so soon. After establishing this proposition, he continues to build the case for a new view of Biblical authority, Theology Proper, Christology, and Soteriology. In light of all these changes, the church must act in new ways, specifically in relation to human sexuality, the future, and other world religions.There are some major flaws throughout the work. First, McLaren is wrong concerning his history. His Greco-Roman/Jewish distinction is not in line with either the Biblical record or contemporary Jewish authors. The claims he makes on behalf of first century Judaism are of his own creation. Second, he is a poor exegete. There are frequent cases of bad interpretation that do not hold to the internal scrutiny of the passage that has been selected (his treatment concerning Romans comes to mind). Third, he destroys straw men. Undoubtedly, a man as well traveled as McLaren has encountered some strange folks. However, they do not represent entire movements. Fourth, this road has been traveled before. McLaren would do well to read the works of Shailer Mathews and Harry Emerson Fosdick. He will find men of like concern and belief. Then he should read several accounts of World War 1 followed by a summary of Karl Barth. McLaren's New Kind of Christianity is the closest thing to pure theological liberalism in 75 years. It was discredited once before and will be discredited again.There is so little of value here. If Machen were alive, he would write a book entitled Christianity vs A New Kind of Christianity. What McLaren offers is a piously hopeful, but redemptively bankrupt vision of the Gospel. It is sad how influential this book is bound to become.
    • 5/5
      Loved it. It answered many of my questions and worded some of my inner unworded questions.
    • 5/5
      I read/listen a lot of books. This is really a pearl of wisdom, practical advice and reasonable theology
    • 5/5
      Well written, very insightful and even handed. Much to contemplate here. Making a lot of sense to me these days.
    • 5/5
      This book presents a gentler, kinder and more authentic path in keeping with who Christ was and is. I welcome this desperately needed viewpoint. At the very least it showed me how to respectfully listen to others, and at the most to have an open heart.

      I have read or listened to 4 other of Brian’s books and find them challenging and captivating.
    • 5/5
      McLaren tracks Biblical themes to contemporary life, and works hard to present religion as something that actually "works", if only more people would try it. For example, the "peaceable kingdom" is a powerful and persistent theme in scripture--promised by the God of the Tanak, ushered in by Jesus, and repeatedly evoked by St Paul. [63, 65, 150]. And yet the contemporary "Churches" -- now almost extinct as a result of "Mega" syndication by media entities -- have almost entirely ignored this powerful message. McLaren to his credit, tracks this theme into our lives from its Biblical roots.Another theme which McLaren beautifully lifts up from the Scripture is the importance of an inclusive, diverse and "beloved community". McLaren tracks this theme as a continuing process from the earliest Biblical roots, and manages to pull it through the martyrs of the Reformation to the fractious present. McLaren devotes one section to a study of Book of Job, which all who love the Word will favorite. He notes that the Book is the oldest of the Hebrew Canon and that it is meant to begin, not end, the great dialogue in which we are all engaged. [87-95].Christianity has been stained and discredited by so-called conservative Christians. [6-7] However, McLaren spends little time on the Ralph Reed political fund-raising and the Roger Ailes Luntz-Rovian focus-groups who were paid by Neo-feudalist billionaires to convert "Christians" into haters. McLaren does not go negative. He steps directly forward with the truth of the gospel teaching -- with our sacred lives expressed in wonderful processes of lived theology, and an evolving understanding of the divine.
    • 4/5
      "A New Kind of Christianity" seems to be a bit different than McLaren's previous works. Aside from a few ethical issues he touches upon (i.e. sexuality, pluralism), this work seems to be primarily about a new hermeneutic rather than emergent theology. I was struck by McLaren's insightful analysis of Romans, along with a cursory review of Genesis, Exodus, and Jonah. It quickly became obvious that McLaren seems to interpret Scripture from a metaphorical perspective rather than a literal interpretation commonly held by many evangelicals today. I believe this is a good thing since literal interpretations of Scripture have led to many evils wrought upon world history (slavery, Crusades, witch hunts, Manifest Destiny, racism, etc.) and not to mention the damage it does to the context for which the Bible was written (i.e. 1st century Judaism). Instead, McLaren encourages his readers to begin reading the Bible through the lens of a continuous story narrative rather than from a deterministic, Greco-Roman, constitutional style. Thus, allowing the Bible to essentially read us rather than us trying to read it with our own biased views. In most part I agree with his principles, however, I believe McLaren took license with some of his interpretations (i.e. associating the eunuch of Acts as a homosexual). I don't think this is McLaren's best work, but it's certainly not his worst. He put a lot of thought and effort into this work, most of which had an impact on the way I now view the Bible along with its meaning and application to my life. I didn't agree with everything (I never do with any book), but in typical McLaren fashion, there was a lot of fresh new insight into how we should live amongst other believers, what the kingdom of God should look like, and how we should incarnate that kingdom on earth... now.
    • 3/5
      I liked the ideas in this book, but I felt the ideas were a bit over explained at times. The writing could have been stronger, and a little less dense. But this is a good read for those truly interested in thoughtful conversation about faith.
    • 5/5
      I've previously read a couple of different books by McLaren, including "A Generous Orthodoxy," which I found both helpful and, at times, a little forced in its methodology. However, this new contribution is a much needed voice in the Christian community. On a couple of rare occasions McLaren will over-simplify to allow a concept to fit a mold, but on a whole this book begins discussions which simply must happen in 21st century Christianity. I highly recommend this work, both as an individual read and a group discussion starter. I will grant it a rare 5 stars.