...another gnostic Gospel?

The Secret Message of Jesus
by Brian McLaren



McLaren gives us a great treatment of the theme of Jesus' ministry, message, life, death, and resurrection; the Kingdom of God. I am grateful for this highly readable book on this subject. McLaren essentially provides us with an exegesis of the message of Jesus in its entirety. The Secret Message of Jesus is by no means a secret, and so McLaren's latest book is less provocative than others he has written. I would give a warning that McLaren's appraisal of the contemporary application of the Message of Jesus is politically liberal* (specifically on the issue of foreign policy and war), although he does provide ample room for alternate perspectives, which is why I would not make this a critique of the book. The only outright critique I make of the book is that McLaren describes something that has been proclaimed for 2,000 years as 'secret;' he paints the gospel as 'hidden,' even going so far as to imply in his Appendix I entitled Why Didn't We Get It Sooner that the Church lost the message of Jesus sometime before the end of the second century and we have just regained the proper understanding of it in this most recent generation.

I had the unfortunate timing to read this Appendix while I was about halfway through the book. I was immensely excited by the direction the book was taking and then, while perusing the endnotes, came across the Appendix. I did not know how to react. Anger, sorrow, disgust... The Appendix colored my reading of the rest of the book. In fact, I don't know that I will be able to read McLaren again in the same light (without some sort of retraction). While McLaren disavows any naive arrogance about contemporary scholarship in comparison to that of antiquity, he has little ground to stand on when he makes the argument that he does. I hold very few positions with greater conviction than the universal nature of the Church, and the 2,000 year history of worldwide witness to the message of Jesus that the Church catholic provides for us.**

I would be tempted to give this book to others, with the obvious provision of cutting the Appendix out of the book prior to doing so, however, this theological 'newness' that fails to understand and value the truth of the gospel for 2,000 years expressed in hundreds of cultures is a common theme throughout 'emergent' literature and McLaren is not immune to it. This is the danger of speaking prophetically; judgment, criticism, dogmatism; unfortunately McLaren (while I must credit his sincere attempts to avoid these errors) has obviously fallen into them. While McLaren speaks with gentle words, what he is saying is ultimately "The Church, for 2,000 years and in hundreds of cultural expressions, has completely missed the point of Jesus, let me tell you what he really meant." This has never been a stated point in any of his works that I have read (until the Appendix) yet there are hints towards this in everything of his that I have read.

I have become even more skeptical of dogmatism in the past months (wait for my next blog). I have often been told to "chew up the meat and spit out the bones," however tossing out 2,000 years of Church history from every continent on the planet is, perhaps, too large a bone for any meal. While I have been greatly, and positively, influenced by McLaren, I am saddened by the position he outlines in his Appendix. It is a dangerous trend...

*This is not to say that Christian politics, in order to be truly Christian, should be conservative. We should offer similar warnings for writers who exegete along Republican party lines. In fact, I find liberal politics a refreshing mix with orthodox theology...

**This is not to say that Christian history is without error, but rather that the gospel message of Jesus ("repent for the Kingdom is here!') has always been attested to throughout history. There have even been times when the majority of Christians, or the officials of the Church, have stood in opposition to the Gospel of the Kingdom, but we must never mistake that for complete apostasy. There have always been those who live in the Kingdom, at times they are cast to the fringes of the Church, at other times they are properly honored as the keepers of the Gospel flame, but they have always been present; the Message of Jesus has never been 'lost.' (Matthew 13:24-30 addresses the issue of 'weeds' that need to be destroyed and harvestable 'crops' both existing together until the end.)