Claiborne, McLaren and Peterson

Three books completed in recent weeks which have been interesting and worth a look. Firstly, McLaren and Claiborne. I met the author of Irresistable Revolution on his visit to Belfast. What I really appreciated
was the consistency of his character. I first encountered him through a Speaking of Faith podcast and found him quiet and humble. The book seemed to confirm it and meeting him in person sealed it. The guy is very genuine. Mark H made the point that in our youth (quite a few years ago) we were challenged to a form of radical living by the likes of George Verwer, but he always managed to load us with a burden of guilt. Shane woo-ed his listeners into radical faith in an inspiring and challenging way.

Brian McLaren’s latest Everything Must Change is a good read and again is designed to challenge the reader in the face of the crises facing the world. The analysis of the problem is not new (crises of
security, equity and prosperity – shades of  the French revolution I thought!!), but the packaging was. So to the solution – a revolution of hope. I’m no expert on McLaren, I’ve only read his first and last books, in neither of which I found him to be a prose stylist. But his passion is clear. I’ve met him a couple of times. The second time was in the Sojourners house in DC, we literally bumped into each other, and he recognised me from a previous encounter in Belfast some months earlier. I took that as a mark of the character of the man – he was not indulging the celebrity circuit, but was truly seeking to encounter people.

There are gaps in the work. Craig M wouldn’t be happy with me if I didn’t mention that he doesn’t engage with Paul. He doesn’t. Nor is it clear the place of the Holy Spirit. But it’s worth the read, if only to see some of the statistics he presents which are truly staggering and which establish his thesis that we are living in a suicide machine.

Lastly, Eugene Peterson’s The Jesus Way his latest addition to the Spiritual Theology series. I found this to be a profoundly political  book. His treatment of the theology and practice of Herod/Pharisees, Caiaphas/Essenes and Josephus/Zealots was one of the best critiques of US/UK international relations I’ve read. The shape of his analysis was echoed in McLaren’s book also, indeed it seemed to be McLaren was either borrowing directly from Peterson or they were using the same source material.

Of the three, Peterson is the most lyrical and engaging, and indeed the most scholarly. Will any of the three find much space among right wing? Probably not.

Incidentally, I found Jim Wallis’s introduction to Claiborne’s book a little crass, remarking how Shane Claiborne as a young radical ‘reminds me of me at that age’!! Come on!