Synopses & Reviews
When Brian McLaren began offering an alternative vision of Christian faith and life in books such as A New Kind of Christian and A Generous Orthodoxy, he ignited a firestorm of praise and condemnation that continues to spread across the religious landscape. To some religious conservatives, McLaren is a dangerous rebel without a doctrinally-correct cause. Some fundamentalist websites have even claimed he's in league with the devil and have consigned him to flames.
To others though, Brian is a fresh voice, a welcome antidote to the staleness, superficiality, and negativity of the religious status quo. A wide array of people from Evangelical, Catholic, and Mainline Protestant backgrounds claim that through his books they have begun to rediscover the faith they'd lost or rejected. And around the world, many readers say that he has helped them find-for the first time in their lives-a faith that makes sense and rings true. For many, he articulates the promise of what is being called emerging Christianity.
In The Secret Message of Jesus you'll find what's at the center of Brian's critique of conventional Christianity, and what's at the heart of his expanding vision. In the process, you'll meet a Jesus who may be altogether new to you, a Jesus who is...
Not the crusading conqueror of religious broadcasting;
Not the religious mascot of partisan religion;
Not heaven's ticket-checker, whose words have been commandeered by the church to include and exclude, judge and stigmatize, pacify and domesticate.
McLaren invites you to discover afresh the transforming message of Jesus-an open invitation to radical change, an enlightening revelation that exposes sham and ignites hope, an epic story that is good news for everyone, whatever their gender, race, class, politics, or religion.
Pastor and best-selling author McLaren revisits the gospel material from a fresh-and at times radical-perspective . . . He does an excellent job of capturing Jesus' quiet, revolutionary style.
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Here McLaren shares his own ferocious journey in pondering the teachings and actions of Jesus. It is McLaren's lack of salesmanship or agenda that creates a refreshing picture of the man from Galilee who changed history.
--Donald Miller, Author of Blue Like Jazz
In this critical book, Brian challenges us to ask what it would mean to truly live the message of Jesus today, and thus to risk turning everything upside down.
--Jim Wallis, Author of God's Politics and editor of Sojourners
Compelling, crucial and liberating: a book for those who seek to experience the blessed heat of Christianity at its source.
--Anne Rice, Author of Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
Synopsis
Brian McLaren, inspired author of A New Kind of Christian, is back, inviting readers to join him on a journey of faith and doubt, to explore the true message of Jesus. Unafraid of controversy or the uncomfortable gray, McLaren asks hard questions and doesn't claim to have all the answers. Readers will be encouraged to search their own hearts and open their minds, to entertain the possibility that Jesus' message is still largely unknown, a secret to be unraveled. To look at the inconsistencies between our claims as Christians and the revolution Jesus was calling demanding. To challenge the traditional understanding of Jesus, if for know other reason than to know Him better. Join McLaren and dare to be inspired, moved, challenged, shocked and motivated about the secret message of Jesus.
Synopsis
Brian McLaren, one of TIME magazine's 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America, is back, this time to lead readers on a journey that will prove to be as unsettling and groundshaking as it is thrilling and life-changing. Unafraid of controversy or the uncomfortable gray areas of life, McLaren's quest is to find the essential message of Jesus' life-even if it overturns our conventional ideas, priorities, and practices. Through the years, I have frequently had an uncomfortable feeling: writes McLaren, that the portrait of Jesus I found in the New Testament didn't fit with the images of Jesus in the church Out of that nagging discomfort arose this book, promising to be McLaren's most revolutionary to date. He writes, I'd like to share my search with you, and invite you to be a part of it. I don't want to spoil the ending, but I'll let you in on this: the farther I go on this search, the more inspired, moved, challenged, shocked, and motivated I become about the secret message of Jesus.
Synopsis
Brian McLaren, one of TIME magazine's 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America, is back, this time to lead readers on a journey that will prove to be as unsettling and groundshaking as it is thrilling and life-changing. Unafraid of controversy or the uncomfortable gray areas of life, McLaren's quest is to find the essential message of Jesus' life-even if it overturns our conventional ideas, priorities, and practices.
Through the years, I have frequently had an uncomfortable feeling: writes McLaren, that the portrait of Jesus I found in the New Testament didn't fit with the images of Jesus in the church Out of that nagging discomfort arose this book, promising to be McLaren's most revolutionary to date. He writes, I'd like to share my search with you, and invite you to be a part of it. I don't want to spoil the ending, but I'll let you in on this: the farther I go on this search, the more inspired, moved, challenged, shocked, and motivated I become about the secret message of Jesus.
Pastor and best-selling author McLaren revisits the gospel material from a fresh--and at times radical--perspective. . . . He does an excellent job of capturing Jesus' quiet, revolutionary style.--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Here McLaren shares his own ferocious journey in pondering the teachings and actions of Jesus. It is McLaren's lack of salesmanship or agenda that creates a refreshing picture of the man who claimed to be God.--Donald Miller, Author of Blue Like Jazz
In this critical book, Brian challenges us to ask what it would mean to truly live the message of Jesus today, and thus to risk turning everything upside down.--Jim Wallis, Author of God's Politicsand editor of Sojourners
Brian has given us an insightful and occasionally startling distillation of the message of Jesus. He is well aware of the many ways it has been distorted and debased by ourselves among others, but McLaren argues compellingly that it continues to be the best message we have--bringing clarity, guidance, and, above all, hope into our shadowed and floundering world.--Frederick Buechner
Brian McLaren insists gently that we recognize the message of Jesus as an ongoing revolution that may never come to an end in time. He reminds us that we have been invited to transform ourselves through Christ. Lucid, compelling, crucial and liberating: a book for those who seek to experience the blessed heat of Christianity at its source.--Anne Rice, Author of Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
Synopsis
--Anne Rice, Author of Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt