Book Review: A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith by Brian D. McLaren

A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith
by Brian D. McLaren
HarperOne, 306 pp. $24.99

Reviewed by Martha K. Baker   


    Brian McLaren has written one of the most important books he could -- not only within his own canon of nearly 20 books but important also for all questing Christians.
    A New Kind of Christianity answers many, many questions while encouraging more to be asked. McLaren’s study, his prayer, his searching and researching have encouraged two thoughts: The bad news, he says, is “the Christian faith in all its forms is in trouble,” but the good news is “the Christian faith in all its forms is pregnant with new possibilities.”
    He explores both conclusions. He examines chapter and verse of the Bible and dissects gossip, malicious and delicious; he turns over rocks like Peter and retrieves the name of Jesus from smugglers. He proceeds carefully, gently but with determination, knowing that he cannot turn back but also knowing that others dare not go very far on this path, even with him as guide.
    McLaren, a well-known leader of the “emergent”-church movement, spreads the 10 questions, many he has been asked by other seekers, over two parts: Book I, “Unlocking and Opening,” and Book II, “Emerging and Exploring.” Included in Book I are “The God Question” (comprising “Is God violent?” and “From a Violent Tribal God to a Christlike God”), and “The Authority Question” (“How Should the Bible Be Understood?”). He distinguish words in the Bible from what he calls the “Greco-Roman Narrative.” Although his thesis might be hard-slogging for those whose minds do not bend toward the philosophical, this initial discussion is essential for understanding the rest of his book. However, he refreshes the thesis each time it comes up, so before the book is ended, all is clear. For example, near the end he writes, “The good news, we must remember, is not the version shaped by the Greco-Roman narrative; it is the good news of the kingdom of God, the message proclaimed by Jesus and shaped by the Jewish narratives of creation, liberation, and reconciliation.”
    In Book I, McLaren also levies against the Bible as constitution and pursuasively supports the idea that it is conversation. He juxtaposes the historical Jesus versus the hysterical Jesus fabricated out of others’ needs, and he speaks from the Kingdom of God.
    In Book II, McLaren gets practical. He asks “the church question”: “What do we do about the church?” When he asks “the sex question,” “Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it?,” he employs the sad and funky word “fundasexuals” to describe the fundamentalist whose religion squirms almost solely on sex. He also asks questions about defining the future, relating to people of other faiths, and translating questions into acts.
    Some of his points are so pithy that they need to be studied. For example: “Jesus’ death and resurrection ... aren’t merely doctrines to affirm... They are a paradigmatic summons to participation and anticipation.” And another: “To say the kingdom of God is full born and fully present ... does not mean that it is fully grown or fully mature....” Also important is his intelligence on respecting other religions, and he explains clearly how to do this despite the verse that “no one comes to the father except through me.” is   All of Chapter 14, “What Is the Gospel?,” is vital.
    McLaren’s style is earnest and familiar, especially when he empathizes with how hard this “new kind of Christianity” might seem for some readers to swallow. His tone in these pastoral pauses is kind (he’s a “Gospel whisperer”), but he does not pussy-foot: “Quoting Bible verses to buttress ‘ethical’ positions clearly protects nobody from being a moral buffoon or clod.” His attempts at humor are pretty lame, and his organization of matter into zones and colors and charts aids in understanding. His equally helpful endnotes, which run 36 pages, include asides and forthright admissions, sources and resources (although McLaren does not mention John Shelby Spong as a source, the two men agree on many points, such as the continuation of Jewish stories into a new testament, and on methods of presenting them).
     Although McLaren’s (and Spong’s) books repeat themes, each also offers something new, a rich way of seeing and seeking and knowing. At the end of A New Kind of Christianity, McLaren places his latest book on its continuum: “...a new kind of Christianity [emphasis his] is not simply new -- in the sense of a new tree being planted at some distance from an old one. It is, rather, the green tips growing out on many of the fragile branches of the ancient tree of faith and spirituality that has been growing through history.” That’s important.