Brian McLaren

Brian McLaren (b. 1956) is a pastor, author, and speaker. He has been the pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church since 1986, a church he helped form in 1982. McLaren has a BA and MA from University of Maryland, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver, BC, Canada. 
McLaren is a noted spokesperson for the Emerging church, having written many important books in this area. His 2004 book, A Generous Orthodoxy (Zondervan) has been considered a "manifesto" of the emerging church conversation. 
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==Quotes==
* "I can imagine some impassioned critic of this book concluding a review with a statement something like this: 'It's bad enough that McLaren has undermined conventional understandings of hell, but in its place what has he offered? No clear alternative. One cannot even tell for sure, after a careful reading of this book, whether McLaren is an inclusivist, conditionalist, or universalist. All one can say is that he is clearly not an orthodox exclusivist.' In response, I might offer, as I have often suggested elsewhere, that clarity is good, but sometimes intrigue may be even more precious; clarity tends to put an end to further thinking, whereas intrigue makes one think more intensely, broadly, and deeply. Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God is a case in point; his parables don't score too well on clarity, but they excel in intrigue." -Introduction to The Last Word and The Word After That 
* "I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many (not all!) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts." —A Generous Orthodoxy 
==Books==
* Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices (Thomas Nelson, 2008)
* Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope (Thomas Nelson, 2007)
* The Voice of Luke: Not Even Sandals (Thomas Nelson, 2007)
* The Secret Message of Jesus (Thomas Nelson, 2006)
* The Last Word and the Word After That (Jossey-Bass, 2005)
* A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN (Zondervan, 2004)
* Church in Emerging Culture; Five Perspectives, edited by Frederica Matthewes-Green (Zondervan, 2003)
* Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel, with Tony Campolo (Zondervan, 2003)
* A Is for Abductive (Zondervan, 2003)
* The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian (Jossey-Bass, 2003)
* The Church on the Other Side (Zondervan, 2003)
* More Ready Than You Realize (Zondervan, 2002)
* A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey (Jossey-Bass, 2001)
* Finding Faith : A Self-Discovery Guide for Your Spiritual Quest (Zondervan, 2000)
==See also==
* Emergent church
==External links==
* Christianbook.com Interview with Brian McLaren
===Online works===
* An Open Letter to Chuck Colson
* Conversations About Hell
===Favorable / sympathetic ===
* anewkindofchristian.com
* Would you please clarify this paragraph in Generous Orthodoxy?, by Brian McLaren
* McLaren speaks in Kentucky after controversy, by Trennis Henderson 
* Fire without brimstone (PDF), by Abigail Tucker - "Brian McLaren preaches tolerance and environmentalism, making him one of the country's more unusual yet influential evangelicals."
* Review of The Last Word and the Word After That, by Andrew Perriman
* Evangelical Author Puts Progressive Spin On Traditional Faith, by Caryle Murphy
===Critical===
* * McLaren Emerging: In his last two books, Brian McLaren presents more clearly than ever his vision of the gospel, by [[Scot McKnight] (Christianity Today)
* Everything Hasn't Changed, by John Wilson )editor of Books & Culture)
* Emergent Delusion - A Critique of Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, by Bob DeWaay
* Review of A Generous Orthodoxy, by Jeremy Green
* Does Brian McLaren Have a Generous View of Hell?, by Ken Silva
* Brian McLaren Formula Zero - Racing Toward Oblivion, by Neil Richardson
McLaren