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Review
“A New Kind of Christianity is a stellar accomplishment, a combination of hard tack fact and unfettered hope, an overview in delightful narrative of the long way of our coming to this time and of the multiform ways of our arriving. In every way, a dispatch from the front.” (Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence )
“Very rarely a book appears that houses the power to change a generation. A New Kind of Christianity is nothing less than one of those moments.”’ (Peter Rollins, Ikon )
“Brian’s writing is brave and honest, vulnerable and courageous, disturbing and unsettling, reassuring and hopeful. Every now and then you come across a book you’ve been waiting for. A New Kind of Christianity is that book.” (Steve Chalke MBEFounder of Oasis GlobalUN Special Advisor on Human TraffickingSteve Chalke MBEFounder of Oasis GlobalUN Special Advisor on Human Trafficking—Steve Chalke, MBE, founder of Oasis Global, UN Special Advisor on Human Trafficking )
“Some books provide us with information about the world, but every once in a while a book appears that enables us to imagine new, more wonderful worlds. The book you hold in your hand is one of these.” (Peter Rollins, Ikon )
“A new reformation is taking place in Christianity. Brian McLaren is one of its leading voices and A New Kind of Christianity is a roadmap for this reformation. This is a very important book.” (Adam Hamilton, author of Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White and Senior Pastor, The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. )
“Now and then gifted people emerge who see the situation from a higher and more helpful level. Brian McLaren is one of those seers.” (Richard Rohr, author of Everything Belongs )
“Brian McLaren is an author, speaker, pastor, and networker among innovative Christian leaders, thinkers, and activists. He is the author of A New Kind of Christianity...[a] bold and imaginative new work.” (Spirituality and Practice )
“These are questions that many in the church, and beyond, are asking. His patient explorations will prove helpful to many who value Evangelicalism’s piety but worry that it has failed to thoughtfully engage hard but unavoidable questions.” (Crosscut.com )
“[When reading] Brian McLaren’s latest - A New Kind of Christianity…one gets the impression we are at a pivot point, a moment that upsets the whole terrain of theological allegiances having to do with the post evangelical emerging church developments of the last ten-fifteen years.” (Englewood Review of Books )
“...A New Kind of Christianity is incredibly well written, engaging, thoughtful and provoking….one of the most significant conversations that will shape Christianity for years to come.” (The Faithful Reader )
“...Reading a Brian McLaren book is not for the theologically faint of heart... McLaren calls the church to a deeper and broader vision of the gospel that makes room for contemporary issues of justice and reconciliation” (UrbanFaith.com )
“Brian McLaren, considered one of the more articulate leaders in the emergent church, has a lot of questions. And he hopes Christians won’t avoid those questions. In his new book, A New Kind of Christianity, McLaren questions conventional truths and calls for a major overhaul of the Christian faith.” (The Christian Post )
“Christians must be unlocked from‘a prison’ of long-held assumptions and have the freedom to ask honest questions, Brian McLaren indicates in his newest book, A New Kind of Christianity. He’s not advocating for a new set of beliefs, he says, but rather a ‘new way of believing.’” (The Christian Post )
“...McLaren is considered one of the country’s most influential evangelicals, and his new book, A New Kind of Christianity, takes aim at some core doctrinal beliefs. McLaren is rethinking Jesus’ mission on Earth, and even the purpose of the crucifixion.” (NPR Morning Edition )
“...A New Kind of Christianity... has lit the fuses of critics in the Christian press and blogosphere.” (Publishers Weekly Religion BookLine )
“A New Kind of Christianity is the book that many of us have been wanting McLaren to write for years. …Sparks hopeful conversation… a beautiful and thoughtful way forward.” (Englewood Review of Books )
“[McLaren] has been hailed widely as one of the most significant religious leaders of our time, compared by some to the leaders of the Protestant Reformation….In articulating this longing and his disquiet with the status quo, McLaren strikes a chord with many.” (The Christian Century )
“McLaren has become an important and controversial figure in Christian thought…. Structured around 10 basic questions about the faith, the book will provoke debate. And it should–these are important questions worthy of our thought and (loving) discussion.” (Relevant Magazine )
