NAKED SPIRITUALITY

by Brian D. McLaren

“A rich, brilliant and important wonderfully readable and personal, filled with insight and wisdom, it invites us into practices that can transform our lives.” —Marcus J. Borg, author of Speaking Christian

“Brian McLaren is a bridge builder. In these simple yet profound spiritual practices he perfectly marries his evangelical heart and contemplative soul, and we are all richer for the union.” —Cynthia Bourgeault, author of Centering Prayer and The Wisdom Jesus

In the same way he revitalized our faith in A New Kind of Christianity , church leader Brian McLaren reinvigorates our approach to spiritual fulfillment in Naked Spirituality —by tearing down the old dogmatic practices that hamper our spiritual growth, and leading us toward the meaningful spiritual practices that can help transform our lives.

Genres: Spirituality, Religion, Nonfiction, Christian, Christianity, Theology, Faith

280 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Brian D. McLaren is an internationally known speaker and the author of over ten highly acclaimed books on contemporary Christianity, including A New Kind of Christian, A Generous Orthodoxy, and The Secret Message of Jesus.

Reviews

[Andy Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Brian McLaren at his best.

He shares stories from his own faith journey and places them within a context of four seasons and 12 disciplines of the spiritual life:

Simplicity: Spring
Here = Presence
Thanks = Appreciation
O = Adoration

Complexity: Summer
Sorry = Confession
Help = Petition
Please = Intercession

Perplexity: Autumn
When = Aspiration
No = Refusal
Why = Lament

Harmony: Winter
Behold = Meditation
Yes = Consecration
[silence] = Contemplation

This is not a light read, so be prepared to chew on the ideas presented. Rather, it is a handbook for people looking to develop simple, sustainable spiritual disciplines in response to our love.

I give this book my highest recommendation.

[Cornelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pithy, well written. Easily accessible for beginners in spiritual formation, but deep enough to engage persons on a deeper walk.

[Trevor Lund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts out good...then sets up 12 things you need to do.

I feels like fake genuineness...if that's possible.

[Marty Solomon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, McLaren has found a way to put words to experiences that one would never think of for the topic of a book. There have been experiences throughout my spiritual formation that I have consciously thought about and assessed without really being able to articulate out loud. Multiple times throughout this book (although slow at other parts), I found myself pounding the desk with my fists, saying, "Yes! Yes! That's what I've experienced!"

McLaren walks the reader through four distinct seasons of spiritual formation, not in a linear fashion necessarily, but in a cyclical spiritual lifespan. Through this book, you will end up reading about spiritual awakening, the complexity of learning and study, the powerful shattering season of tragedy, and the freedom-enhancing season of what I call openness (he called "harmony").

A great read that helps a reader articulate and put practical handles on the experiences one has after spending a while in the "spiritual life".

[Stephen Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book Brian is writing into an area that challenges mainstream popular Christian presentations of the "spiritual life".

To me the book feels like wide open spaces....using the seasons of winter spring summer and autumn as metaphors for different seasons of spirituality Brian broadens out(perhaps somewhat paradoxically because it attempts to describe the narrow places through which we must enter if we are to grow up in our relationship with God) our concepts of what we may experience over our lifetime of relating to God...addressing the all to often "narrowly confined" spirituality of popular Christianity.

This book opens windows onto fresh spiritual air allowing you to breath...even if you are presently in a narrow confined place.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As another Goodreads' reader writes, Brian McLaren "shares stories from his own faith journey and places them within a context of four seasons and 12 disciplines of the spiritual life:

Simplicity: Spring
Here = Presence
Thanks = Appreciation
O = Adoration

Complexity: Summer
Sorry = Confession
Help = Petition
Please = Intercession

Perplexity: Autumn
When = Aspiration
No = Refusal
Why = Lament

Harmony: Winter
Behold = Meditation
Yes = Consecration
[silence] = Contemplation

This is not a light read, so be prepared to chew on the ideas presented. Rather, it is a handbook for people looking to develop simple, sustainable spiritual disciplines in response to our love."

[hope mcintosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be simply understood and accessible. It was a good book to read for a contemplative morning. I would recommend it to anyone who is desiring a closer relationship with God.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the overall structure didn’t totally work for me, but I liked his writing and there were some great new ideas. Slow read.

