The Logic of Intersubjectivity. Darren M. Slade
Ultimately, for McLaren, following Jesus is, at its core, an existential journey rather than an academic chore (cf. GI, x):
I don’t just aspire to believe in God or think correctly about God. I want to love God and worship God and serve and experience God. If my view of God changes, well, that changes everything for me. This [spiritual] quest stirs up all kinds of psychological issues for me too, because my theology and my biography are deeply integrated in my ‘be-ology’—my sense of who I am and what I want to be as a human being. (NKOCY §Book Two, 159‒60)
Not surprisingly, then, McLaren’s “be-ology” began with his fundamentalist upbringing.
2.2.1 Formative Personal Experiences
McLaren attended a highly conservative church that he admits had sincere followers of Christ, but his childhood experiences with the Plymouth Brethren exemplified some of the worst parts of Christian fundamentalism, particularly its widespread anti-intellectualism (GO §12, 187; GSM, x). For example, people often told McLaren that evolution was a lie and that God created the earth in six literal days (cf. GI, 147‒67).104 They also told him that only those within his denomination were saved, everyone else was going to hell, the world’s end was imminent, and academics are conspiring against Christianity, thereby making the study of science and philosophy immoral.105
There were socio-political tensions, as well. McLaren remembers at the age of eight, during the Civil Rights Movement, when his Sunday School teacher warned the class that marrying someone of a different race would be an affront to God (GSM, 85‒86). There was also a deep prejudice against “liberals,” where the term became a pejorative to foster hatred for other Christians (GO §1, 59; §8, 131). Likewise, his church wholeheartedly supported the Vietnam War, “which made no sense to me—even if communism was as bad as everyone said, were people better off bombed and napalmed to death?” (GO §1, 44). Soon, McLaren developed a suspicion of the “pro-war, anti-hippie churchy role models” (NS §1, 7), who seemed to oppose any and all social reform. From these personal experiences, McLaren started having real doubts about the sustainability and legitimacy of fundamentalist Christianity (cf. WMRBW, 94).106
McLaren reports that he had his first “faith crisis” at the age of twelve when he was told to choose between God and science (FFS §Intro, 17), making his passion for science increasingly incompatible with fundamentalism (COOS1 §6, 75‒76).107 He eventually rebelled by growing long hair and joining a rock band (FFR §9, 180‒81), despite having learned that “rock ‘n’ roll was really of the devil” (GO §1, 44). “By my teenage years, it was clear that I simply didn’t fit in the rigid Brethren box. My love for philosophy, evolution, and rock and roll were three spiritual strikes that counted me out” (GSM, x). By his twenties, McLaren befriended non-fundamentalist believers, including mainline Protestants and Catholics (NKOCY §Preface, xii), which were two groups that the Brethren considered enemies of true Christianity (cf. COOS1 §4, 53‒54; GO §8, 131). He eventually joined an Episcopalian church where the conservative Rector exposed him to theological liberalism, which helped him to value Christ’s love, justice, and sense of compassion. Then, his later encounters with Pentecostalism helped him to retain belief in Jesus’ active presence in the world (GO §1, 51; §1, 59‒60; §12, 186‒88).108 However, while McLaren remained attracted to Christ (SMJ §1, 5), he also knew he needed a more unrestrained spirituality.109
2.2.1.1 The Pursuit of a Liberating Spirituality
It is apparent that McLaren’s early writings are a response to his negative experiences with fundamentalism. “My own upbringing was way out on the end of one of the most conservative twigs of one of the most conservative branches of one of the most conservative limbs of Christianity, and I am far harder on conservative Protestant Christians who share that heritage than I am on anyone else” (GO §0, 35). While admitting he overgeneralizes, McLaren’s experience fits the growing cultural perception of conservative Christians as being pompous, egotistical, and intolerant of diversity (FFR §8, 166).110 Thus, he ended up wanting a liberating type of faith that beckons and unfetters people to join ever-expanding possibilities, not confine and limit them to old patterns.111 Not surprisingly, then, McLaren’s work resonates predominantly with those who have had similar experiences, and it explains why McLaren felt he gained a sense of spiritual freedom when joining the Jesus Movement (GSM, x). Here, McLaren’s faith in Jesus was revitalized as he became engrossed in the movement’s emphasis on “simplicity, a childlikeness, a naïveté, and a corresponding purity of motive that I have seldom seen since” (GO §1, 45).112 McLaren would later model a high school youth group, “the Fellowship,” after these experiences with the Movement by welcoming ostracized students into the club (cf. MRTYR §16, 121‒23).113 Eventually, however, McLaren felt the Jesus Movement had been “co-opted” by the Religious Right and “the religious marketing machine,” forcing him to doubt his faith once again (GO §1, 45). It was at this point that McLaren developed a lifelong cynicism for conventional paradigms (JMBM §2, 13n1), which would subsequently manifest in his educational, vocational, and spiritual growth toward a new paradigm.