“McLaren is advocating a different, perhaps upgraded form of Christianity that takes a more objective view of history and employs a better interpretation of the Bible,... rendering it more applicable and accessible to a modern, educated people.” (Huffington Post )
“...Very thought provoking.” (Greater Than Magazine )
“McLaren clearly has been asking important questions about Christian witness for decades.... A New Kind of Christianity continues McLaren’s project of assessing and reassessing our assumptions concerning the foundations of modern Christian practice by asking ten important questions about the pillars of the Christian faith.” (The Other Journal )
“Very rarely a book appears that houses the power to change a generation. A New Kind of Christianity is nothing less than one of those moments.”’ (Peter Rollins, Ikon )
“Brian’s writing is brave and honest, vulnerable and courageous, disturbing and unsettling, reassuring and hopeful. Every now and then you come across a book you’ve been waiting for. A New Kind of Christianity is that book.” (Steve Chalke MBEFounder of Oasis GlobalUN Special Advisor on Human TraffickingSteve Chalke MBEFounder of Oasis GlobalUN Special Advisor on Human Trafficking—Steve Chalke, MBE, founder of Oasis Global, UN Special Advisor on Human Trafficking )
“Some books provide us with information about the world, but every once in a while a book appears that enables us to imagine new, more wonderful worlds. The book you hold in your hand is one of these.” (Peter Rollins, Ikon )
“A new reformation is taking place in Christianity. Brian McLaren is one of its leading voices and A New Kind of Christianity is a roadmap for this reformation. This is a very important book.” (Adam Hamilton, author of Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White and Senior Pastor, The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. )
“Now and then gifted people emerge who see the situation from a higher and more helpful level. Brian McLaren is one of those seers.” (Richard Rohr, author of Everything Belongs )
“Brian McLaren is an author, speaker, pastor, and networker among innovative Christian leaders, thinkers, and activists. He is the author of A New Kind of Christianity...[a] bold and imaginative new work.” (Spirituality and Practice )
“These are questions that many in the church, and beyond, are asking. His patient explorations will prove helpful to many who value Evangelicalism’s piety but worry that it has failed to thoughtfully engage hard but unavoidable questions.” (Crosscut.com )
“[When reading] Brian McLaren’s latest - A New Kind of Christianity…one gets the impression we are at a pivot point, a moment that upsets the whole terrain of theological allegiances having to do with the post evangelical emerging church developments of the last ten-fifteen years.” (Englewood Review of Books )
“...A New Kind of Christianity is incredibly well written, engaging, thoughtful and provoking….one of the most significant conversations that will shape Christianity for years to come.” (The Faithful Reader )
“...Reading a Brian McLaren book is not for the theologically faint of heart... McLaren calls the church to a deeper and broader vision of the gospel that makes room for contemporary issues of justice and reconciliation” (UrbanFaith.com )
“Brian McLaren, considered one of the more articulate leaders in the emergent church, has a lot of questions. And he hopes Christians won’t avoid those questions. In his new book, A New Kind of Christianity, McLaren questions conventional truths and calls for a major overhaul of the Christian faith.” (The Christian Post )
“Christians must be unlocked from‘a prison’ of long-held assumptions and have the freedom to ask honest questions, Brian McLaren indicates in his newest book, A New Kind of Christianity. He’s not advocating for a new set of beliefs, he says, but rather a ‘new way of believing.’” (The Christian Post )
“...McLaren is considered one of the country’s most influential evangelicals, and his new book, A New Kind of Christianity, takes aim at some core doctrinal beliefs. McLaren is rethinking Jesus’ mission on Earth, and even the purpose of the crucifixion.” (NPR Morning Edition )
“...A New Kind of Christianity... has lit the fuses of critics in the Christian press and blogosphere.” (Publishers Weekly Religion BookLine )
“A New Kind of Christianity is the book that many of us have been wanting McLaren to write for years. …Sparks hopeful conversation… a beautiful and thoughtful way forward.” (Englewood Review of Books )
“[McLaren] has been hailed widely as one of the most significant religious leaders of our time, compared by some to the leaders of the Protestant Reformation….In articulating this longing and his disquiet with the status quo, McLaren strikes a chord with many.” (The Christian Century )
