Brian McLaren from "The Last Word... And the Word After That"
"What if I modified or jettisoned my orthodox idea of hell? What would go with it? ... Could and would people be good without hell looming beyond death? Was hell a necessary deterrent to evil behavior?"
"If faith become enmeshed, not just engaged, with culture, Neil said, people hardly notice - until a wave of cultural change hits. Then, when people want to move on from that fading culture, when they want to be part of the new wave, they feel they must leave behind their faith as well. Their only alternative is to try to disengage their faith as well. Their only alternative is to try to disengage their faith from the fading culture, but this is one of the most painful things a person can do - mentally painful, spiritually painful, he said."
" 'From beginning to end,' he said to me on day that first fall when we met, 'out faith is situated. It's an unfolding story, and every story requires a setting. It's news - and not just news that happened but news that's still happening, and that means it requires a context. It's an ongoing movement and message that always take place in a medium. It's all about incarnation - about God entering and embracing our story. So if you want to abandon the story, if you want to get out of time and culture and into some timeless neutral zone above the fray, you're trying to get out of the very thing God is deeply into. Maybe some other religion or philosophy can deal with timelessness, but not real Christianity. It's forever timely, not timeless.' "
"We don't just hear the story or believe it, he said, but it enter us, and we enter it: 'The story of your life is taken up into this larger story, so you inhabit it, become part of it, experience it, and extend it,' he said. 'It become your way of life, your life story.' "
"Was she changing her views on homosexuality, or was her kindness - Southern or Christian - making those views irrelevant."
"I could feel the gears turning, but I couldn't wrestle anything into words."
"Could the same sort of thing be happening today? Could the so-called war on tyrosine be keeping the churches here in America from speaking prophetically to the state?...And could our preoccupation with individual salvation from hell after death distract us from speaking prophetically about injustice in our world today?"
"Because when we talk about hell, it's generally not to unsettle ourselves. It's generally the opposite - to reassure ourselves, so we think, 'Aren't we glad we're insiders with God and going to heaven? Isn't it a shame those other people are so bad and wrong and going to hell?' It's part of a system that reinforces us - them thinking I guess - to strength the 'us' identify. Sometimes I guess we might use hell to motivate people to try to evangelize others: 'They're going to hell, so don't you want to reach out to them?' "
"That truth and reconciliation should be the last word. That the goal is shalom."
"If faith become enmeshed, not just engaged, with culture, Neil said, people hardly notice - until a wave of cultural change hits. Then, when people want to move on from that fading culture, when they want to be part of the new wave, they feel they must leave behind their faith as well. Their only alternative is to try to disengage their faith as well. Their only alternative is to try to disengage their faith from the fading culture, but this is one of the most painful things a person can do - mentally painful, spiritually painful, he said."
" 'From beginning to end,' he said to me on day that first fall when we met, 'out faith is situated. It's an unfolding story, and every story requires a setting. It's news - and not just news that happened but news that's still happening, and that means it requires a context. It's an ongoing movement and message that always take place in a medium. It's all about incarnation - about God entering and embracing our story. So if you want to abandon the story, if you want to get out of time and culture and into some timeless neutral zone above the fray, you're trying to get out of the very thing God is deeply into. Maybe some other religion or philosophy can deal with timelessness, but not real Christianity. It's forever timely, not timeless.' "
"We don't just hear the story or believe it, he said, but it enter us, and we enter it: 'The story of your life is taken up into this larger story, so you inhabit it, become part of it, experience it, and extend it,' he said. 'It become your way of life, your life story.' "
"Was she changing her views on homosexuality, or was her kindness - Southern or Christian - making those views irrelevant."
"I could feel the gears turning, but I couldn't wrestle anything into words."
"Could the same sort of thing be happening today? Could the so-called war on tyrosine be keeping the churches here in America from speaking prophetically to the state?...And could our preoccupation with individual salvation from hell after death distract us from speaking prophetically about injustice in our world today?"
"Because when we talk about hell, it's generally not to unsettle ourselves. It's generally the opposite - to reassure ourselves, so we think, 'Aren't we glad we're insiders with God and going to heaven? Isn't it a shame those other people are so bad and wrong and going to hell?' It's part of a system that reinforces us - them thinking I guess - to strength the 'us' identify. Sometimes I guess we might use hell to motivate people to try to evangelize others: 'They're going to hell, so don't you want to reach out to them?' "
"That truth and reconciliation should be the last word. That the goal is shalom."
posted by Karen at 9:54 PM
<< Home