McLaren and McKnight: Conversations on Being a Heretic

For those interested, here is a theological discussion that Brian McLaren and Scott McKnight had recently.  McKnight is asking McLaren a number of questions regarding his theology and some of the problems with his writings in terms of consistency and ambiguity.

We should note that to McLaren ambiguity is more stimulating than clarity.  Ambiguity forces us to ask questions whereas clarity forces us to either accept or reject it.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this conversation was McKnight's probing over the issue of hell.  In his latest book, A New Kind of Christianity, McLaren clearly states that he believes in heaven and here he restates that firm belief.  However, when it comes to hell (and he has written an entire book on the subject) he remains fuzzy.  He rejects exclusivism outright (how about that for clarity, he won't even allow it to be a possibility).  But over the issue concerning inclusivism or universalism he remains agnostic and argues that such a question is the wrong question.

McLaren notes that he is almost/kind-of sort-of a universalists, but because he is speaking out of a different paradigm the question isn't what he is concerned about.  McKnight continued to probe him and asked the sort of questions that seemed to put McLaren back on his heals.  So if you watch the following video pay special attention to the last third when the conversation actually becomes more of a conversation.

For those new to McLaren this isn't a bad place to start.


Q | Conversations on Being a Heretic from Q Ideas on Vimeo.


HT:  Jonathan Brink