As I have been continuing to study the Emerging Church movement, controversies surrounding Brian McLaren seem to be a never-ending topic. In late November, 2010, I found one on my own. The following were my immediate thoughts:
I admit that I do periodically read McLaren’s blog. Since his recent book A New Kind of Christianity has been a source of many questions and comments on which he writes, I noted a new one that discussed “Violent God.” The question comes from someone who is having trouble accepting that God could really do all the violent things that are recorded in scripture. In response, McLaren points to a book by William Herzog entitled Parables as Subversive Speech. McLaren proceeds to give Mr. Herzog’s reading of the parable of the talents as being about the nature of the kingdom of the world and not the kingdom of God. It is about an unjust economy that “reaps quick exploitative profits off his fellows.”
McLaren writes “When I first read this book some years ago, I thought, ‘He can't be right,’ but now I think he's spot on in most of his reinterpretations.”
