A Generous Orthodoxy - Chapters 18-20

I feel as though I am incessantly criticizing McLaren, and it's a shame because I really appreciate the heart behind what he is doing, but I keep feeling like his desire for generosity is trampling on orthodoxy. That said, after reading chapter 18, "Why I Am Depressed-Yet-Hopeful", I was left wondering 'Hopeful for what?'. Sometimes I feel like he is optimistically hopeful in people rather than God.

His focus is on repentance, but I'm not entirely sure what he means by the term as he uses it. The dictionary.com definition is "to feel such sorrow for sin or fault as to be disposed to change one's life for the better; be penitent."  Which is, of course, part of it. From a Christian perspective, I think it's deeper than that though. It's more than "being disposed to change", but I think he stops there... hence the quote on page 267:

But even when it [the Christian religion] doesn't [cooperate with the goal of the kingdom of God], that doesn't mean it can't cooperate again in the future - if it repents. The same can be said of every religion in the world.

At the risk of sounding harsher than I want to, I don't think the same can be said of every religion. I think most religions in some form or fashion are doing and saying things that are in line with Christ's teachings on ethics and morality, and in that sense I believe that they are acting in ways that are very, very good. But if repentance is tied to God, and the Bible is true, and Jesus is Lord and Savior, then to fully cooperate with the kingdom of God is to assent to certain truth claims. Repentance and heart change are, to me, inextricably linked to the work of the Holy Spirit. What do y'all think?

Chapter 19, "Why I Am Emergent", was helpful in understanding better where he is coming from. Throughout the book, I have appreciated his critique, which I think is pretty valid, of some of the problematics of Christianity, and I think he is correct in saying that we need to emerge from some of those things into a better understanding of the gospel. But to reduce sin to something that hinders emergence, "body-lusts refusing to be integrated with mental ideas in an ethical soul" (281), etc., is again going too far. My understanding of sin is much bigger than that. Again, for me he's making it about the individual instead of God - sin as something that prohibits us from self-actualizing rather than something truly evil and an affront to God.

Also, I feel like he's fairly manipulative in avoiding critique. On page 285 it sounds like if you don't agree with him, you must be a modern, exclusivist, absolutist, colonial Christian. I resent that, and I don't think some of his statements to that effect are helpful in promoting the dialogue he wants. And I don't know about this whole pluralistic relativism as chemo for the ailing church thing. We need a corrective, but I find the drastic swing to add confusion, not clarity. I tend to agree with Horton (285) that is can be polarizing, "present[ing] you with only two options: a non-emergent gospel that is definitive, clear, sure, and certain, or a 'radically indeterminate' anything-goes gospel that means anything, and thus is worth nothing." How do you guys feel?

At least he acknowledges that "no emergence is perfect" (284) and that he's not attempting to propose a form that "finally gets it right" (285).

Finally, chapter 20, "Why I Am Unfinished", concludes the book with his final thoughts on orthodoxy. Again, I have to disagree with his notion that it's all about the journey and reducing orthodoxy to being a "way of seeing and seeking" (293). Why can't we hold a truth both with confidence and humility? Why must we choose between arrogance and knowing nothing? Is that even true humility? I'm not saying that my (or anyone's) understanding of orthodoxy has Truth boxed up with a bow. But I think we know more than McLaren wants to claim. 

Okay, that's it. That's the end. Can't say I loved the book as a whole, but I do think he had some good points to make and that it was worth reading. What did y'all think? Love it, hate it, really don't care either way?

I'm going to take a break for a few weeks and hopefully people will be able to catch up and comment if they want, and then I'll post some ideas for another book, if there are any takers. It's been fun, y'all!