[Mike Bates]

I could not complete this book.

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed this book, right at this time. It's funny how sometimes a book finds you right when you need it. Brian McLaren uses one word at a time to help explain a vulnerable "naked" spirituality that tears down any barriers between you and God. Some examples are "Behold" to help flesh out the importance of observation and gratitude, and even "..." to emphasize the importance of silence and listening to God, who is also listening to us. McLaren's approach is Christocentric but not necessarily denominational. His theology is described as "post-modern", and he leaves room in his writing for people who disagree.

I appreciated the structure of the book and the clear writing. I didn't need my Bible or a theology degree to understand what he was saying. I would recommend this book to Christians who would like to read about authentic ways to deepen their personal relationship with God.

[Carlos Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing book.
Brian tackles faith and connection with God without false positively or cheesy arguments. He explains it in terms of seasons: from joyful summers to dreadful winters. The book also covers very practical examples on how to apply the different concepts. This is a book that I want to keep discussing and read it again soon.

[Jeff Bobin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and thought provoking look at some of the words we use in our relationship with God.

Uncomfortable with some of his conclusions at the end of the book but not able to put my finger on why just yet.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first book by McLaren but it won’t be my last. I love this way of looking at our spiritual life and how it goes through seasons only to begin again. Twelve amazing words to reflect on. And my favorite is currently: here.

[Cindy Costanza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian McLaren maps out a 10-word approach to prayer that mimics a spiritual journey many take in a lifetime. Beautifully written and easily approachable. He is a gift to those of us in the Christian and Spiritual worlds.

[Shasta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once I had time to finish this I absolutely loved it. Very thought provoking and challenging! I've got a feeling this will show up again.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept, poor execution. I'm not sure he really said anything original.

[Joe Oaster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a chapter a day for almost a month and some of the chapters were either great or mediocre. I journaled on each chapter, some I got a lot out of some I got almost nothing out of.

[Emily Bade · Rating 1 out of 5]

A total snooze.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. New insights in every season of life.

[John Goebel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow Wow wow. So deep so relevant.a must read for all those seeking God.

[Craig Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author makes some good points here and there, but overall, it was nothing groundbreaking.

[katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughtful reminders.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was beautiful to read and meditate on. May make a contemplative out of me yet! I especially feel like my prayers have really benefitted from this book.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed thoughts on this book. I wanted to read it for a few reasons.

1.Brian McLaren seems to generate some controversy and I wanted to see for myself what all the hype was about.
2.The subtitle had the words life and simple in it and that sounds honestly refreshing.
3.The main title included the word naked. Sorry.
This book sold itself to me as something simple. At first I felt deceived. At first it seemed to me that something simple should not take so many words. It's simply complicated. Twelve simple words? That's like a sermon with 18 simple points.

It could be that Brian does not write it simply. Or I could just be a lot dumber than I thought. Either option is on the table. I'll let you decide.

But then I got past the introductory chapters. This may just be a me thing, but I prefer to see an author say what he's going to write about and then simply start writing about it. Because once I got into the heart of this book, I actually enjoyed it.

The premise is actually quite simple. Brian writes of 12 simple words that can help us focus through four seasons of life. The seasons are simplicity, complexity, perplexity and harmony. We may go through all of these seasons more than once and most will cycle through a few times. This is not intended to be a straight linear path. This is more proposed to be a winding circle as we go through the seasons of life.

Early on in the preface, Brian writes the following;
You won't find much in the way of aggressive arguments here, but rather a shy experience daring to step into the light. ... You won't need to agree with all the planks of my theological platform. I am a Christian, and all I write flows from my experience in that rich tradition, but you may be of another tradition entirely or of no known tradition at all.

Those couple of statements can be seen as both positive and negative. On the one hand, he clearly states he is a Christian. This is a good thing, because there are points that seem so muddled that I began to wonder. I had to repeatedly remind myself that we didn't have to agree on everything.

On the other hand, because Brian said this was not a book of theological arguments, it leaves him free to assume that we're all on the same page as far as how truth is interpreted. There are some obvious ways that he and I would differ in what we believe (which I will purposely avoid in this review for the sake of brevity). But there were times in which I had to seriously consider if his premise still held value considering the foundation of his points were shaky at best.

