301 pages
I spent a lot of time reading through this book for two reasons: one there were parts that were extremely interesting that I wanted to spend a great deal of time thinking through; and two there were parts of the book that were extremely slow to read, hard to read, and boring. The latter sections took a great deal of time to trudge through.
McLaren’s basic thesis simply put is that Everything Must Change. The system by which the world works is horribly broken which results in a system that not only dehumanizes people (specifically the poor), but renders them nothing more than cogs in the wheel that work to support and increase the wealth of the richest 1%. I don’t think this is really all that surprising. We’ve been hearing this for years. In fact, one of the more interesting sections of the book sparked this blog entry last month in which McLaren offered a solution to breaking this system.
McLaren calls for us to disbelieve in the system of the world and instead believe in the framing story of the gospel turing our sights to the hope that the gospel brings. Of course he doesn’t leave us hanging, he offers several insights and thoughts into how this could be accomplished. This of course is where the book becomes “controversial.”
Many of the insights McLaren gives are good ideas with thoughts that could truly revolutionize the world if embraced by the masses. However, my biggest beef with his solutions is that they are all financial driven. It seems that McLaren is promoting the idea that money can solve all of the worlds problems if only it were equally distributed among the people, almost in a Marxian utopia. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is the complete solution. Although I’m sure that there does need to be more equal distribution of resources throughout the world, I don’t think we can rely on this to be the total solution. I don’t think we can fix all the worlds problems through economics.
I wish that I were able to give a different path to walk down other than a completely economic package, but I cannot. I think the world is much more complex than economies… and I don’t believe everything hinges upon the equity system of the world.
McLaren offers some great insight and this book is decent, but be prepared from time to time to be bored in the minutia of economic theory. It’s certainly worth a read, but I’d suggest skimming it first for the actual nuggets of wisdom that are there within.
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Good review…I came to similar conclusions about the money issue. I really thought he set up the book quite nicely in the first 80-100 pages and then it did get boring at times. Still a good read.
Cheers.
The book makes many valid points as you mentioned have been tossed about for some time now. I think I like to hear him lecture on the books ideas more than reading the book itself, but none-the-less still a very useful book.
I do think money is the core of it though. Is it right? Probably not but living in the world we do, money is the key to many things. Does money solve the issues, no but it helps to start the path to solving the real issues. You really cant do much without money as sad as that is.
OK, here is my issue…McLaren is not an economist. Mclaren is not a sociologist. McLaren is not a biblical scholar. McLaren is not a philosopher. McLaren is not a theologian (although he quite enjoys playing the part). McLaren is a Christian author who is now famous for being famous. I’m not saying that he has never had any legitimately good ideas, but he seems to have just an itsy-bitsy messianic complex.
wow rags, tell us how you really feel!
i’m pretty sure i’d feel the same way you do rags if i hadn’t seen him lecture… he comes across in a very gracious manner, almost in an “aw-schucks” sort of way. it’s rather disarming and i would say it would short-circuit any messiah complex issues one would place upon him.
with that said, i agree with Jason that he did a better job lecturing about this book than to actually have read the thing… you can get at the core of the book in a one hour lecture and Q&A session… (so if that’s the case what does that say about the book?!)