“McLaren has become an important and controversial figure in Christian thought…. Structured around 10 basic questions about the faith, the book will provoke debate. And it should–these are important questions worthy of our thought and (loving) discussion.” (Relevant Magazine )
“McLaren is advocating a different, perhaps upgraded form of Christianity that takes a more objective view of history and employs a better interpretation of the Bible,... rendering it more applicable and accessible to a modern, educated people.” (Huffington Post )
“...Very thought provoking.” (Greater Than Magazine )
“McLaren clearly has been asking important questions about Christian witness for decades.... A New Kind of Christianity continues McLaren’s project of assessing and reassessing our assumptions concerning the foundations of modern Christian practice by asking ten important questions about the pillars of the Christian faith.” (The Other Journal )
Book 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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Most helpful customer reviews
48 of 65 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Tearing Up the Contract & Starting Over Again,
By
This review is from: A New Kind Of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (Hardcover)
In the middle of A New Kind of Christianity, Brian McLaren gives us a picture to describe how he thinks we need to change."Before...we are like lawyers trying to save an old contract, adding more and more fine print on page after page, until the provisions are weightier than the original contract. (This is good work, I suppose, and must be done for a generation or two, but it is not the work to which I feel called.) At some point, though, more and more of us will finally decide that it would make more sense to go back and revise the contract from scratch. And that work has begun. It is nowhere near complete, but the cat is out of the bag..." And that cat is on a tear. McLaren attempts the impossible, essentially tossing out what you always thought was true, and starting again from scratch. The Fall of Genesis 3? That's really a coming-of-age story. The storyline of the Bible? It's really about the downside of progress, and about how good prevails in the end anyway. The Bible is a community library, and the violent, tribal God of the Genesis flood is "hardly worthy of belief, much less worship" - but those were early days, and our view of God is always changing. Jesus didn't come to start a new religion, nor is Christianity the answer in itself. In short, almost everything you know about God, the Bible, and Christianity is wrong, according to McLaren. Disagree? It's probably because you have a Greco-Roman worldview, or worse. You may be someone who gets "authority and employment" from the old way of reading the Bible, which means you have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. To go back to McLaren's earlier image, you're maybe a lawyer who loves fine print and who hates cats being let out of their bags. You're probably like the theologians and pastors who: "...sew on a patch here, cover up that bit over there with some duct tape, put a nice coat of cheerful paint on that section over there, play really uplifting music to distract from that bit under there, move the furniture so that part doesn't show, and so on." You're either misguided or have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. Either way, it's hard to disagree without looking pitiable. What to make of all of this? First, I want to say that McLaren does make some good points. He puts his finger on some real problems. This isn't damning with faint praise. It's important, because it's what makes a book like this so compelling. Lots of people are going to buy what he says because they resonate with his critique. Second, I'm grateful that McLaren has articulated his views. I suspect that there's going to be less guessing about what McLaren believes in the future. I don't think his views are a surprise to a lot of us, but they're in print now, and it's going to be a lot easier to talk about them. Third, I'm going to predict that this book gets a lot of traction. I joined a conference call with McLaren last night and heard a number of people - including pastors - rave about the book. I think it's going to be one of those books in which the fans and critics speak past each other. The early reviews seem overwhelmingly positive. They won't be surprised if people like me don't like it. He takes some swipes at Mark Driscoll and John MacArthur, and sometimes comes across in a belittling way to evangelicals in general. He takes swipes at his critics sometimes that leave me gasping - and the fact that he does it with a friendly smile doesn't really help. This is going to be a polarizing book. I really have to say that this is one of the most frustrating books I've read. I have a friend who says off-the-wall things. Half the time