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Brian D. McLaren Biography

Brian D. McLaren (born 1956) is an American pastor, author, activist and speaker and leading figure in the emerging church movement. McLaren is also associated with postmodern Christianity and progressive Christianity and is a major figure in post-evangelical thought.

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Brian D. McLaren Quotes

The Bible is not considered an accurate, absolute, authoritative, or authoritarian source but a book to be experienced and one experience can be as valid as any other can. Experience, dialogue, feelings, and conversations are equated with Scripture while certitude, authority, and doctrine are to be eschewed! No doctrines are to be absolute and truth or doctrine must be considered only with personal experiences, traditions, historical leaders, etc. The Bible is not an answer book.

Book, Certitude, Dialogue, Historical, Leader, Truth

Since I was introduced to the practice of God's presence, which in turn led me into the contemplative way, I have nearly always felt so rich, so blessed, so sincerely full of "enough. ". . . I believe it is on this robust, overflowing. . . contemplative pathway that one gains the joy and serenity to be generous.

Believe, Blessed, Gains, Generous, Practice, Robust

This is why I believe that many of our current eschatologies, intoxicated by dubious interpretations of John’s Apocalypse are not only ignorant and wrong, but dangerous and immoral.

Believe, Dangerous, Dubious, Ignorant, Intoxicated

Through its appropriation of "texts of terror" and especially through the application of those texts to the Jews, the Christian religion created the conditions for the oppression of Palestinians.

Appropriation, Christian, Oppression, Palestinian, Palestinians

Too often we see the Bible through whatever lens we get from our culture.

Bible, Biblical, Lenses, Culture, Lens

When any sector of the Church stops learning, God simply overflows the structures that are in the way and works outside them with those willing to learn.

Work Out, Church, Way, Willing, Learning, Works

I don't think we've got the gospel right yet. I don't think the liberals have it right. But I don't think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy.

Thinking, Orthodoxy, Gospel, Liberals, Right

Seventh-Gay Adventists isn't just a helpful movie, important for the way it can help congregations of any denomination deal graciously and truthfully with the issue of homosexuality. It's also a beautifully-filmed and artfully-conceived movie. It does what the best art does - it 'humanizes the other. ' You should see it, and when you do, you'll encourage others to see it as well.

Adventists, Art, Encourage, Gay, Issues, See

That in itself is an act of peacemaking, because we're seeking to align our wills with God's will, our dreams with God's dream.

Dream, Peacemaking, Seeking, Align, Act

The church has been preoccupied with the question, 'What happens to your soul after you die?' AS IF THE REASON FOR JESUS COMING CAN BE SUMMED UP IN, 'JESUS IS TRYING TO HELP GET MORE SOULS INTO HEAVEN, AS OPPOSED TO HELL, AFTER THEY DIE. ' I JUST THINK A FAIR READING OF THE GOSPELS BLOWS THAT OUT OF THE WATER. I don't think that the entire message and life of Jesus can be boiled down to that bottom line

Jesus, Reading, Thinking, Water, Preoccupied, Entire

Scripture is something God had ‘let be,’ and so it is at once God’s creation and the creation of the dozens of people and communities and cultures who produced it.

Community, God, God'S Creation, Gods, People

You know what, the thing that breaks my heart is that there's no way I can answer it without hurting someone on either side.

Answers, Heart, Hurt, Hurting, Thing, Way

I tried to read The Dubliners, when I went to Dublin a couple of years ago. I think I only go thurogh the first story. Gnomon is such an interesting word. So many different uses for a word nooone has heard of, or uses these days. I googled some pictures of sundials to check that it was the tall shadow casting bit (it is) and then discovered that Saint Sulpice in Paris has a rather fascinating large gnomon- which I shall endeavour to see on my next visit to that fair city. Thanks for such a great word, which I shall try to remember.

Couple, Discovered, Paris, Pictures, Thinking, Years

I’m sure I am wrong about many things, although I’m not sure exactly which things I’m wrong about. I’m even sure I’m wrong about what I think I’m right about in at least some cases.

Although, Cases, Exactly, Not Sure, Right, Thinking

The church latched on to that old doctrine of original sin like a dog to a stick, and before you knew it, the whole gospel got twisted around it. Instead of being God’s big message of saving love for the whole world, the gospel became a little bit of secret information on how to solve the pesky legal problem of original sin.

Dog, Secret, Church, Old, Solve, Legal

Jesus was short on sermons, long on conversations; short on answers, long on questions; short on abstraction and propositions, long on stories and parables; short on telling you what to think, long on challenging you to think for yourself.

Challenging, Jesus, Long, Questions, Telling, Thinking

We must never underestimate our power to be wrong when talking about God, when thinking about God, when imagining God, whether in prose or in poetry. A generous orthodoxy, in contrast to the tense, narrow, or controlling orthodoxies of so much of Christian history, doesn't take itself too seriously. It is humble. It doesn't claim too much. It admits it walks with a limp.

Christian, God, Humble, Orthodoxies, Thinking, Walks

I love writers who are insightful enough to be cynical but choose not to be.

Cynical, Insightful, Enough, Writers, Choose

Jesus doesn’t dominate the other, avoid the other, colonize the other, intimidate the other, demonize the other, or marginalize the other. He incarnates into the other, joins the other in solidarity, protects the other, listens to the other, serves the other, even lays down his life for the other.

Avoid, Colonize, Intimidating, Jesus, Marginalize, Solidarity

I had to face the possibility that the art of living in the way of Jesus was no longer carried on in a holistic way by any single tradition.

Art, Jesus, Single, Tradition, Way

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