Q & R: Sorry, I’m not going to answer this, and here’s why …
Here's the Q:
My mom gave me your book, The Great Spiritual Migration, to read. Scanning it, it seems you are replacing existing creeds with your own new one?I am skeptical, so can you state in a paragraph or two, or point me to them, of exactly what you are saying.
Have seen the challenges of religion, have seen how denominationalism created divisions but prevented burnings at the stake, and have seen brilliant and loving leaders handle the gospel and the existence of an intimate God with excellence.
How would you summarize your final proposition, and given your lengthy journey with so many changes to date, is this your final landing point or maybe the next in what you are thinking through?
Here's the R:
Thanks for your questions, but I'm sorry, I won't be answering them. And I thought I should explain why.
You say that you skimmed my book, which means you didn't actually read it. Your comment about creeds makes that point especially clear.
And now you're asking me to summarize it in a paragraph or two?
I don't write books to tell people what to think, nor do I write books so that people don't need to think on their own.
I write books for the same reason I love to read books - I like to think, and books help me do so.
I love to spend time in the company of a writer who has thought about things I haven't thought about, or who sees from a vantage point from which I've never seen.
So that's why I write, to do for others what I enjoy people doing for me.
One of my mentors said, "Learning isn't a consequence of teaching and listening (or writing and reading), but of thinking."
To help people learn, I try to stimulate their thinking, and books are one channel for doing that.
I heard a story about someone asking a dancer if he could explain the meaning of his dance. "If I could have explained it, I wouldn't have danced it," he said. I suppose the same thing applies to writers. If I could have stimulated the learning I was hoping for in a paragraph, I would have written a paragraph, not a book.
I assume you didn't mean for your question to be insulting or demeaning, but it would be easy to take it that way. Something to keep in mind ...
I thought that this feedback would be more helpful than anything I could say as a direct answer to your questions.
On the positive side, even your skimming of the book seems to have gotten you thinking, and that's a good thing. And it took some energy or initiative to write to me, and that's a good thing too. God bless.
0 Comments3 Minutes
EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT: MY NEXT WRITING PROJECT!
Here's the Press Release from Fortress Press:
Best-Selling Author Pens Spiritual Travel Guide, Launches Series
Brian McLaren, noted author and activist, travels to the fragile Galapagos Islands, site of Charles Darwin’s revolutionary discoveries, to write a book on spirituality and human care for the planet
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Brian McLaren, the best-selling author of A New Kind of Christian, has long challenged his fellow Christians to care for the environment. This month, McLaren is traveling to the Galapagos Islands, known to scientists as a bellwether of climate change and its effects on flora and fauna. Based on his visit, he will write a spiritual travel guide to the islands, weaving together history, theology, and the impressions of the people he meets and the species under threat.
“For me, the Galapagos Islands are an intersection of things I love . . . a preserve for unique and threatened living creatures, a case study in the power of human beings to protect and restore fragile ecosystems that we’ve harmed, and a key location in the history of science,” said McLaren. “This pilgrimage will give me an opportunity to reflect on ecology, theology, and spirituality in a dynamic and evolving relationship”
McLaren’s book is the first in the new On Location series from Fortress Press, in which established authors will write spiritual travel guides to exotic and not-so-exotic locales.
“Honestly, I want to give some of my favorite authors a chance to visit—or revisit—places they’ve always wanted to go,” said Tony Jones, senior acquisitions editor at Fortress Press and curator of the series. “I know if I let them loose in a place that inspires them, fantastic books will follow.”
McLaren’s book will release in late 2019, followed annually by other books in the series.
Readers can follow McLaren’s travels June 21–29, 2018, on his blog (https://brianmclaren.net/blog/) and on Instagram (@brian_mclaren).
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Contact: Katie Clifford
cliffordk@fortresspress.com
612-330-3476
I leave Thursday, June 21, and I'll be posting primarily via Instragram.
If you'd like to receive notifications about the book, you can sign up here in a matter of seconds:
https://info.1517.media/acton/fs/blocks/showLandingPage/a/33371/p/p-0093/t/page/fm/0
I'm excited to share this experience with you!
0 Comments3 Minutes
Pastors – Join me on a retreat in October!
I'll be co-leading a retreat with the gifted and amazing Aisha Brooks-Lytle, Executive Presbyter of Greater Atlanta. We'll gather at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina.
Our theme:
LEADING VITAL CONGREGATIONS:
Building a Multi-Denominational/Multi-Faith Spiritual Movement
Growing numbers of pastors, denominational officials, and other spiritual leaders are seeing that we face two interrelated challenges in the next decade: building vibrant spiritual communities in these changing and fractious times, and helping those congregations converge in a larger spiritual movement that is multi-denominational and multi-faith as well.
Only 30 seats are available for this amazing event. Don't miss out!
You can learn more here ...
https://www.convergenceleadership.org/fall-leader-retreat
With all that's going on in our world, getting away for a few days of spiritual refreshment, renewal, and mutual encouragement will matter a lot ...
I hope you'll sign up asap!
0 Comments1 Minutes
Q & R: Fundamentalism?
Here's the Q:
Doubt I will get an answer but In have to try.In your books, there has been a few different places where you make a point that a term a fundamentalist uses (Inerrancy and Infalability) or some other word conservative Christians use that is not in the bible. If anything, you sound more propositional than I do. If this is the standard for hermeneutics, I am wandering if you can detail which passages of scriptures details the ideas or words of Emergence, Emerging, Emergent, and Emergentism? I looked in the bible and they are not there! (I use Logos 7 for my main bible study tool and that is where I looked).On a different subject, am wandering if you could explain to me who in fundamentalism decided to do some reductionism and make fundamentalism a foundational construction? Charles Spurgeon? Maybe D. M. Moody? I keep reading how fundamentalism is supposed to be foundational but just cannot seem to find anywhere who decided to reduce doctrine down to the Fundamentals of the faith-to five doctrines? Was there a team of scholars who did this work or just one or two people? My big problem is usually with people who can tell me but cannot show me why something is true or false. Maybe that is the real reason I only lasted three semesters in an Independent Fundamental Baptist Bible College.Back to my questions, so who decided fundamentalism would be foundational and who did the work to reduce everything down to five doctrines. Along with this, what did they reduce it from and could they reduce it even further? I would say yes.Thanks for at least reading my email to you
For me the "fundamentals of the faith" boil down to those given by Jesus: to love God and to love our neighbors. These two fundamentals will not satisfy many fundamentalists, I fear. They'll insist on asking, "Which God are we supposed to love? The God of the Baptists or the Brethren, the God of the Calvinists or the Methodists, the God of the Muslims or the Jews?" I'll respond by saying, "Whichever God Jesus was referring to." Then, still unsatisfied, they'll probably ask, "What exactly do you mean by love? And who is my neighbor?" At that point I'll probably mutter something incoherent about Samaritans and walk away.
0 Comments5 Minutes
Are you a parent or grandparent? Here’s a great resource to share with your kids …
Adam Thomas's primer on the Lord's Prayer for kids is just what I think we need. You can purchase it here:
https://wherethewind.com/2017/09/27/the-lords-prayer-learning-the-words-jesus-taught-2/
And stay tuned for a children's book I'm working on with gifted storyteller Gareth Higgins and amazing illustrator Heather Lynn Harris ... It will be called Cory and the Seventh Story ... coming later this year!
0 Comments1 Minute