Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous
Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 11:2 (Fall 2007)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous
JMAT 11:2 (Fall 2007) p. 136
Book Reviews
A Generous Orthodoxy. Brian McLaren. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.
A Generous Orthodoxy (hereafter referred to as AGO) is becoming one of the primary philosophical and theological foundations for many in the emergent church movement. This movement attempts to bring postmodernism to Christianity by removing and redefining traditional patterns of theology. Brian McLaren is the founding pastor of a nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington corridor and author of more than a half-dozen books. A popular and influential proponent of the emergent movement, he presents a sketch of what the movement should become by combining liberal and conservative, contemplative and charismatic, systematic and mystical elements to form a Christianity which will “embrace the good in many traditions and historic streams of Christian faith and integrate them” (18).
McLaren’s style is conversational and enjoyable, but often obscure. He is clear on what he does not like—consumerist evangelicalism—but vague and slithery on what he does believe. In this provocative book McLaren points out where he thinks American Christianity has gone wrong and suggests how one should follow Christ in a postmodern global world. The author foresees a new church and a new kind of Christian faith emerging from the rubble of a Christianity ravaged by doctrinal divisions, a neglect of social responsibilities, and the tyranny of capitalism, colonialism, and conservatism.
The title of McLaren’s book, A Generous Orthodoxy,1 holds great promise. Surely, all true believers would aspire to such a balance. Typically “orthodoxy” has been defined as the standards of accepted and true doctrines taught in the Bible. In other words, the Bible defines within its pages what is true doctrine, and those who believe in and adhere to those doctrines are orthodox. McLaren defines it differently; this understanding is too “modern.” Instead he proposes his own deconstructed version:
For most people orthodoxy means right thinking or right opinions, or in other words, “what we think,” as opposed to “what they think.” In contrast, orthodoxy in this book may mean something more like “what God knows, some of which we believe
JMAT 11:2 (Fall 2007) p. 137
a little, some of which they believe a little, and about which we all have a lot to learn.” Or it may mean, “how we search for a kind of truth you can never fully get into your head, so instead you seek to get your head (and heart) into it” (32).
Elsewhere McLaren describes orthodoxy as “the historical accumulation of precedents” (32...
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