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A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith |  | Author: Brian D. Mclaren
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $15.37
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Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 3056
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0061853984
Dewey Decimal Number: 230
EAN: 9780061853982
ASIN: 0061853984
Publication Date: February 1, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 54
 A New Kind of Christianity July 28, 2010
Katherine C. Snuggs (North Carolina)
I have not read this book by Brian McLaren. I have read two other of his books. So I want the opportunity to read this one also.There was a review in a local newspaper.
 A New Kind of Christianity July 26, 2010
J. Lindner (Gem Lake, MN United States)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
A New Kind of Christianity is an important book that seeks to illustrate how the Christian religion is in need of a major overhaul. Author Brian Maclaren poses his thesis in the form of ten questions ranging from God and Jesus to sex and the future of religion. He states that the classic theological understanding of God, which he calls the Greco-Roman Theos, really accomplishes nothing that Jesus truly taught his followers to believe. Instead, he introduces a new vision of God, Elohim, based on the original Hebrew scriptures. This God is loving, helpful, and wants his followers to live Christlike lives.
Maclaren will find many who willingly take his ideas and run with them, but will also find many who will scoff and reject those same ideas. This mainly happens because the God Theos is so ingrained in our culture and society that people do not want to leave their comfort zone. Theos requires strict obedience. He fosters hate and killing in his name. This is an imperial God. Maclaren points out that this is not the message of Jesus. And if God and Jesus are one, then it cannot possibly be the message God wants his followers to embrace.
This imperial God has been in the vangaurd of religion ever since Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity and authorized it in ancient Rome. We are inheritors of that legacy. It is regal, kingly, authoritative, and some people make a good living selling that God. But as in the scriptures, Jesus upsets that apple cart every chance he gets. Samaritan women and men, harlots, tax collectors all were received by Jesus into God's kingdom. In our modern age we need to follow this example and open our church doors to all regardless of their sins and flaws. After all, Jesus came to save the world, not judge it (John 3:17). When will people listen to that message?
Maclaren's writing style is provocative and engaging. He presents his message in the form of responses, not answers, to his ten questions. Anyone who picks up this book will not become lost in a theological quagmire, but instead, if they keep their minds open to new ways of looking at things, will see how simple the message of the Bible truly is. Maclaren says the Bible must be taken in its sum total, not just bits and pieces. He doesn't admit it, but the evangelicals have been saying this same thing all along. But one must take the Bible in its entirity with an open mind fixed on the end message of Christ's love, not God's vindictiveness towards those currently outside the church (homosexuals, unbelievers, etc.). This book should be required reading at all churches, not just the progressive churches who want to make the changes Maclaren proposes. If all did read it, old Theos will finally be relegted to the dustbins of history where he belongs.
The Quest For Something New July 13, 2010
Thurman L. Faison (Florida)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Brian McLaren has written a most thought provoking book and is asking for a collective response from the church to help find solutions. He acknowledges the fact that we have in the church, "something real and something wrong". He is challenging the church to a kind of faith deeper than mere beliefs. In modern language he is asking the church universal, "are we there yet"? He says we need a new kind of reformation, not like Martin Luther who said, "here I stand" which so often typifies our creedal positions and we become stagnated in them. Sometimes, so much that we will kill anyone who diverges from the official clerical positions ie, "The Inquisitions". So McLaren says we should adopt a new posture,not "here we stand", but, "here we go". The point being, we move forward in truth and understanding and try to express it in our age and in our circumstances. He is making this point so we will not be restricted by "hierarchal constraints". He talks about the early church, the church of the middle ages, and the church of today and how each representation and expression of the church became a quagmire of theologies,creedal positions, and ecclesiastical authority. This has tended to stifle new interpretations and new inquiries into the nature of Christ and the meaning and effect of redemption and the kingdom of God in us and in the world around us. Although many will disagree with some of his assumptions and conclusions, it is well worth the readers time to ponder and consider his premises. He brings to our attention the diversity of the church at large in teachings, emphasis and interpretations of the scriptures and points out it has always been that way. The early church took many forms and broke off into many groups with various leaders emphasizing points and ways of thought that was not accepted by the others. He boldly asks the question, "what if the christian faith is supposed to exist in a variety of forms"? In other words, what if we sometimes differ in our opinions and conclusions, it can never stop the activity of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of those who believe. The book is replete with scripture and presents a lot of truth.
Thurman L Faison Author To The Spiritually Inclined (Volume 1)
Provocative July 12, 2010
Joel M. Usina (Lillington, NC)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
It may go without saying, but this is a must read for anyone interested in the development of the Christian faith, especially (maybe only) in America (or the West). The challenge of certain long-standing paradigms brings fresh questions to the table; questions that do need to be asked. Although I may land in a different place responding to the same questions, there are some beneficial (and appropriate) gleanings to be found in McLaren's work.
 He missed the point July 10, 2010
William L. Knecht
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
At the urging of my libertarian grand-daughter, I ordered a copy of McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity from Amazon (which was delivered within a oouple of days -- thank you). He and others like Schaeffer want to join the great Reformers of earlier years but their efforts to be leaders in weaning themselves and their fellow emergents from the religion of the Hebrews and the early Christians is doomed to failure. They may be followers but not leaders.
McLaren's proposal that all interested should sit down around a table and talk reminded me first of when Chamberlain and Hitler sat down in Munich to talk things out. That didn't last long, did it? And Hitler and Stalin sat down and made an agreement about the future as they planned the division of Poland. Stalin learned that it didn't last long, either. The same day that Hitler marched on Poland in 1939 was the day that I was forced to sale from Southampton for New York. Sad day.
I found the following issues with McLaren's latest work:
1) Lousy indexing
2) Editorial failures (but can't find any examples at the moment for I was not reading with a pen in hand at first as I browsed)
3) No mention of other emergents who failed, i.e., L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology); David Koresh (Branch Davidians). In 1929 Victor Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant and a Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath School teacher, claimed that he had a new message for the church. It was submitted in the form of a book titled, The Shepherd's Rod, The 144,000, A Call for Reformation. It didn't go far, did it?
4) Total failure in describing changes in ancient church (see some reviews)
5) No scripute index
Good points:
1) Recognized various apostasies
Back to his search for answers. Naturally he paid no attention to the advice that the early Apostle James gave to those who were seeking. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God (James 3:5). That's always been my first point of search. And for me it has worked into what is this old grump's 82 year.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 54
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