The Last Word and the Word After That: A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity

first of all, I'd like to say that I can't lie to you and say this is really nice and pleasant book to read, because in many ways some of the concepts presented in this book are extremely challenging. However, I do believe all the questions addressed in this book are worth thinking about. What will make this book an easier read is by making use of the commentary provided for each chapter at the back. It makes it easier to read because you get to hear the authors heart on the subjects that he's dealing with. He's not out to try and hurt anyone or make life difficult for pastors (I am one, so I appreciate the thought). He's not out to push forward some kind of liberal/concervative/homosexual/whatever agenda. He's someone who's on an exciting journey of faith and he's inviting others to honestly read what the Bible says and laying aside what it doesn't say. I would also recommend not skipping over the intro, because he starts off by sharing his heart. This is provocative read and worth your time. Yes the fiction isn't that great, but I appreciate the creativity and I know you will too.

The obsession with who's in and who's out has distracted me for too long. In fact, I have found it difficult thus far to genuinely evaluate good and evil, or the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, without trying to determine whether a person is in or out of heaven. For all the recovering fundamentalists out there who also struggle with this, this book is a great pathway to a different way of thinking. Forging these pathways is one of McLaren's gifts to this generation. He has opened the door for the question of eternal destiny to be discussed publicly instead of behind closed doors. I did not find concrete answers, but instead a freedom to ask questions beyond ultimate reward and punishment. Maybe, the big question is not "Where will I go when I die?" but "What is the life that God has for me here?" and "What is the nature of the kingdom that Jesus taught us to pray for to be present ON EARTH as it is in heaven?" McLaren shows tremendous insight into the journey of many of us who are moving into new understandings of life in the kingdom of God. Though his story is predictable at times, it is only because it is all too familiar. For those of us who have been there, it is comforting to see grace and honest wrestling instead of judgment as we grow outside of the boxes we were given by foundationalist understandings of faith. And in the end, I am grateful that it is not up to me to answer the ultimate questions, but to live a life faithful to the example of Jesus. I am eager to more fully participate in the life of the kingdom of God - restoring, healing and celebrating this world which God so deeply loves.

McLaren's newest book is arguably his best. He does a great job of bringing out into the open one of the great unanswered (unasked!) questions of Western Christianity: when we invite people to become followers of Jesus, why do many demur, fearful that becoming a Christian will make them a worse person? For many spiritual people who would not self-identify as Christians, and for many Christians, increasingly ashamed, not of Jesus but of the unChristian behavior of fellow Christians that makes the Gospel unappealing, McLaren's book is a great gift. He probes an area many will find uncomfortable - the way in which culture shapes religious expression, including the record of that expression in Scripture. Two things make me sad: 1) That some - I don't want to say many - of my sisters and brothers are threatened by McLaren's writings. Is your faith so shaky that a few hundred pages of text can make it totter? Are God and Scripture so impotent that they need your defense? Is your theology so exclusivist that only those who believe as you do are "in Christ"? Please relax. God is not made anxious by any book, and neither should you be as his child. 2) That many of those who review McLaren's writings in this and other places demonstrate a hateful, judgmental and critical spirit that will be useful to the Evil One in his ongoing work of persuading those drawn to Jesus to avoid Christians and church because we're a bunch of spiteful bigots who tear and devour one another. In the words of an insightful nonChristian, "Your fish stinks!" Repeatedly over the last four years, God has used McLaren's writings to renew my passion for Christ and my commitment to pastoral ministry. I am grateful beyond words for that. I have also known many who have been helped in their apprenticeship to Jesus by McLaren's writing and speaking. Finally, McLaren is a faithful, compassionate pastor and a devoted evangelist. He seizes every possible opportunity in daily life and in his writing and speaking to winsomely invite people to apprentice themselves to Jesus and begin to follow him. My sense is that he sees one of the main goals of his writing and speaking as clearing away misunderstandings of Christ and Gospel that impede people from following Jesus. The fruit of his life, measured in people who are following Jesus because of his influence speaks for itself.

I don't often write reviews but what I have read in many of the reviews before me makes me sad. The reviewers have clearly missed the point. They are so in love with their doctrines that they can no longer see the hugeness of God's love and of His Grace. McLaren made it quite clear that the point wasn't the doctrines of heaven and hell themselves, but what is behind them and beyond them. He sums it up quite clearly at one point - we are saved by God's grace but we will still be judged by our works. If you believe that if you are saved you are not judged, think again. Everyone will be judged but that does not mean everyone will be condemned. Anyone who turns from God now, or after death, does so of their own free will and God mourns for them but that does not mean that he does not give them a second chance, and a third and a fourth...much like the parable of the prodigal son. It is up to each individual to repent and turn toward God, it is the role of each Christian to gently teach and guide others so that they become aware of God and wish to turn toward him. For more on the subject of heaven and hell from a well-respect theologian I would suggest reading "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis. I believe that you will find that McLaren's ideas are not all that new or all that radical. The point that both McLaren and Lewis are trying to make is to focus on the bountiful Grace of God. Let this grace flow from you as you love others no matter where they are on their path - God will take care of the rest. I sincerely pray for all of those who have become caged by doctrine and cannot let the Living Waters flow freely.

Brian McLaren's newest book, The Last Word and the Word After That, is a superb final book in his New Kind of Christian trilogy. My only regret is that the series is over; however, I hold out much hope that this trilogy will continue in other forms as the trilogy parallels his own spiritual development through the use of story. What I love about McLaren is his willingness to write about his doubts and the areas where he has divested himself of American evangelical thinking. What I get frustrated with McLaren about is that he seems to stop short of what the logic of his various arguments would require (his treatment of the Canaanite genocide in A Generous Orthodoxy is one such situation). But here I have to see the beauty I want others to see in me as I wrestle with my own doubt: I want those more mature or simply more gracious to let me wander, to encourage my seeking, and to love me while I go on my journey. I hope so much that he will continue to write about his spiritual journey, realizing that he is making more friends than he is losing, that he is touching lives the church has done a poor job of reaching. McLaren's first book introduced us to Pastor Dan, who is wrestling with questions over pluralism, the argument that the Bible is infallible and inerrant, and general ideas about what Jesus meant when he talked about the kingdom. Dan meets Neo, a Christian who has been through similar questioning and has found a certain peace in these new answers. The second book in the series focuses on Dan wrestling with the debate between creationism and evolution, and again the underlying ideas about the identity of the Bible that are an implicit part of this debate. Within the second book, Pastor Dan is put on forced hiatus by his church because of some of his changing teaching. The final book brings the church crisis to a head but first forces Dan to deal with the most painful part of the Christian story - the teachings of Jesus on hell. For me, this third book may be one of McLaren's best. Christians who want to be honest about their struggle with the idea of a loving God sending those who have never heard of Jesus to an eternity of torment in hell will find this book provocative and helpful. I would caution those new to McLaren's writing to not begin with this book, but with the first book in this series. To begin with McLaren's teaching on hell builds a house of cards where a firmer foundation should be built with his teaching on the mechanisms by which the Bible should be interpreted. If we start with McLaren's third book we jump right in to his teaching on hell without dealing with the searching that led this point or the logic that makes his argument sustainable. Christians who see nothing needing to be explained within the doctrine of hell will find McLaren's book heresy. Upon publication of this book, McLaren is going to find out who his real friends are, who the real Christians in his midst are, and who he has helped the most with his teach