A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith

When I finished reading Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity, all I could say was “Wow!” It blew my mind, mostly in a good way. And it left me with an awful lot to think about.Countless people have reviewed this book (some rather viciously), so I’m not going to win any awards with some in-depth discussion of the book, but I do want to touch on a few things that stood out for me. First of all, the book is based on 10 important questions to be asking these days. The first five are largely theological, and the remaining five are more practical. The 10 questions are:1. The Narrative Question: What Is the Overarching Storyline of the Bible?2. The Authority Question: How Should the Bible Be Understood?3. The God Question: Is God Violent?4. The Jesus Question: Who is Jesus and Why is He Important?5. The Gospel Question: What Is the Gospel?6. The Church Question: What Do We Do About the Church?7. The Sex Question: Can We Find a Way to Address Sexuality Without Fighting About It?8. The Future Question: Can We Find a Better Way of Viewing the Future?9. The Pluralism Question: How Should Followers of Jesus Relate to People of Other Religions?10. The What-Do-We-Do-Now Question: How Can We Translate Our Quest into Action?The cool thing about this book is that while the author raises – and addresses – these questions, he admits to not having the definitive answers and invites us all to participate in the “conversation.”I enjoyed all of the chapters with the possible exception of the last one – on translating our quest into action – where I think he falters a little bit and makes some assumptions that don’t necessarily need to be conveyed as they are. Still, as he starts and ends the book by writing, he’s not producing definitive answers to these questions. He’s merely starting conversations in calling for a radical rethinking of Christianity, Jesus, God, and the Bible. I’m giving this book five out of five stars. I think it’s an amazing book that can be life altering, and it’s made me re-think a lot of things that I wish I had re-thought many years ago.

This is a revolutionary book that tries to provide wise justification for revising the Christian faith for our times. I have read several of McLaren's fine books, and this book seems to me to be a companion piece to his work "Everything Must Change," in which he tries to address the most urgent questions and issues of our times. He feels the Christian faith has the answers to these questions and must address them.Now in is this volume,"A New Kind of Christianity," he asks 10 new questions that have to do with our faith and how we face these important aspects of faith in new way more suited to the 21st Century. I believe he has set a new course for a more liberal, open-minded evangelical faith that is not satisfied with many of the weak and outdated assumptions and platitudes of Protestantism. He also is more inclusive and speaks to the Catholic Church (his wife is Roman Catholic) and even to Jews and others. If you are frustrated with the church and its inability to meet our needs in these rapidly changing times, then I think you will find many thought provoking ideas. I was already moving in this same direction for years, and then I discovered McLaren and it has opened some whole new worlds to my thinking and my faith. I think it will take several decades for most evangelicals to come to many of these new ideas, but the change has begun. He has been a guest lecturer at most of our leadingseminaries, and he has numerous addresses and interviews on You Tube. He has ministered around the world and has started his own church in his home, and also has started many other churches in the U.S., Canada and other nations. So I urge you to become familiar with his books and ideas, and to discuss them with other believers who are open-minded truth seekers, and way want a new way to look at the Bible and these important issues, and strive to revise our faith in a more meaningful way. Highly recommended!

"A New Kind of Christianity" seems to be a bit different than McLaren's previous works. Aside from a few ethical issues he touches upon (i.e. sexuality, pluralism), this work seems to be primarily about a new hermeneutic rather than emergent theology. I was struck by McLaren's insightful analysis of Romans, along with a cursory review of Genesis, Exodus, and Jonah. It quickly became obvious that McLaren seems to interpret Scripture from a metaphorical perspective rather than a literal interpretation commonly held by many evangelicals today. I believe this is a good thing since literal interpretations of Scripture have led to many evils wrought upon world history (slavery, Crusades, witch hunts, Manifest Destiny, racism, etc.) and not to mention the damage it does to the context for which the Bible was written (i.e. 1st century Judaism). Instead, McLaren encourages his readers to begin reading the Bible through the lens of a continuous story narrative rather than from a deterministic, Greco-Roman, constitutional style. Thus, allowing the Bible to essentially read us rather than us trying to read it with our own biased views. In most part I agree with his principles, however, I believe McLaren took license with some of his interpretations (i.e. associating the eunuch of Acts as a homosexual). I don't think this is McLaren's best work, but it's certainly not his worst. He put a lot of thought and effort into this work, most of which had an impact on the way I now view the Bible along with its meaning and application to my life. I didn't agree with everything (I never do with any book), but in typical McLaren fashion, there was a lot of fresh new insight into how we should live amongst other believers, what the kingdom of God should look like, and how we should incarnate that kingdom on earth... now.

I know some people think he's a heretic, but the thoughts he shares really help to make sense of the Bible. His two diagrams (Greco-roman narrative & seeing Christ as the hinge or spine of a book and how we use him to view the testaments) help one re-invision how we seek to understand scripture and the necessity to see each book in its whole to understand the parts. He has helped me understand many things that I have struggled with. Agree with him or not it is a wonderful way to challenged how you lay out your faith.I am so thankful to be reading this book and hope that you may find some answers that you have been wondering about. His book is Christ centred and good theological understanding.

This book has radically opened up hundreds of questions I already had about faith but never realised others we're exploring as well. It is a dense read, but not without substance and humility of heart to seek and understand what truth really looks like.

This book has blown me away! I felt the spirit of God run right through it and into my heart.I have followed Jesus for 16 years now and was getting fairly stuck in my ways, but this book has completely opened up my thinking to what the kingdom of God actually is. I am seeing the world with new vision and now need to pursue Gods truth in all I do.I would recommend this book to anybody who has been growing despondent in their faith and church. And my advice would be to not defend your position but open your mind and heart to the possibility of a better way.Don't be a guardian of the truth, but a seeker of it.

Good author. Gets you thinking. Book sent well packaged and quickly. Thanks.

I had heard about Brian McLaren and wondered why he was so popular. Having now read one of his books, I know why. This is an honest, no-holds-barred challenge to Christians to re-think their whole faith, and it opens up an exciting new view of Christianiy that is really in touch with the world as it is today. I am convinced this is the kind of Christianity we need now. I mean "for now" in both senses: for now rather than yesterday, and also "provisionally". I am sure McLaren would be the first to admit that his expression is not the definition of Christianity for all time, and future generations (including perhaps himself in later books) will have further thinking to do. An excellent read, and I look forward to exploring his other writings.