November 2024
By James Woodward
One of the more challenging decisions that needs to be made in preparation for a few days away on retreat is what one might read. In the throes of a busy term and new academic year my pile of books waiting to be read sit as an invitation to open, ingest and learn. At the top of the pile has been Brian McLaren’s book which has attracted more attention than some of the volumes that sit on a table in that part of my study.
I am a great admirer of McLaren. He writes clearly. He manages to dig deep into the conundrum of life today. He is enriched and enabled by the Christian tradition but not contained or restrained by it. He is a searcher after truth, There is a freedom and agency to his engagement. He is utterly unafraid to name the question, the feeling, the dilemma or paradox which we must face head on.
In various places, I am sometimes surprised by the way in which the pandemic is still present. There is anxiety. There is an increasing lack of trust in government and those in authority. The problems and the difficulties are heavy ones to bear. There seems to be many so questions but fewer answers. McLaren is clear about his aspiration that this book should be in the words of the subtitle “offering of wisdom and courage” for a world he describes as falling apart.
He names many things that we know are a threat to the future of our existence. We do not need to go very far into our communities to see the destructive realities of inequality. The Internet surrounds us with extremist politics. I myself have joined many others in withdrawing from the former Twitter platform now called X. In a world of free speech, what are the limits to tolerance of such freedom? Beyond our own opinions and social or political perspectives we know that we are living within a global crisis that threatens our climate, biodiversity and the sustainability of our life.
I wondered about the wisdom of bringing this book away with me into retreat. Although it has been a challenging and difficult read McLaren shows his reader the importance of standing still and noticing what is going on around us, within us and before us. In the present moment these realities need attending to and naming.
The book falls into four carefully organised parts. Letting go; letting be; letting come and setting free. The four keywords are descent, insight, resilience, and engagement. The appendices offer good advice about how to use this book and for the purposes of this reader an excellent framework of advice for using the book on retreat. The purpose of this is to let this thinking land for the reader. McLaren wants the book to be used and to be put to use. He wants the reader to be disturbed into action. He wants us to face our limitations and biases. He hopes that his reader might face some of the anxieties and indeed misunderstandings that distort both our thinking and support our inaction.
The book is also quite an uncomfortable read for those of us who have spent much of our lives within the walls of organised religion. McLaren is at his characteristically best when he critiques a religion that is unhealthy and lacking agility. He takes his reader into learning from indigenous wisdom which can celebrate love and the beauty of creation. He deconstructs anything that he believes inhibits our living as well as we possibly can in the present moment..
It is a bold manifesto setting out the key elements of how vision, faith, openness, and justice can lead the reader both into the geography of change and action. But to do this, he argues, we must learn to read the Bible differently. He invites his reader into a series of conversations through exercises at the end of each chapter to consider how they might, how we might, use them in order to listen to our grief and learn from it.
It is not a surprise that he offers the language of poetry as a key way to discovering the power of community. In this regard it is a masterful holding together of our present contradictions and paradoxes and ambiguities. As a piece of practical theology it offers the reader all the tools for a deeper consideration of how we might become agents of change.
I probably read the book too quickly and I must go back to consider more intentionally some of my markings and jottings. I found it interesting that this is one of those books that I thought would be much better if it had been read with other people. There were a number of points where I simply wanted to stop and talk something through that was perplexing or challenging or life-giving.
As we face shorter days and longer nights with its associated festivities I commend this book to you. It is not comfortable. It will disturb you. It will also offer you a framework within which to make some sense of these present moments.
As I write, I learn from the early morning news that Biden has agreed for the Ukraine to use long-range missiles against Russia. We are faced with a ravages of the holy land. We know that that climate change is changing the seasons. This particular place of retreat may have its silence and peace but this is shattered by the perplexities of this present human time.
Perhaps it is time to pause and notice and act?
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Life after Doom is published by St. Martin’s Essentials
The Revd Canon Professor James Woodward is Principal of Sarum College. This review is adapted from the original posted on his personal website.
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