One of the perks of my job I love most is the amount of free books I get sent. About once a month someone sends me a book to read and review, sometimes even write a blur about for marketing purposes or something.
Yesterday I received A Heretic’s Guide To Eternity by Spencer Burke, the founder of theooze.com – an on-line “emergent” community.
I’ve only skimmed it so far and only truly read the forward 0 by Brian McLaren. It’s a strange little forward. Three pages of defensiveness and disclaimers. He parses the word heretic and defends it’s use against a not yet and very imaginary attack from who know who.
I imagine that the blogs and maybe even religious broadcasting airwaves will soon be buzzing with scandalous outrage that Spencer and Barry have used the word “heretic” in their title. Maybe the risk they’re taking won’t be worth it, as scores of serious, concerned people try to take the logs our of the authors’ eyes, unaware that they might even have a tiny metal shaving in their own…if some people do more than react to the scandalous title and actually read this book and realize, not what’s wrong with heresy (which is obvious to almost everybody), but what’s so often wrong with religion, including “our” religion (whichever that might be).
The whole is prickly like this. And I got the feeling at the end of it all that McLaren was saying essentially, “If you, Shaun, don’t like anything in this book you’re about to read, well, you’re a bad bad mean person who doesn’t think enough for himself.”
Pompous. Fists gloved and ready. A horrible tone to set at the beginning.
.
That is a strange forward. I suppose it’s possible that McLaren has come under enough fire that he naturally starts out feeling defensive. I would probably be turned off by that though.
Shaun,
Thank you for taking the time to read the book for yourself.
In a strange way Brian’s words were some-what prophetic, many were not able to get past the title and only quoted sound bites form the few who disagreed with the book.
Again thank you for posting your response – no matter what it maybe – it is yours… for that I am honored and humbled.
Thanks, Spencer. I’m enjoying the book. So far I haven’t found anything worth getting upset over…but I’m only halfway through it.
Sorry to hear that the title was such a big hurdle for some to jump. The title intrigued me – didn’t repel at all. The subjectivity of words.
I’ll post a more complete review when I’m done.
SG
Shaun, have you finished reading this yet? I just came across a mention of it in an excellent article by Scot McKnight at Christianity Today titled Five Streams of the Emerging Church. Toward the end, McKnight says:
An admittedly controversial element of post-evangelicalism is that many in the emerging movement are skeptical about the “in versus out” mentality of much of evangelicalism. Even if one is an exclusivist (believing that there is a dividing line between Christians and non-Christians), the issue of who is in and who is out pains the emerging generation.
Some emerging Christians point to the words of Jesus: “Whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). Others, borrowing the words of the old hymn, point to a “wideness in God’s mercy.” Still others take postmodernity’s crushing of metanarratives and extend that to master theological narratives—like Christianity. They say what really matters is orthopraxy and that it doesn’t matter which religion one belongs to, as long as one loves God and one’s neighbor as one’s self. Some even accept Spencer Burke’s unbiblical contention in A Heretic’s Guide to Eternity (Jossey-Bass, 2006) that all are born “in” and only some “opt out.”
What is the context of Burke’s assertion?
I’ll chime in too, wondering if you’ve finished yet and what you think now.
I haven’t finished yet. I plan to on my next run of shows – in about ten days. I’ll post a real review then.
Have you read this, cach?
Not yet, but I’ve had my eye on it. I should be able to get to it next month. Worth the read?
Yea, I think so. It’s well written I think and not too heady. But because of that a lot of what he asserts isn’t backed up too thoroughly either. If you’re going to say something “heretical” you should probably take the time to explain how you came to believe that way. He doesn’t…at least not all that convincingly…to me.