Why did, Jesus, the buddha, Mohammed cross the road, Brian Mclaren

Why did, Jesus, the buddha, Mohammed cross the road, Brian Mclaren

I like Brian Mclaren, but his books to me seem to be a hit and miss affair. His previous book 'A new Christianity' was a cracker. Not the the content isn't any good, rather sometimes he seems to repeat what has written in another book or his blog. (Not that I could pin point this directly)

The other issue may also be where I'm at. I don't need any convincing that we need a better theology on pluralism.

I like the start of the book the whole 'Why did the chicken cross the road' analogy, but from there, content and originality seemed thin on the ground.

2/5

 

 

Solace

This weekend we went to Solace in Melbourne. For us it is Church that as a family we all participate in as we like the theology, and expression. The discussion was based around the Ted talk by Karen Armstrong.

A few things I liked about the discussion that followed::

• Belief as we know it and most Churches today practice it was only really a modern phenomena. (I'm pretty sure Marcus Borg has a chapter on in in his book, "The heart of Christianity")
• I liked Armstrongs idea that Orthodoxy should come out of practice. There was much discusion about this. My observation is that for most churches the practice of compassion comes from doctrine first.
• The major religions all have an underlying theme of treating the poor/outcast etc as we would ourselves. Interestingly Armstrong mentioned that Confusious spoke about this 500 years pior the Christ.

It was good to morning. Solace is particularly good at giving voice to which most Churches would not. Pluralism was well respected this morning.

One of the thing that constantly stikes me as I have gone is the acknoweldgment of the aboriginals who were the traditional custodians of the land. Its the right thing for a Church to do...

 

The Pluralism question

The ninth question in Brian McLaren's book 'A new kind of Christianity' is the 'Pluralism question'.

Another way of asking the question is: the majority world doomed, because they do not acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.


I've always been on the same wave length as McLaren on this one. He uses 2:1-29

...people are never judged based on knowledge they don't have, and that God well bless

McLaren also takes time in writing about Jesus and his claims of John 14:6. "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Though good exegesis he makes the point that it was a message for his disciples. Not for those outside the room or the generations to come. Interesting and probably open to debate.

My belief is that if God is one of love.  He can see through the crap and into the heart, no mater what the culture.