2.2.2 Formative Educational Experiences
McLaren describes his higher education as one of “liberation” from spiritual myopia, which helped him to question the status quo of conventional religion (JMBM §9, 74). He obtained a Master of Arts in English literature from the University of Maryland where he was particularly fond of Romantic poets, medieval dramas, and philosophical writings (FOWA §Author, 215; NKOC §Author, 251). It is significant to note how he describes the Romantic poets, commenting, “They are of special interest to people doing postmodern ministry because romanticism was a recurring protest movement in the modern era representing a dissatisfaction with modern rationalism. In some ways romanticism anticipated postmodernism” (AIFA, 39).
What had influenced McLaren the most in college, however, was his graduate studies in deconstructionism and literary criticism, which he admits conditioned him to view religion differently (COOS1 §12b, 187).114 These studies made conventional paradigms feel inadequate and outdated, appealing only to society’s most unsophisticated religionists. Luckily, McLaren recounts, he had patient friends who expressed empathy toward his latest spiritual doubts (cf. AMP §16, 245), though he would continue to struggle with religion for most of graduate school (COOS1 §12b, 187‒88; FFS §3, 89‒92).115 During this time, it was two literary figures in particular who would ultimately have a major impact on McLaren’s philosophy of religion.
2.2.2.1 The Study of Walker Percy and Søren Kierkegaard
Remarkably, McLaren never intended to be a pastor, believing he could better serve God apart from the “religious bureaucracy and politics” of ministry; yet, his master’s thesis on the Catholic novelist and existentialist philosopher, Walker Percy (1916‒1990), who wrote substantially on semiotics and modernization, made pursuing a vibrant faith plausible for McLaren again (FFS §3, 92). Describing it as the “highlight of my higher education,” his Percyean research also introduced him to the existentialism of Søren Kierkegaard (1813‒1855), who was a major influence on Percy’s philosophy of religion (COOS1 §7, 91). For McLaren, Percy’s writings reflected the same anguish he had experienced with conventional Christianity.116
In terms of scholastic inspiration, McLaren is indebted to Walter Brueggemann, N. T. Wright, Francis Schaeffer, C. S. Lewis, Dallas Willard, John Caputo, Stanley Grenz, John Franke, Leonard Sweet, René Girard, and (most influential) Leslie Newbigin.117 Nonetheless, in terms of a religio-philosophy, both Percy and Kierkegaard are the most instrumental (and least recognized) of McLaren’s mentors. In fact, many are unaware of the philosophical parallels between McLaren and the existentialism of these two authors (§8.2.2). “My research led me to study Søren Kierkegaard in some detail, and his work also left a lasting mark.”118 In A New Kind of Christian, McLaren laments the absence of a Christian innovator: “Is there no Saint Francis or Søren Kierkegaard or C. S. Lewis in the house with some fresh ideas and energy?” (NKOC §Intro, xviii). In More Ready Than You Realize, he praises a Kierkegaard publication as one of the most influential, captivating, and inspiring books on evangelism he has ever read (MRTYR §1, 27‒28). McLaren even imitates Kierkegaard’s “indirect communication” so as stimulate