Why Did Jesus, Moses, The Buddha, And Mohammed Cross The Road?: Christian Identity In A Multi-Faith World (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
“Isn’t the real scandal not that our religious leaders might be imagined walking across a road or talking as friends together in a bar, but rather that their followers are found speaking against one another as enemies, day after day in situation after situation?” Brian McLaren makes the argument that a strong Christian identity does not require one to be hostile towards outsiders. In our culture today, it seems that the stronger one's opposition grows toward non-Christian religions, the more hostile one becomes. Inversely, the more one tries to reduce their hostility, it appears to other adherents of Christianity that one's Christian identity is weakened. The bottom line for me is that Christians need to be known more for what they're for than what their against and hostility towards the "other" is not an indication of a strong Christian identity, it's merely a sign of feeling threatened by the other. I really appreciated McLaren's perspective and I loved the stories that he shared about how he's been able to live out relationships with people of different faiths. That was very inspiring. However, I found this book to be slightly disorganized so that by the end of the book most of the material seemed recycled. It began to sound like a broken record - strong identity doesn't equate hostility, strong identity doesn't equate hostility, strong identity doesn't equate hostility... - and on and on and on. McLaren's editor should have helped him out a bit more with shortening and tightening up some of the content to make it less repetitive. My second issue with this book was that McLaren has a LOVE of footnotes. Often at times completely unnecessary and I found their insane frequency to be a hindrance to the actual content of the book. I also found it frustrating that he was constantly trying to sell his other books in his footnotes. Shameless self-promotion I guess. As much as I loved the content of this book, I don't know if I'll read another McLaren book because stylistically it frustrated me.All in all, a good read, but I could have been about 100 pages shorter. In his usual thoughtful way McLaren challenges the reader to think and/or rethink how we live our our commitment to Jesus Christ in a multicultural wworld.In a very practical way Part III, The Liturgical Challenge, asks the reader to consider how our "practice" of worship continues to use liturgical forms that no longer match our theological thinking -- and may inhibit our moving toward a more accepting stance toward others.
What do You think about Why Did Jesus, Moses, The Buddha, And Mohammed Cross The Road?: Christian Identity In A Multi-Faith World (2012)?
I found this book to have more theologically rooting that many of McLaren's books, and I liked that.
—6232as
one of the most fantasttic books I've ever read. I'm recommending it to all of my friends.
—Angel
This started out great, but I got bored quickly by the repetition and didn't finish.
—Aimee
A great book on interfaith relations written by a very committed Christian.
—Mica1606
