Interview: Brian McLaren

Listed by Time Magazine as one of the top twenty-five influential evangelicals in America, Brian McLaren has done much to advance the Emerging / Emergent Church movement.

An author, speaker, pastor, and activist, McLaren is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs such as Larry King Live, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, and Nightline.

In this interview, Brian shares his thoughts on the authority of Scripture:

Christian: What additional sources of authority do you find those in the emerging church using in place or in addition to the Scriptures?

Brian: I don’t find people in the emergent conversation using other sources of authority in place of or in addition to the Scriptures. If anything, I think the emergent conversation is asserting the primacy of Scripture over other prevailing sources of authority – including many conventional interpretations of Scripture. What I do find people questioning, though, are the assumptions that lie within the word “authority” itself. A lot of us feel that the concepts of authority we inherited were naive – implying, for example, that Scripture can exercise authority without interpretation. Also, many of the concepts of authority we inherited seem to be part and parcel of a Cartesian or foundational epistemology; many of us are questioning the epistemological assumptions that lie unexamined in the word “authority” for many people.

Christian:  How does the doctrine of “sola Scriptura” affect your ministry? 

Brian: Let me speak of Scripture itself rather than a doctrine about Scripture. Scripture gives me the courage to question human assumptions, traditions, and conventions. It teaches me to see the world narratively rather than ideologically. Most importantly it is, as Luther said, the manger on which Christ is presented to the world.   

Christian:  Concerning the authority of Scripture, what one piece of advice would you offer younger generations of Christians?

Brian: Four things come to mind.

First, one of the biggest challenges in my life has been to distinguish between what Scripture says and what people say Scripture says. I’ve learned to have more confidence in Scripture itself, rather than in conventional interpretations of Scripture.

Second, I’ve become suspicious – not disdainful, and not against, but suspicious – about non-biblical words that are imposed on Scripture – words like “the Fall,” for example, that may carry unacknowledged conceptual freight and may cause us to see things that aren’t there in the text and miss things that are there.

Third, I’ve learned to ask what very familiar terms meant to their original hearers, which may differ significantly from what we assume they mean – words like salvation, Christ, baptize, Savior, etc.

Fourth, I’d encourage people to read the Bible not as a constitution, but rather as a library containing the diverse and vibrant literature of the people of God.

Christian:  Thank you for your time. 

To learn more about McLaren’s ministry and theology, here are some resources that may be helpful:

Here is a list of some of McLaren’s books:

A New Kind Of Christianity
Everything Must Change
A Generous Orthodoxy
Finding Our Way Again
A New Kind Of Christian
The Story We Find Ourselves In
The Secret Message Of Jesus

You can also visit his website.

Blog