A Generous Amount of Thoughts About a Generous Orthodoxy

Okay, folks. Get ready to hear a lot about Brian McLaren's new book, "A Generous Orthodoxy." I'm a hundred pages into it and thinking..."Eh."

I expect it to get better, though. I got through all the self-deprecation and warnings about how controversial the book's going to be. Here's one of the funniest bits:

"...you risk guilt by association just by being seen in public with this book. If you must proceed, trade dust jackets with another more respectable book so no one will know what you're reading." (p.37)

So far, McLaren is making me wonder if a lot of what we sneer at in the evangelical church is not quite so easily stereotyped. When I read a lot of what he says I think, "Well, that would be bad, but the people at my church don't exactly look at it that way." My little family of God is not exactly what you would call progressive. We still owe a lot of our present day hang-ups to fundamentalism, as a matter of fact. But there's some balance there. We have some moderation. A lot of what he decries in conservative protestant churches seems a little too caricatured. Maybe. Maybe not.

Anyway, I'm still just getting into it, so I do expect it to get better. Don't worry, you'll be hearing generous amounts of thoughts about it!

Comments

[stephanie]

I like your thinking process here - finding the balance, keeping some richness. Look forward to hearing more of your thoughts as you read.

[Patrick]

I am not quite as far as you... his reasons for not reading his book were funny (sad), but I got a little annoyed with it... yeah, I agree, seems a bit caricaturish at this point...

[Karen H.]

"...you risk guilt by association just by being seen in public with this book. If you must proceed, trade dust jackets with another more respectable book so no one will know what you're reading." (p.37)

My copy of the book is in the mail, but this made me laugh. Where would it be exactly that this would occur? When I called the Borders, Waldenbooks and Barnes & Noble bookstores near my house to see if this much-anticipated release was in the clerks couldn't spell the name of the book, said that it was available but that they wouldn't be getting any copies in and generally had never heard of Brian McLaren. It gave me good perspective on how radical and important we tend to find these things.

There's a discussion blog starting up at www.agenerousorthodoxy.com. Stop by and leave your comments.
Peace,
Karen