The Story We Find Ourselves In; The Last Word and the Word After That

This post is a bit late; I read the second and third volumes in Brian McLaren's New Kind of Christian Trilogy several weeks ago. The second book, The Story We Find Ourselves In, is really McLaren's first major attempt to offer up an alternative, postmodern, or "new kind" of Christian story. By this, I don't mean that he writes his own Bible or his own gospel, but that he constructs something fresh, rather than merely critiquing that which has come before (as he largely did in the first book of the series).

If one believes that we're standing on the brink of a radical shift in history, and if one believes that Christianity must be translated for a new type of thinker - a new type of person - then, it naturally follows, "What does the story of a new kind of Christian look like?" Once again, through the conversations of fictitious characters, McLaren weaves the tale of redemption from Genesis through Revelation. The stories within the larger story are not labeled as such, and no attempt is made to cover all of biblical history, but the main thrust of redemptive history is there. While some might argue that McLaren is too loose with subjects like creation, Satan, heaven, and hell, it's hard not to admire the way he draws his readers into the story. One gets a sense that being a Christ-follower is an incredibly awesome thing - a challenge, a romance, a dance, and the one thing that could possibly give meaning to the rest of life.

Again, McLaren is gracious, insisting not that the Christian story is better than the others, but rather explaining how the other stories - cultural and religious - are best understood when they are redeemed by, and are seen as part of the larger story of Christ. I love this concept, because I've struggled with the notion of "us vs. them." It seems that McLaren has found the path of inclusive redemption. Jesus is the way, but He's not in the way, as if the gospel were intended to keep people from God.

The Last Word and the Word After That was far more controversial, dealing largely with the reality of hell (or lack thereof). Like many others, McLaren's characters struggle with understanding how a God who offers forgiveness can also send people to eternal damnation and torture. I found this book to be a real challenge, because one leaves the discussion wondering if there's any good and totally satisfying answer to the question of hell. It seems that one must affirm the reality of an eternal place of suffering if one wants to be faithful to the New Testament. However, McLaren gives some good reasons to rethink the nature of hell, and he asks some tough questions about the justice and mercy of God.

In the end, I'm not sure that any of the options offered by McLaren really do the trick (at least not for me), but I definitely think followers of Christ need to be thoughtful and gracious with this issue. McLaren leaves his own specific conclusion a mystery, and among other thoughtful Christians, there is a good measure of disagreement as well. John Stott became an annihilationist (meaning that he believes that hell is only temporary) after reasoning that a good and perfectly holy God couldn't coexist with eternal evil; it must be destroyed. Others have argued that hell is eternal, but that it's a special place, where God (who normally exists everywhere) is absent. That's what makes it hell; there's nothing good in it. In contrast to that, Jonathan Edwards believed that hell was not the absence of God, but instead a place where sinners were constantly in His presence - the unfiltered and horrible wrath of their Creator. And, of course, there's lots of room for second-chance theologies and universalism in the spectrum also. The enormity and the vast number of opinions on the subject merit giving the subject of hell some thoughtful reflection, even if the end result of our thinking is just a better understanding of those with whom we do not agree.