A Generous Orthodoxy - Chapters 11-12

I don't have a ton to say about chapter 11, "Why I Am Charismatic/Contemplative". I agree with him that both streams have something to offer, and that the contemplative stream also offers great joy, even if not in such an energetic way. One of the things I love about the contemplative tradition is that it very much does, as he says, locate the heart of spiritual experience in the "very center of normalcy" rather than outside of it. Most of my 'spiritual experience' (which perhaps conveys a sharper divide than I would like between the secular and the sacred) has taken place in the midst of my everyday activities, so that every-dayness of spirituality makes sense to me.

I wouldn't question McLaren's experience, but one thing that stood out to me reading the chapter was that maybe he's airbrushing spirituality a little bit. He makes statements like "one of these 'somethings' is taking place, or is about to take place, or has just taken place nearly all the time" (p. 175) or that he feels "nearly always... so rich, so blessed, so sincerely full of 'enough'" (p. 180). That doesn't so much gel with my experience. There is great joy, sure, but I find spirituality to be more of an ebb and flow than that. One of the things I love most when reading the contemplatives (like Nouwen, for example) is the openness about both the mountaintop experiences as well as the deep, deep valleys. One of the quickest ways to lose credibility is to offer a spirituality that can't deliver, and I think he's walking the line a bit closely here.

One thing I was thinking about as I read this chapter was how the notion of slowing down and relaxing as a means to knowing God fits with our culture of busyness, where productivity is often seen as the ultimate good. Do y'all have a difficult time just sitting without feeling lazy or guilty or that you should be doing something?

Y'all, I'm sorry. There's a good chance that I'm being overly harsh on chapter 12, but I really struggled to get through some of it. I sincerely applaud McLaren's desire for unification. Unity in the church is one of my most fervent prayers, and I see him really working to achieve that. But I think he's just going further than is required to do it. It started poorly for me with the chapter title itself, "Why I Am Fundamentalist/Calvinist". No. No, he's not. And the thing is, he doesn't have to be. I am not a Calvinist. I agree with him that the doctrines of Calvinism are much more nuanced and rich than simple determinism, and Reformed intellectual history and scholarship are certainly deeper than any other branch of Protestant Christianity. I admire that. But I can affirm the goodness in a tradition and seek dialogue without obliterating all lines. It's okay. It's not ungenerous or unloving. I agree with lots in different traditions and I have been intentional about incorporating unfamiliar practices into my own spiritual life, because I truly believe that my own tradition is in many ways impoverished by not doing so. But that doesn't mean that I can claim those traditions, and most members of those traditions probably wouldn't want to claim me. The lines exist. Ignoring them does not make them go away. And it's okay. Unity does not require homogeneity.

There is much more in this chapter worth discussing: what did y'all think of his reforming of the TULIP acrostic (I found it odd that he didn't even mention for the most part it's actual meaning to an actual Calvinist)? What did you think about his comments on p. 184-185 regarding the path of spirituality? How do the 2 fundamentals of Christianity, love of God and love of neighbor, work as far as mission in our pluralistic context?

But here I shall stop.... see you in the comments!