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841c68a
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We must never underestimate our power to be wrong when talking about God, when thinking about God, when imagining God, whether in prose or in poetry. A generous orthodoxy, in contrast to the tense, narrow, or controlling orthodoxies of so much of Christian history, doesn't take itself too seriously. It is humble. It doesn't claim too much. It admits it walks with a limp.
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theology
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Brian D. McLaren |
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b7472e2
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But before Christianity was a rich and powerful religion, before it was associated with buildings, budgets, crusades, colonialism, or televangelism, it began as a revolutionary nonviolent movement promoting a new kind of aliveness on the margins of society.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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49924a2
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the more one respects Jesus, the more one must be brokenhearted, embarrassed, furious, or some combination thereof when one considers what we Christians have done with Jesus. That's certainly true when it comes to calling Jesus Lord, something we Christians do a lot, often without the foggiest idea of what we mean. Has he become (I shudder to ask this) less our Lord and more our Mascot?
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Brian D. McLaren |
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630f3f1
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The Church has little idea how unorthodox it is at any given moment. If a church can't yet be perfectly orthodox, it can, with the Holy Spirit's help and by the grace of God, be perpetually reformable.
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humility
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Brian D. McLaren |
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64e60a1
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What if the Christian faith is supposed to exist in a variety of forms rather than just one imperial one? What if it is both more stable and more agile--more responsive to the Holy Spirit--when it exists in these many forms? And what if, instead of arguing about which form is correct and legitimate, we were to honor, appreciate, and validate one another and see ourselves as servants of one grander mission, apostles of one greater message, s..
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Brian D. McLaren |
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f27807a
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The scarily brilliant Romantic poet and visionary William Blake dared to say what many of us have perhaps thought but kept to ourselves: "A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there's more conversation."
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Brian D. McLaren |
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a34b67a
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Imagine if organized religion organized billions of people and trillions of dollars to tackle the challenges that our economic and political systems are afraid or unwilling to tackle--a planet ravaged by unsustainable human behavior and an out-of-control consumptive economy, the growing gap between the rich minority and the poor majority, and the proliferation of weapons of all kinds--including weapons of mass destruction. "Wow," people fre..
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Brian D. McLaren |
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b1a5bba
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I have no doubt that Jesus would actually practice the neighborliness he preached rather than following our example of religious supremacy, hostility, fear, isolation, misinformation, exclusion, or demonization.
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religion
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Brian D. McLaren |
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893abcf
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Accumulating orthodoxy makes it harder year-by-year to be a Christian than it was in Jesus' day.
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religion
orthodoxy
tradition
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Brian D. McLaren |
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07f98bd
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As a committed Christian, I have always struggled with locked doors--doors by which we on the inside lock out "the others"--Jews, Muslims, Mormons, liberals, doubters, agnostics, gay folks, whomever. The more we insiders succeed in shutting others out, the more I tend to feel locked in, caged, trapped."
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outsiders
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Brian D. McLaren |
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6891d69
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If we speak of an angry God at all, we will speak of a God angry at indifference, angry at apathy, angry at racism and violence, angry at inhumanity, angry at waste, angry at destruction, angry at injustice, angry at hostile religious clannishness. That anger is never against us (or them); it is against what is against us (and them).
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god
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Brian D. McLaren |
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07d4ce7
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Isn't the real scandal not that our religious leaders might be imagined walking across a road or talking as friends together in a bar, but rather that their followers are found speaking against one another as enemies, day after day in situation after situation?
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Brian D. McLaren |
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1c42baf
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People have no idea how strong a pull sex, money, and power have on them until they try to resist their pull.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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b5811fb
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It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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f4cb704
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when theologians read the Bible through the lens of the Exodus narrative, they are called "liberation theologians," but their counterparts who read it through the Greco-Roman narrative are never labeled "domination theologians" or "colonization theologians." Similarly, we have "black theology" and "feminist theology," but Greco-Roman orthodoxy is never called "white theology" or "male theology." --
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Brian D. McLaren |
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12f6f29
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Whatever ember of love for goodness flickers within us, however feeble or small... that's what the Spirit works with, until that spark glows warmer and brighter. From the tiniest beginning, our whole lives--our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength--can be set aflame with love for God.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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c18b816
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If you don't want to worship a guy you can beat up, then I might humbly suggest you reconsider Caesar and the Greco-Roman narrative. It sounds like 'Christ and him crucified' is not for you. At least not yet.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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7c32107
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If a spiritual community only points back to where it has been or if it only digs in its heels where it is now, it is a dead end or a parking lot, not a way.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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7bb024c
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That is what mature faith requires -- not pride over how much one sees and understands, but humility, the feeling that one is still a child, certain of so little, still so dependent on God and others, with so much still to learn -- including so much more to learn about humility.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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78a0734
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MATTHEW, MARK, AND LUKE tell the story of Jesus in ways similar to one another (which is why they're often called the synoptic gospels--with a similar optic, or viewpoint). Many details differ (and the differences are quite fascinating), but it's clear the three compositions share common sources. The Fourth Gospel tells the story quite differently. These differences might disturb people who don't understand that storytelling in the ancient ..
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Brian D. McLaren |
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c67f5e2
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But in the end you cannot serve two masters, Theos and Elohim, the god of the Greco-Roman philosophers and Caesars and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the violent god of profit proclaimed by the empire and the compassionate God of justice proclaimed by the prophets. You can try to hybridize them and compromise them for centuries, but like oil and water they eventually separate and prove incompatible. They refuse to alloy. They produce..