In the end, if you can look past where we would not agree and choose to look for what can be agreed upon, this book can be very much like sitting down with a friend over coffee and talking about how the two of you manage this thing we call life. I'd say that as long as you know what you believe, this book is worth the read.

I received this book from my great friends at The Ooze (http://theooze.com). They tell me to say something about the book, but not what to say. And so I do.

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy McLaren's vulnerability within his writing - I get the sense that I'm listening to someone who's still wrestling over things, like I am, and not someone who's professing to have it all worked out.

My take away from this book was the permission McLaren's stages brought to my own life and walk with God. The seasons were: Simplicity: The Season of Spiritual Awakening; Complexity: The Season of Spiritual Strengthening; Perplexity: The Season of Spiritual Survival; and Harmony: The Season of Spiritual Deepening. McLaren took twelve words to flesh out these seasons and attached the words to practices of prayer and meditation which I felt reverted back to an introspective examination of the self and gave alleviating permission to whichever stage you happen to be in and to just be there.

Those twelve words are: Here, Thanks, O; Sorry, Help, Please; When, No, Why; and Behold, Yes, [...].

The stages McLaren wrote about were the reason I picked up the book. They're reminiscent of a few other things I've read by ancient church fathers and more recently by Adele Calhoon in her book, The Spiritual Discipline Handbook, where in an appendix she wrote about seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. McLaren's autumn was Calhoon's winter, but other than that, things were quite similar in terms of seasons.

I believe this book is good for introspective people but wonder if those who are less introspective would really get much out of it. I wonder if something more like Richard Foster's The Celebration of Discipline really fleshes out an understanding of spiritual attentiveness to the ways and person of God through intentional practices. Yet, Foster's book lacks an overarching sense of spiritual season, which I think is very helpful. It attaches us to what St. John of the Cross wrote 500 years ago about the Dark Night of the Soul and such things and how they're all for the shaping our our whole selves toward absolute grace filled dependence on God.

Now, my fault for the book is that I feel McLaren's writing on the spiritual life, like many other books these days, seems to open a possibility of us working our spiritual life on our own with or without the Spirit of God propelling or filling us with spiritual life. Jesus and the Jesus Way themselves even seem optional by McLaren's writing - which I doubt would be the case if I sat down and talked with him. ...I wonder.

While I appreciate the mention of spiritual seasons and the words McLaren uses to flesh out those seasons, I'm left wondering at the end of the book what, in the author's words, is a true and living spirituality and what does Jesus have to do with it?

[Jon Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Path Appears (to borrow a title from Nick Kristof)

This is an absolute gem of a book. I savored it for nearly a year, and in many ways I think it was a huge part of what has allowed my inner spiritual life to move forward from the places where it's been stuck. McLaren is well-known among those who have deconstructed, as he essentially did so before we even had that name for it. But he proves in this fantastic book that deconstruction does not need to mean deconversion, nor a rejection of spiritual health and practice. And while McLaren writes from a (still-)Christian perspective, those who have moved outside Christianity and are looking for other ways to maintain their spiritual health can still benefit from this well-tended set of simple words. Similarly to Anne Lamott's book (from perhaps a year later?) Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, this book boils all the kinds of prayer and spiritual expressions into 12 simple words (and their many synonyms). Beyond Lamott's three (which are included), McLaren adds words like "No!" "Why?" and "Sorry" to the mix, arranged in order of "seasons" that he labels "Simplicity," "Complexity," "Perplexity," and "Harmony." What's amazing about all of this is that everything he includes is both drawn from his own experience AND harmonizes well with just about every healthy spiritual practice that we know of. There are, of course, bad habits of unhealthy spirituality that we must unlearn, but they are not replaced with nothing. We may lose some of our certainty that we cling to for control, for example, but we can still ask Why and we can still trust God's goodness through our uncertainty. I found the "Perplexity" set the most helpful, since that is often the place where faith can go off the rails if we were living in a house of cards before that; it also helps for those of us who are in Perplexity to see that a season of Harmony can be ahead of us, and that it is truly beautiful and worth the difficult path through the Perplexity.

I don't know why I haven't been reading McLaren since the beginning of my turbulent faith journey. For anyone struggling with what faith can look like after it leaves behind the childishness of fundamentalism or the corruption of our innocence, this book (and likely others by McLaren) provide a simple and healthy path forward that anyone can take.

