Are there any questions or comments about Part 3, Chapters 10 & 11 of McLaren’s book?
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Learning From Others, Seeking The Way
An Emerging Viewpoint
Are there any questions or comments about Part 3, Chapters 10 & 11 of McLaren’s book?
Learning From Others, Seeking The Way 
For me the biggest point of chapter 10, in which McLaren asks whether God is violent, is that the view of God painted in the bible are the writer’s view of God and not the true character of The Sacred.
I cannot be at the discussion next Tuesday, but I wanted to put in my two cents on this topic.
I have been dealing with the God question for some time, engaged in a personal search for an image of God that makes sense for me in the modern secular world, and can work for my children and grandchildren in the postmodern era as well.
I often work out my ideas by writing, slowly crafting and editing as ideas begin to emerge and thoughts connect. I have carefully examined the ideas of many others and added my own thoughts to the mix.
Within the past year, I have been developing a book proposal based on my “following Jesus” web site, which you can find at http://www.followingJesus.org.
One chapter of that book-in-progress deals with the God question – “Seeking God.” I’m still getting the hang of how to post things on this blog, but I did manage to put a link on my own WordPress blog which will allow you to download that chapter.
It is still a draft, but it represents many weeks and months of questioning and research, comparing and contrasting various images of God.
It is pretty lengthy, but if you’d like to read it, go to my blog at postmodernfaith.wordpress.com.
I hope to be able to rejoin you on Tuesday, March 8.
I’ve never run into any Christian who is comfortable with the God of the Old Testament or one who defends that idea of God as violent. Sometimes the violence is defended as being “against the enemies of Israel” but quickly glossed over and the “kinder, nicer side of God” is emphasized instead. The Noah’s Ark story bothered me even as a child because I couldn’t imagine anyone being so wicked that God couldn’t forgive and would destroy instead. The story of the Egyptian soldiers of Pharaoh drowning in the Red Sea as they pursue Israel bothered me all the more since Egypt is a country that still exists whereas no name is given to the people who are drowned in the time of Noah, they are nameless inhabitants of the earth. Stories like these just don’t square with the idea of of loving, forgiving God.
I am inspired by Elton Trueblood – God is like Jesus. Everything else is an evolving understanding.