Review: Brian McLaren's 'A New Kind of Christianity' | Christianity Today

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Review: Brian McLaren's 'A New Kind of Christianity'

Brian McLaren's 'new' Christianity is not so much revolutionary as evolutionary.

Scot McKnight | posted 2/26/2010 10:16AM

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Reading the Bible through the lens of Jesus Christ is indeed the way to go. But to use Jesus against the God of Israel he worshiped and prayed to and loved and obeyed pits us against what Jesus himself is doing.

One must also ask the root question: How do we determine what is less or more "mature"?

In particular, the evolutionary theory of God contains another fatal flaw. It's not the fact that it was tried out in the 19th-century Religionsgeschichtliche Schule ("history of religion school") of Germany and has been shown inadequate (though it finds an occasional admirer in folks like Karen Armstrong). And it's not the fact that the category of "evolution" is about as modernistic and imperialistic of a category I can think of. No, the singular flaw is this: The flow of the Bible is not neat. It doesn't fit into an evolutionary scheme. There are as many mercy passages in the Old Testament as there are grace-and-love passages in the New. What's more, passages about God's grace stand side-by-side with passages about God's wrath (e.g., Hosea 1-3; Matt. 23-25). The evolutionary approach doesn't work because that's not how Scripture's narrative works. There is wrath in Revelation and there is covenant love in Genesis. And Jesus talks more about Abba and hell than does the rest of the Bible combined.

Unfortunately, this book lacks the "generosity" of genuine orthodoxy and, frankly, I find little space in it for orthodoxy itself. Orthodoxy for too many today means little more than the absence of denying what's in the creeds. But a robust orthodoxy means that orthodoxy itself is the lens through which we see theology. One thing about this book is clear: Orthodoxy is not central.

Alas, A New Kind of Christianity shows us that Brian, though he is now thinking more systemically, has fallen for an old school of thought. I read this book carefully, and I found nothing new. It may be new for Brian, but it's a rehash of ideas that grew into fruition with Adolf von Harnack and now find iterations in folks like Harvey Cox and Marcus Borg. For me, Brian's new kind of Christianity is quite old. And the problem is that it's not old enough.

Scot McKnight is professor of religion at North Park University in Chicago, and the author of many books, including The Jesus Creed.

Related Elsewhere:

A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith is available from ChristianBook.com and other book retailers.

Brian McLaren is the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Maryland.

Scot McKnight also wrote McLaren Emerging and The Ironic Faith of Emergents for Christianity Today. McKnight regularly writes on his blog, "Jesus Creed," and he wrote "The Five Streams of the Emerging Church" and "The Mary We Never Knew" for CT.

Christianity Today has a special section on The Emergence of Emergent.

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March 2010, Vol. 54, No. 3

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Ben Griffith

Posted: March 12, 2010 9:46 AM

I read this review when I was about half way through the book. I was right with everything you were saying. I see your points. But having finished the book, and then reread this review, I wonder if you even read the book. The points that you have made the crucial points to his argument are aspects of the book, but certainly not his thesis. The Greco-Roman narrative permeates the whole book, and while overstated, is still a legitimate concern (which Mclaren pointed out as problematic when Christianity becomes the religion of the state that killed the Christ). But the question about the evolution of God, which you make paramount, takes up only a few pages of the argument and is rarely relied on to discuss any of his other issues. I thought that the second half of the book was by far the best. He offers conversation starters for these crucial issues, but you ignore any praise for his real goals with this book?

Fred W. Puttroff, Jr.

Posted: March 11, 2010 3:24 PM

Mr. McLaren is as heretical as the Emergent Church movement that he helped found. The Apostle Paul, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Peter warned us of the false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing and Satan disguising himself as an Angel of Light. Wow. I cannot believe books by this Kook are sold in Christian Book stores....but, I have seen books by Professor Bart Erhman and Rob Bell in Christian Book stores, too. (I think they should be in cultic/satanic bookstores) Isn't the Body of Christ inside or outside of it's true denominations suppose to be change agents in this depraved and fallen world? However, these authors want to change the Word and the Body of Christ to conform to society's embracement of the "flesh". The true denominational church is one that embraces the Trinity and accepts God's Word as final and as the absolute Truth and that believes in Assurance and the Ressurection of Jesus Christ and of course His Deity.

Dan Hartshorn

Posted: March 10, 2010 11:15 AM