[Barb Terpstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent book that dovetailed nicely with a Bible Study I'm in. Many of the spiritual disciplines that McLaren shares are practices I've learned during the course of the study.

If you are a person who desires to know God more intimately and wants to get out of the "hurry sickness" of the world I highly recommend Naked Spirituality. I was particularly moved by the last chapters, where McLaren's passion for God really shines through. The last three chapters really let you see that his love, the desire of his life, is for you and I to join him in loving God more.

If you are intrigued with the spiritual disciplines, or contemplation, this book will help you begin changing how you walk with God. I really liked how at the end of the chapters McLaren urges readers to set the book down and practice what he's "preaching".

I actually read the footnotes because there are so many books he quoted that I'm going to have to try to read now! One particular quote that I love from Kenneth Leech's True Prayer:

Orthodoxy is about being consumed by Glory: the word means 'not right belief' (as dictionaries tell us) but right doxy, right glory. To be orthodox is to be set alight by the fire of God".

That's who I hope to grown into some day, a person alight with the fire of God. Practicing these disciplines, and others, will help.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually did glean a few good ideas about drawing closer to God from this book and I would have rated this 1 1/2 stars if I could as a result. But otherwise, I had a lot of problems with this and actually just skimmed the last 1/3. First, the author started off blaming all the world's social issues on organized religion which is something about which I am sick of hearing. The organized Christian churches of this world do more socially than any other organizations out there. What is really odd is he later came back and said to help with our spiritual growth, we SHOULD attend a traditional church. Huh? He also had good insights on how to grow a stronger relationship with God during peaceful or even slightly turbulent times. But like everyone else, he has no answers for why the terrible things of life occcur although he spent pages and pages acting like he did. Also, in one moment he took certain events of the Bible literally, yet slammed churches who took a literal stance on the Bible. Apparently, he only takes the Bible literally when it is easy to do so. When the tougher issues come up, suddenly we should ignore those because they aren't socially acceptable to address. I think you have to either say the Bible is a good story book that helps us to better to know God. Or the Bible is the God inspired truth, whether or not we like what it says and what we really should do is try to understand why certain things were said - - - not discount them.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoughtful book that aims to help individuals get to the heart of what it means to be spiritual. It proposes stripping away, at least for a while, the trappings and symbols of organised religion, and letting go of our preconceived ideas, and focussing on twelve short words that can help us focus more clearly on God.

These words are divided into four groups, each representing a 'season' of our lives, which the author refers to as simplicity, complexity, perplexity and harmony. He suggests that most of us go through these, to some extent, many times in our lives (albeit not with the predictable regularity of the earth's seasons) and that by getting rid of the extraneous, we can find God in any circumstances, and when times are hard, find some motivation to keep going.

It's an introspective book, which suits my temperament quite well, and also somewhat heavy-going so that I only read about ten pages a day, often pausing to think as I read. I don't know that the specific words themselves are all that helpful right now; I'm not sure I could define any of the 'seasons' as a good match currently, but can see that this may be a book to return to in future.

Recommended to anyone feeling overwhelmed by life, or other people, or church in general. This is not about avoiding community or congregational activities, but about finding space and time for God on one's own, so as to enrich and focus life in general.

[James Titterton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first heard about McLaren's book at a talk he gave at the Greenbelt festival in which he outlined his model of the 4 stages of the spiritual life - Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, Harmony, and then back around again. These four stages form the basis of 'Naked Spirituality', with each stage assigned three of the twelve words referred to in the book's subtitle. McLaren uses these twelve words as a framing device for his chapters on the practices and rituals that form the bedrock of the spiritual life - praise, thanksgiving, confession, meditation, lamentation etc.

What you get out of this book will depend on what you bring to it and where you are on your faith journey at the time of reading. As with the other McLaren book I've read, 'Everything Must Change', I felt like I wasn't really his target audience - he is writing for people of his own background, conservative evangelical American Christians, for whom some of the ideas in this book would be considered radical. I found the framework and the idea of a 'cycle' of spiritual seasons more helpful than the actual content of individual chapters.

I would recommend it as an introduction to the spiritual life or as a jumping off point for deepening your own faith, but don't expect too much from it.