he's profound; the rest of the time he's just a bit random. I felt that way with this book. There are some potentially profound sections, but there's lots in the book that left me baffled. I can't remember reading any book that left me shaking my head so much. So much hinges on his assertion that we read the Scriptural storyline through a Platonic worldview, for instance, but I was far from convinced. His interpretation of Job, which he used to explain how we should read Scripture, left me scratching my head. His conclusions (or proposals) are so sweeping, and based on such baffling premises sometimes, that I hardly know where to begin. Finally - and most importantly - this is not a minor tweak of Christianity. It is a repudiation of the church's understanding of God and the gospel. It really is tearing up the contract and starting all over again. McLaren says we've got the whole Biblical storyline, as well as our ideas of God and Scripture, all wrong. He'd rather be an atheist, he says, than believe in the God that many of us think is found in the Bible. You don't get any more basic. We are talking about two fundamentally different versions of Christianity and the gospel. That's what makes this book so hard to critique. Supporters of the book will say that I'm critiquing it from a Greco-Roman mindset, using the Bible as a constitution text rather than as a community library. So my criticisms will be expected. McLaren's proposals go all the way back to the level of presuppositions, and unless you share his presuppositions it will be like complaining that the color red isn't blue enough. Fine, they will say, but it wasn't meant to be blue. He's not only giving us a new version of the Christian story, but he's making it very difficult to critique his new version using the resources of the old one. But I'm simply not convinced that he's made the case that he thinks he has. Like McLaren, I believe we need to honestly examine our beliefs and practices, making corrections even when it's costly and uncomfortable. I believe that every generation needs to rediscover the gospel. But unlike McLaren, I'm not ready to toss the creation-fall-redemption storyline, or think that I've moved on from the God of Genesis 4-6. I'm simply not ready to say our old understanding of the gospel is wrong. We may need to rediscover it and be changed by it, and grow in our understanding of it. But that's different than tearing up the contract and starting all over again. A few years ago, I was struggling with some of the issues McLaren raises. But I found that some of the answers being proposed were less, not more, satisfying. I believe that our biggest need is not for a new Christianity, but instead to rediscover some of the contours of the gospel we may have forgotten. We don't need a new contract; we need to "guard the good deposit" that's been entrusted to us (2 Timothy 1:14). We really don't need a new kind of Christianity. We need to do a better job of rediscovering, and living in light of, the one we already have.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
There are many better books on this subject,
By
This review is from: A New Kind Of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (Hardcover)
I found this book a very unsatisfying read. McLaren makes broad sweeping assertions which in most cases are made without any scholarly support. He consistently attacks the straw man of fundamentalist Christianity without any acknowledgement that the vast majority of Christians have most of the same difficulties with that view of Christianity that he does.Throughout the book he constantly labels those who don't agree with him as being fearful and non-thinking. I found that the arrogance displayed in his writing was extremely disconcerting even when I agreed with him, which I often did. The title of the book is "A New Kind of Christianity" but at no point in the book does he address of the question - who was Jesus. Is Jesus the Jewish Messiah - God incarnate - a prophet - a philosopher or the ancient equivalent of Gandhi? I was left with the sense that his conclusion was the latter which would mean that his new kind of Christianity isn't Christianity at all but either a Jewish sect or something closer to the Rotary club. There are many writers who are able to use actual scholarship to address the issues that McLaren raises. Two suggestions would be, N T Wright and Marcus Borg, both mentioned by McLaren in this book. Wright provides an orthodox view of Christianity whereas Borg provides a view which is probably closer to McLaren's views.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Quest For Something New,
By
This review is from: A New Kind Of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (Hardcover)
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"
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