One of my good friends in Atlanta wrote this today in an email . . .
Lee: I saw that you are reading A New Kind of Christian. I have read this book twice and would really like to get your take on it.
Even though I haven't finished the book yet, I think I will recommend it. At the very least, it's thought provoking. The author attempts to paint a picture (using a fictional conversation between two Christians) about what our faith might look like in the post-modern context. Here's what I wrote back . . .
"Hi Dave,
Thanks very much for writing! A New Kind of Christian . . . yeah, it’s interesting. I started the book this week, but can only read 4 or 5 pages at a time. So far I have mixed feelings.
My heart wants to go with much of what McLaren is saying, but my head isn’t there yet. I’m just getting to the part where he’s talking about other religions, and I’m afraid he’s naïve at best when he talks about “redeeming” Muslim or Buddhist culture. Those kinds of strategies have been tried in the last decade by well-meaning missionaries, but they almost always fail. Bangladesh is a good example . . . I could give you more details about that if you like. Anyway, it turns out that Muslims and Buddhists who have genuine conversions to Christ really WANT to leave the mosque and the temple. They’re not as concerned with redeeming the culture as we might think.
Okay, I’d better stop there because I need to do the book justice by finishing it. Much of it is valuable as near as I can tell . . . Lee"
Posted by Lee at October 27, 2004 07:32 PMWell,
I am very interested in the book. But as it is with most of the "emergent" books, they realy dissapoint me in the end. They don't offer good solutions, so please post us your final judgement.
Bless,
Jan Wolsheimer
The Netherlands