A Generous Orthodoxy, by Brian McLaren

It was a bit of a dense read, but I finally finished Brian McLaren's 2004 book, a confession of sorts, or perhaps a manifesto of McLarenian theology, titled, A Generous Orthodoxy. Actually, I finished the book almost 3 weeks ago, so I should rather say, I finally got around to blogging about it.

His fastest selling book, the subtitle to the book is so long it deserves its own sentence, indeed its own paragraph. The subtitle is: WHY I AM A missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvanisti, anabaptist/anglican, methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed-yet-hopefull, emergent, unfinished Christian.

Overall, this is one of McLaren's many books in an attempt to nudge, or maybe shove, American Christendom into a new, more hopeful, more accepting direction. In the first chapter McLaren states that, "this book is an attempt to correct what I perceive to be some bad doctrine, including bad doctrine about doctrine." Instead of explaining why he is one thing and not another, instead of drawing further lines of distinction and divide like our numerous Christian denominations tend to do, McLaren is trying to draw lines of acceptance around the many camps and explain why he identifies in part with most or all of them.

In the introduction McLaren warns readers of the dangers in adopting this Generous Orthodoxy. He plainly states that this is not a position held by any recognized body of believers. In fact, it is only a position held by one, himself. And so, taking on anything he's writing is to be a dissenter in many ways. He also discusses the problems with his suggested title:

Many will agree: the choice of the word orthodoxy in the title is a terrible mistake. For most people, orthodoxy means right thinking or right opinions, or in other words, 'what we think.' In contrast, orthodoxy in this book may mean something more like 'what God knows, some of which we believe a little, some of which they believe a little, and about which we all have a whole lot to learn...Most people are too serious, knowledgeable, and busy for such an unorthodox definition of orthodoxy.

As McLaren moves through each chapter considering the many different topics and branches of Christianity, he describes his take on it and reason for espousing such a belief. For example, in his chapter Why I am Liberal/Conservative he writes this, "The best of liberal and conservative Christians were, then, truly heroic, but in different ways. Liberals were heroic for tackling tough issues often several decades before the conservatives...Conservatives have been heroic in other ways, especially related to individual conversion and basic discipleship. Millions of people are dedicated Christians at the beginning of the twenty-first century who wouldn't be if it weren't for the conservative missionary advances of the 19th and 20th centuries."

The three chapters on Why I am 1) Mysticism/Poeticism; 2) Biblical; and 3) Emergent are especially good. It is likely I will come back to this book just to read those chapters. In each of the many topics he covers I picked up a strong amount of energy from McLaren for each topic. This was energizing to me, but also exhausting in a way. How can I possibly feel strongly about so many different issues.

As a whole, this book is a confession from McLaren's deepest heart. And as one who has done some writing from the heart and knows how vulnerable it can be, I deeply respect his courage. No doubt he has received some staunch criticism on this book (regrettably mostly from conservatives), but I believe what he is saying needs to be said more and by more.  

The writing is typical McLaren: smooth, educated and readable. Though he uses a lot of them, he rarely wastes words. He's less anecdotal than in his other books I've read. Of the five Brian McLaren books I've now read, I would say that if you were only going to read one of his books, this is the one.

His vision for a generous orthodoxy is not traditionally orthodox, but is very generous. And, as one just beginning to make my way into ministry in our post-modern world, I pray that many more will adopt a more generous orthodoxy.