I’ve just finished reading through Brian D. McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy (AGO for short).
Brian has taken a learning posture in his approach to many movements in Christianity. He writes from his own experience instead of trying to give an all-encompassing summary of Christian experience. I appreciate his use of creative tension, holding together charismatic and contemplative, anabaptist and anglican, liberal and conservative.
The chapter on being a Calvinist and Fundamentalist was a bit cheeky. Brian reinvents what those words might mean. For McLaren the fundamentals of the faith boil down to those given by Jesus: to love God and to love our neighbors. Classic Calvinist thought centres around TULIP: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistable Grace, and Perserverance of the Saints. Brian proposes a new TULIP: Triune Love, Unselfish Election, Limitless Reconciliation, Inspiring Grace and Passionate, Persistent Saints.
The book opens the box for an emerging eclectic post Evangelical understanding of Christianity. This is so helpful in an polarised environment that so often demands that Christians choose their camps as if they are in war with each other.