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Brian D. McLaren |
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db73db0
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Too often we put the gospel of Jesus through the strainer of consumerist-capitalism and retain only the thin broth that this modern-day Caesar lets pass through.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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bb09881
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Something deep in our conscience tells us that hostility is part of the problem to be overcome in the world, not the means by which problems will be overcome. Hostility is a symptom of the disease, not part of the cure.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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36343f8
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The romance of Creator and creation is far more wonderful and profound than anyone can ever capture in words.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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2409b70
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We must not define Jesus and his kingdom by fitting them within conventional understandings of kings and kingdoms. Rather, we must judge and deconstruct those conventional definitions in light of Jesus and his example.
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understanding
kings
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Brian D. McLaren |
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f4a328d
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Our choice, it seems, is whether we will let our past and present sufferings be sufficient to soften and break us, or whether we will resist and harden ourselves so even more suffering is required.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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21dad38
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and somehow, the more we would face our own demons of pride, greed, and lust, the more gentle and kind we would become toward others, the less judgmental, the less harsh, the more empathetic, because we realize as never before that everyone is pitched in an invisible inner battle, and the battle isn't easy for anyone.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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f8d06b2
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We might say that whatever our God is like, whether or not our God exists, our God is still powerful because our image of God transforms us. Like an image in a mirror, our God concept reflects back to us the image of what we aspire to become. Powerful and vengeful? Kind and merciful? Dominating and in control? Relational and respectful? Like God, like believer, we might say. Our image of God, our image of ourselves, and our processes of ind..
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Brian D. McLaren |
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8474298
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But there is a more catholic understanding of the term apostolic: it means missional. The apostles were those called together to learn (as disciples) so they could be sent out on a mission (which is what both the Greek root for apostle and the Latin root for mission mean). From this vantage point, disciples are apostles-in-training; Christian discipleship (or spiritual formation ) is training for apostleship, training for mission. From this..
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Brian D. McLaren |
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2decd03
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when wealth is your god, weapons are your sacrament, and your own children are your sacrifice--
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Brian D. McLaren |
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b12f957
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Speaking of African Americans, the horrors of the African slave trade are more connected to the enslavement unleashed by Columbus than most people realize.26 The Portuguese began enslaving and exporting the native peoples of Labrador beginning in 1501. Early in colonial history, the British paid some tribes to capture members of other tribes; the British then sold these captives as slaves. Charleston, South Carolina, was a center for export..
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Brian D. McLaren |
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99aa4df
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It turns out that the famous dictum, associated with Dostoevsky's Ivan Karamazov, can run both ways: yes, without God everything is theoretically permissible... but believers can find ways to use God to justify just about anything as well.
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religion
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Brian D. McLaren |
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746317c
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There is a difference -- subtle but very significant -- between having faith in my faith (i.e., faith in my intellectual concepts about God -- another way of saying "leaning on my own understanding") and having faith in God. There is a corresponding difference between doubting my faith and doubting God."
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Brian D. McLaren |
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3eb2295
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We often fail to deconstruct how proslavery theology still influences American Christianity. But simply put: Theological arguments upheld the institution of slavery long after every other argument failed. American Christian theology was born in a cauldron of proslavery ideology, and one of the spectacular failures of the Christian church today is its inability to name, interrogate, confront, repent, and dismantle the cauldron which has shap..
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Brian D. McLaren |
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6fb6b52
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Comfort and power can become great enemies of true spirituality, which explains why we often say that the prophets come not only to comfort the afflicted, but also to afflict the comfortable.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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7a0d7cd
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These special holidays give rise to various liturgical calendars that suggest we should mark our days not only with the cycles of the moon and seasons, but also with occasions to tell our children the stories of our faith community's past so that this past will have a future, and so that our ancient way and its practices will be rediscovered and renewed every year.
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lent
liturgical-year
easter
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Brian D. McLaren |
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135de88
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Jesus called disciples so He could send them out as apostles. They were called together to learn so they could be sent out to teach and serve.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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4e92fa5
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When any sector of the church stops learning, God simply overflows the structures that are in the way and works outside them with those willing to learn.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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4037b50
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Trying to stop people from learning, sharing, and loving is a losing game because it means working against God and the plotline of God's universe.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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9fed2c4
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Through study we welcome the light of God into our minds.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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dc37546
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I guess you could say that the Bible is a book that doesn't try to tell you what to think. Instead, it tries to teach you how to think. It stretches your thinking; it challenges you to think bigger and harder than you ever have.
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Brian D. McLaren |
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32a347a
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Why is it that the choice among churches always seems to be the choice between intelligence on ice and ignorance on fire? --as quoted by Diana Butler Bass1
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Brian D. McLaren |
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0fa42c0
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Never accept and be content with unanalyzed assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the people, about the church or Christianity. Never be afraid to ask questions about the work we have inherited or the work we are doing. There is no question that should not be asked or that is outlawed. The day we are completely satisfied with what we have been doing; the day we have found the perfect, unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer..
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Brian D. McLaren |
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5d6efad
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Even though Pope Urban VIII reversed the pronouncements of his predecessors by declaring slavery unacceptable in the mid-seventeenth century, the vast majority of Protestant Christians in America considered slavery and white supremacy to be absolutely consistent with "biblical" Christianity. It would take American Protestants over a hundred years to make slavery history. Even then, they would find ways to cleverly camouflage the old Doctrin..
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Brian D. McLaren |