A Generous Orthodoxy -- a Review of Sorts

A Review -- sort of --

Brian D. McLaren, Generous Orthodoxy, Zondervan, 2004.

This review is sort of long in coming. It comes from a bad habit of reading more than one book at a time. But, I got to the end of this most interesting and provocative book. I think the word provocative is most fitting, because McLaren throws out a lot of ideas without being too concerned about getting things right. The tone is assertive at times, humble at others. The intended audience is a not yet emergent evangelicalism, which is likely why he takes conservatives more to task than liberals.

The extended subtitle says much about the book. It is eclectic. In my mind that's not a bad thing, as my own theology is pretty eclectic, perhaps even more so. In fact, as I read the book I found my own story present in his. I'm a bit younger, though not by much. I have some similar heritage issues. My training is a bit more theological than his; but he's a more accomplished writer. But in some ways the title is a bit of a misnomer. Generous it is, but the word orthodoxy doesn't seem to fit. Oh, Brian tries to make use of the term, but I think something like a "generous evangelicalism" might be more descriptive.

McLaren admits to being a small "e" evangelical, which I take from his discussion to mean evangelical in spirit and commitment but not in a partisan sense. Being that I'm a Fuller graduate, I understand his meaning well. But generous he is, at least to those on the left. It's hard to not be a bit hard on movements from which you've emerged.

As I read through the book, perhaps the most important terms that I take from it, besides McLaren's admission to being philosophically postmodern, are the terms missional, incarnational, and emergent. His is a Christianity that is Jesus-centered (witness the chapter on the 7 Jesus' he's known) but he's not really concerned about boundaries (which is why the orthodoxy idea somehow doesn't seem to fit).

Missional I think can be summed up in a definition he gives on page 117: "To be and make disciples of Jesus Christ in authentic community for the good of the world" (emphasis being his). This is a vision of Christianity that isn't centered on "me" but on the world. It includes me, it includes the church, but ultimately it's about the world we live in. It is missional in the sense that the world is it's focus.

It is Incarnational in the sense that God is present in Jesus and wherever Jesus is present. Though salvation is found in Jesus, he's comfortable with the idea that God can be known, not perfectly of course, within the context of other religions.

Finally there is the term emergent. Being that I'm part of a movement that has in some of its quarters embraced a restorationist ideal, it's important to note McLaren's discomfort with restorationism. If you understand his view of emergence, that's quite understandable. His is a faith, as he defines it, that seeks not to replace (go back) but to include and embrace what has come before, and yet in very organic fashion, it emerges a new from what has gone before. He uses the image of tree rings to get the point across.

What this says, to me at least, is that emergent Christianity or a generous orthodoxy, is a faith that is always growing and becoming new. For the Protestants among us, it is a matter of always being reformed. Again this is kind of why I don't think the term orthodoxy fits. Ultimately orthodoxy becomes fixed, even a generous one. But Brian admits, that nothing is complete, at least not yet.

I'm intrigued by emergent Christianity. In many ways, like I've said, I've been on the same path. In some ways I think I've moved farther down the path, or at least I have fewer strings tying me to my evangelical commitments. I find myself fully centered within Mainline Protestantism. Still, I will admit that my evangelicalism (I like the idea of a small e evangelicalism) still has a hold on me, but I think my theology allows for more critical study and commitment than his does.

However that may be, this is an important movement worth watching and it seems that Brian McLaren is the key person to watch.

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