En Español: Four Stages of Faith Development
Sincere thanks to Jonathan Peralta Gutierrez for translating this chart into Spanish and offering it for your use. Versions of the chart originally appeared in Faith After Doubt and Do I Stay Christian?
Please credit as follows: By Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net), translated by Jonathan Peralta Gutierrez.
Download here:
Docx: [Maclaren_Brian] Apéndice 1_las cuatro etapas de la fe
PDF: [Maclaren_Brian] Apéndice 1_las cuatro etapas de la fe
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Q & R: What Order to Read my Books?
Here's the Q:
My cousin who is a pastor recommended your book, Do I Stay Christian, for me to read as like others, I question my path. Reviewing your books, I also purchased The Secret Message of Jesus and Faith After Doubt. Books of similar messages can serve as stepping stones. Of the books you have written, is there a recommendation of read first, second, third, etc. And thank you in advance. My gut tells me your writing will point me in the direction I need to find.
Here's the R:
That's a really interesting question, and it's taken me a while to answer to because ... I don't know how to answer it!
Let me recommend a few starting points and pathways forward based on where you would locate yourself -- where your starting point is:
_____ Of the three you've purchased already, I'd recommend this order:
Faith After Doubt, Do I Stay Christian, and Secret Message of Jesus
For others seeking where to start ...
_____ If you want to read my newest books that best reflect my current thinking, concerns, and creativity (as of 2024):
Life After Doom, Do I Stay Christian, Faith After Doubt, and my ebooks on bias and authoritarianism (available here).
_____If you are a conservative or traditional Christian (Evangelical, Catholic, etc.) who is just beginning to ask questions and seeking some more space to grow:
I'd recommend you begin with Faith After Doubt, and follow that up with A New Kind of Christian, and then A Generous Orthodoxy.
_____If you are deeply frustrated with your Christian faith and identity:
I'd recommend you begin with Do I Stay Christian, follow that up with The Great Spiritual Migration, and then Life After Doom. You may also benefit from Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?
_____If you have "deconstructed" or "lost your faith" and are trying to rebuild your theology:
I'd recommend A New Kind of Christianity, followed by The Secret Message of Jesus, then We Make the Road by Walking, and then, The Story We Find Ourselves In.
_____If you are seeking to move beyond Christian supremacy, exclusivism, traditional doctrine of hell, etc.:
I think you'd benefit first from Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?, and then The Last Word and the Word After That.
_____If you are struggling with elements of traditional Christian theology:
Biblical Literalism: Do I Stay Christian?
Hell and Christian Exclusiism: The Last Word and the Word After That
Traditional atonement theories: A New Kind of Christian, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road
Evolution/Science/Faith: The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey
Church: The Great Spiritual Migration
Bible: We Make the Road by Walking
Global Crises: Life After Doom, Everything Must Change
_____If you are more interested in spirituality than in theology
I'd recommend Naked Spirituality, Finding Our Way Again, The Great Spiritual Migration
_____If you're a parent seeking to read something to your kids:
I'd recommend Cory and the Seventh Story, an illustrated book for young readers coauthored with Gareth Higgins.
_____ If you're interested in faith and science, spirituality and nature, etcl:
The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey, Life After Doom, Do I Stay Christian?
_____ If you like fiction:
I wrote a trilogy of "instructive fiction/creative nonfiction" called A New Kind of Christian, the Story We Find Ourselves In, and The Last Word and the Word After That.
I have a new science fiction trilogy coming out, starting in July 2025. The first volume is called The Last Voyage.
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Friends in England – More Connection Opportunities
I'll be with the good people of Oasis Waterloo on Monday August 19 at 6 pm. 
Then on Tuesday 20 August, I'll be at Westminster Theological College with Progressive Christian Network. Details here:
https://www.pcnbritain.org.uk/events/detail/brian-mclaren
I'll be in Totnes, in Devon, on Wednesday 21 August, 1 - 4 pm. We'll be engaging with my new book, Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart.
Learn more here: https://ttm.churchsuite.com/events/ls6a3cra
Then I'll be at Greenbelt August 22-25.
Hope to see you at one or more events!
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Life After Doom Playlist
If you're reading or about to read Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart, here's a playlist.
This World is So F*d Up, by Michael Franti - the song shows up a few times in the last few chapters of the book - two versions. First the original ...
Then this version from Shannon Leigh:
Maybe When We're Gone, a song I wrote that my friend Fran McKendree recorded shortly before his passing. The "we" in the song are our fellow creatures.
Bruce Cockburn's Beautiful Creatures, 2 versions ... one from Hawksley Workman, one from Bruce:
Here's Cockburn's original, with art by Gullerud
You Don't Have to Know the Way by the Lyndsey Scott (another song mentioned in the book):
Burn the White Flag by Joseph:
Seminole Wind by John Anderson has a special connection for me, as I live on Seminole and Calusa lands.
MaMuse offers We Shall Be Known in this beautiful setting ...
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What can I do as an individual?
People who have not yet finished my new book Life After Doom might want to "cut to the chase" and ask, "What can I do as an individual about our current situation of multi-crisis, including (but not limited to) climate change and ecological overshoot?"
Those who read (or listen to) the whole book will understand why this question has many dimensions to it, and "cutting to the chase" can actually be a form of bypassing some needed understandings and change in us. In other words, how can I change the situation? can unintentionally lead us to miss this question: how can I change so I bring a better version of my to our current situation?
Still, I'm glad for anyone who is asking what they can do to make a difference.
I love what Bill McKibben often says: "The most important thing an individual can do right now is not be such an individual." In other words, instead of thinking that your individual actions alone can "fix" our problem, you can join a movement ... become part of what I call in the book Team Earth ... and band together in groups of two or three or ten or twenty (to learn and support one another as islands of sanity and constructive action).
Then those little bands of two or three can participate in larger movements -- like Bill McKibben's Third Act or Blessed Tomorrow and its partners or the Sunrise Movement.
I also love what Katharine Hayhoe recommends:
Start a conversation about why climate change matters and what people like us can do about it
Join a climate action group (like those above)
Consider where you keep your money ... and move your money (and investments) to ethical funds. [I recommend you check out Divest Invest.]
Spark ideas for change at work or school
Hold politicians accountable
Reduce your personal footprint AND make your actions contagious by talking about them. (If you want suggestions on reducing your personal energy footprint, you'll find great resources at EcoAmerica. It is hard to generalize, but here are the kinds of decisions that are most helpful, in order of impact: live car free, shift to an electric vehicle, fly less (especially long haul flights), use renewable energy, use public transport, increase your home's energy efficiency, switch to a vegan diet (or begin by reducing meat consumption), get a heat pump, improve your cooking equipment, improve your home heating.
And ... of course, VOTE for candidates who take our relationship to the Earth seriously, and encourage others to do so as well. (That means to refuse to vote for climate-denialist candidates and parties.)
I also recommend staying informed by paying attention to journalists who "get it" and following good climate podcasts. You'll find other recommendations and resources in the Appendices for the book that you can download here.
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