Book Review: A Generous Orthodoxy Part 24 of ??
Depressed-Yet-Hopeful
McLaren writes that Jesus did not come to start another religion (this includes the Christian one). That the Christian religion formed however, is not surprising and even necessary, according to McLaren. He goes on to write; "the goal of Jesus is the Kingdom of God, which is the dream of God, the wish and hope and desire of God for creation…"
McLaren says that sometimes the Christian religion "cooperates with that desire and serves as a catalyst for it [God's Kingdom]. Sometimes it doesn't, obstructing or even contradicting the coming of God's Kingdom." This makes him depressed, but he is also hopeful because the Christian religion, if it repents, can once again cooperate in the coming of God's kingdom.
McLaren writes that we shouldn't write off past atrocities Christians committed by saying they ("Catholics, medievals, fundamentalists, liberals, whoever") did it. He writes, "A generous orthodoxy must, to be either generous or orthodox, look back on our first 2,000 years of Christian history and face our failures, our atrocities, our abdications, our cowardice, our complicity, our betrayal of Jesus, and say to ourselves, 'Never forget.'"
McLaren writes that Jesus did not come to start another religion (this includes the Christian one). That the Christian religion formed however, is not surprising and even necessary, according to McLaren. He goes on to write; "the goal of Jesus is the Kingdom of God, which is the dream of God, the wish and hope and desire of God for creation…"
McLaren says that sometimes the Christian religion "cooperates with that desire and serves as a catalyst for it [God's Kingdom]. Sometimes it doesn't, obstructing or even contradicting the coming of God's Kingdom." This makes him depressed, but he is also hopeful because the Christian religion, if it repents, can once again cooperate in the coming of God's kingdom.
McLaren writes that we shouldn't write off past atrocities Christians committed by saying they ("Catholics, medievals, fundamentalists, liberals, whoever") did it. He writes, "A generous orthodoxy must, to be either generous or orthodox, look back on our first 2,000 years of Christian history and face our failures, our atrocities, our abdications, our cowardice, our complicity, our betrayal of Jesus, and say to ourselves, 'Never forget.'"
posted by Freethinker at 8:28:00 AM
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