Chapter 4 of Finding Our Way Again in the light of Rob Bell

I was just listening tonight to the Livestream event for the publication of Rob Bell's Love Wins.  Rob Bell was being interviewed by Newsweek's Lisa Miller, and there was an ongoing commentary in the accompanying chat room, mostly tearing down Rob Bell as "universalist."  It was perfect timing for my approach to Chapter 4 of Brian McLaren's Finding Our Way Again.

McLaren writes:  "What's gotten me into trouble, though, is my suspicion that a person can be a follower of the way of Jesus without affiliating with the Christian religion, and my simultaneous lament that a person can be accepted and even celebrated as a card-carrying member of the Christian club but not actually be a follower of the way of Jesus."

Rob Bell pointed out in tonight's interview that Jesus can be the way for everyone to reach God, even those who are not consciously aware of the fact that they are being brought to God by Jesus.   This, of course, seems like scandalous universalism to many, and there have been lengthy and impassioned pre-publication reviews of the book as theologically dangerous and misleading for its message that God is ultimately unwilling to give up on anyone.

One member of the audience asked him about the narrow way to salvation.  The same issue is addressed by McLaren in describing the call of Jesus, not to a new religion, but to a new way of life - called to practice loving enemies as if they were friends, and hungering and thirsting not so much for food and drink but for justice.  McLaren describes this way of life as a "rocky mountain footpath that required careful attention and commitment, step by step."  The narrowness of the path is not found in its exclusivity, but in its difficulty.  There are many ways (a broad Roman road) NOT to follow the way of Jesus, and only that narrow path to follow, but following is not a matter of proclaiming creeds, or even believing in the creeds one proclaims. It is a way of life.