Tonight (East Australia Time) a number of bloggers have started conversations with Brian McLaren, touching on the issues raised in Brian’s most recent book, The Last Word and The Word After That. It’s not often an author takes the opportunity to dialogue with his readers in this way. (The image to the right by the way has been doctored to include Brian’s photo and a hint of hell.)
At Tall Skinny Kiwi, for example, Brian asks two questions:
#1 For you personally, is the gospel primarily information on how to avoid hell, largely but not exclusively for hell avoidance, partially but not mostly for it, peripherally for it, or not at all for it? (Not sure if you could make this a poll?)
#2 And if the primary purpose for the good news of Jesus is not to get individual souls out of hell after this life, what is its primary purpose?
Head on over to Tall Skinny Kiwi’s blog, vote in the ‘Skinny Poll’ and put your two cents worth in the comments.
At Jen Lemen‘s site Brian talks about some of the personal background to the book. How he developed his thinking and so on.
At Pomo Musings (Adam Cleaveland) Brian comments:
“One of the sub-themes of the book is that our understanding or misunderstanding of hell, judgment, the purpose of God, and the character of God has huge ramifications in how we live – including how we treat other humans, other living creatures, and the planet itself.”
At Jordon Cooper’s site the action is yet to start.
At Dwight Friesen’s site, Brian writes:
“I have felt for a long time that Western Christian theology (in its Catholic and Protestant forms) had somewhere become preoccupied with getting individual souls out of hell after death, and had too often lost a sense of God’s continuing love for all creation in this life – in other words, we had substituted something else for the gospel of the kingdom of God, which was at the heart of Jesus’ message.”
And at Chris Monro’s Paradoxology blog Brian’s just getting into the conversation.