December 2006

Norbert is a “refused asylum seeker”, living in Wales. He is dstitute, living on the streets. Church Action on Poverty is hosting his daily advent diary on their website. It’s not a uniformly gloomy story - there are some great moments of extradordinary meetings, friendships and colour. But it’s real - and it’s happening now. Read it - and pass the news on.

This is my current “read”. It’s good! What’s most interesting about it is the stir that McLaren has caused among the conservative evangelicals who can’t fault his emphasis on grace, but are deeply uneasy at his refusal to inhabit a particular “position”. One subtext among his critics is that he’s too gracious! He blurs boundaries and refuses to be sufficiently judgemental (in their view) about other positions and opinions. The book belongs within the sort of ructions caused by Steve Chalke’s criticisms of penal substitution.

McLaren is a postevangelical. Insofar as I would consider myself defintely post - and postevangelical rather than postliberal - what rings bells with me is the stress on passionate faith, personal encounter with God but the conviction that God doesn’t actually go in for the big, safe, theological systems that we’re far happier inhabiting. For those of us with a Reformed heritage, “system” is strongly characteristic of our theology! Yet Brian isn’t a “system” theologian - which is not to say that he isn’t systematic! It’ a good read - mischievous, deliberately provocative, tiresomely self-conscious, ironic, passionate and faithful. I like what he’s saying - but mainly because he agrees with me! Yet here’s the thing: he has a way of seeing faith andf the missionary and evangelical tasks in ways that will communicate with the millions of people for whom Church as they have known it just doesn’t scratch where they itch.

Here’s another good book that’s on my bedside table at the moment. It’s the Archbishop’sofficial 2006 Lentbook (so what’s it doing on my bedside table, rather than his???). Miroslav Volf is the Henry B Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School. He’s a Yugoslavian.

It’s a great read. There’s much that echoes Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace? He sees western culture as graceless, and suggests that what we need is to relearn giving andf forgiving. Intensely personal and magnificently readable, it would be a good book to have as a discussion basis for a Church group.