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Hardcover
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
How do the life and teachings of Jesus address the most critical global problems in our world today? In Everything Must Change, you will accompany Brian around the world on a search for answers. Along the way you'll experience intrigue, alarm, challenge, insight, and hope. You'll get a fresh and provocative vision of Jesus and his teachings. And you'll see how his core message can infuse us with purpose and passion to address the economic, environmental, military, political, and social dysfunctions that have overtaken our world. Jesus' message is more than a ticket to heaven or a formula for personal prosperity. It is an invitation to personal and global transformation. It is a radical challenge to the underlying stories that drive our suicidal systems-social, economic, and political. It invites us to imagine what would happen -if people of faith moved beyond political polarization and a few hot-button issues to the deeper questions nobody is asking. -if the world's leading nations spent less on weapons and more on peace-making, poverty-alleviation, and creation-care. -if a renewed understanding of Jesus and his message sparked a profound spiritual awakening in a global movement of faith, hope, and love. -if we believed that God's will really could be done on earth and not just in heaven. If you are hungry for a fresh vision of what it means to be a person of faith, Everything Must Change applies the good news of Jesus to a world in need, igniting a revolution of hope that can change everything. Beginning with you. Beginning now.
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| One-sided and exegetically questionable |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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One of my biggest frustrations with a lot of what is written by the Christian community is the stark one-sided approach that most of the writers take. In particular I'm talking about the writings of the "Emerging" of "Emergent" authors (yes I know there's a difference but I challenge you to define it) and the conservative, evangelical authors. Scot McKnight said it well on his blog when discussing the concept of gospel, "Too many today want to be faithful to Jesus' use of the word "gospel" and ignore Paul; too many also want to be faithful to Paul but ignore what Jesus said."
This is my fundamental issue with McLaren in Everything Must Change. His premise is that the spiritual aspects that evangelical Christianity tends to focus on are not biblical. Now, I'm committed to communicating my presuppositions on this blog so you should know that my theology is very evangelical and I have spent my entire adult life working in evangelical churches. That said, I feel that McLaren is doing some exegetical gymnastics in his argument that the focus of Christianity is solely in changing what he call the "suicide machine." The difficulty comes from the framing questions that he is asking. Questions that Scripture never intends to answer.
For more check out my blog bryonharvey.wordpress.com
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| I agree with this book's author! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I agree with this book's author! I am very pleased to see that there are some Christians who care about making the world we are living in a better place. Like Brian McLaren, I don't approve of Christians who don't care about how bad the world we are living in is, as long as they go to Heaven when they die. I find it very ironic that George W. Bush has shown no evidence of caring about the rich getting richer only at the expense of the poor getting poorer, or any other quality of life issues when he is a Christian (or at least claims to be). It is even more ironic that North America's conservative Christians have generally been among the strongest supporters of right-wing governments when right-wing governments, although more strongly against sex-related sins than left-wing ones, have not shown any evidence of caring about greed-related sins, and have, in fact, even been promoting them. Personally, I used to be a strong supporter of conservative governments myself, but in recent years, I have been having second thoughts about them.
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| The good and the bad |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Where would we be without people that actualy take the time to think and analyze the things we think and do. If you're able to put preconcieved ideas out of your head for a bit you'll find this book a very interesting exersize.
What I was dissappointed in:
There seems to be a broad acceptance of much of the liberal teaching in this book. While our earth care as a society does have a dismal record many of the things being preached (global warming in particular) simply have yet to be proved. Our ability to measure has outgrown our knowledge of history and we seem bent on using our recently aquired ability to measure to drum up support for most anything we can make the numbers infer. Second his acceptance that business is just after another customer and and forgets all about the customer they have is another statement without fact. So many take for granted that because 1% of the businesses do something bad that paints all business with the same brush. I find these types of broad generalizations dissappointing.
While Brian spends much time on the "Security" issue and quotes turn the other cheek passages he really doesn't even attempt to reconcile that view with the "I AM" of the old testament who ordered the Israelites to kill every man, woman and child. I would find it most helpful to have the justice of that placed in context of the New Testament. Taking portions of scripture to prove a point without a full discussion of those scriptures that might cloud the issue seems a bit counter productive.
What I liked:
In short this book has caused me to start a complete overhaul of the way I live my life. Politically I would call myself a conservative but now I'm pretty much ready to throw political labels aside and find a another title. Most of the things talked about in this book I really never thought about in terms of christian responsiblity. What happened outside my city, county, state, etc.. just happened and that was just reality. War is just a reality and there's really nothing I can do about it. Now however, I am forced to take a really hard look at my consuption, earth care, care for my neighbor, even if in another country or unborn, and what Jesus would have me do. Working through this will, over time, change my christian walk completely.
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| McLaren's Jesus is not Jesus |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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If Brian McLaren wants to write a book about social ills he should do so, but he should leave Jesus out of it. I started reading this book and never finished it because of his blatant twisting of Jesus' message.
The sad part is that he won't accept the real Jesus in scripture and that is the Jesus that will soften a man's heart and therefore, make a difference in the issues of our day.
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| Don't fear the bad reviews! |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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When Jesus came to earth, most people either followed Him or decided He had to die. That was the radical nature of His message in their culture. Likewise, you cannot dissect and apply His message to our own culture without inciting similar reactions. I see Brian McLaren as more philosopher than theologian. Theologians answer the important questions; philosophers ask them. The problem with many Christians (or religious people) is they feel they must condemn anything they don't 100% agree with. That's what killed the prophets, both ancient and contemporary. They asked dangerous and status-threatening questions. Thank you Brian, for asking the important questions that most of Chistendom is not asking (i.e. what does our faith have to say about the world's most important crises?)
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