Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned

by Brian D. McLaren

Speaking to my skeptical friends, I would have to say that if Jesus didn’t actually exist, those who invented him as a fictional character were the most brilliant literary and moral minds I’ve ever encountered.

Even though I share with my atheist friends “a disappointment with the narrowness and limitations” of many concepts of God, I do still dare to believe there is a You to address in the universe, a Presence, a Love that loves through all loves, a radiant and holy mystery, the Spirit of life and creativity, the Wisdom woven into the pattern of the universe, the “still, small voice” that beckons creation, including me, toward love and maturity.

What could be bigger than God, you ask?7 Jesus called it the kingdom of God, the idea that God and creation are part of one integrated reality that unites all things in one beloved community.

If religion has a positive role in our future, it will surely involve specializing in desire formation. In fact, for better or worse, religion is desire formation.

Where, you might ask, does the love of God or Spirit fit in? It doesn’t. Love for the transcendent doesn’t fit in with the others, as one item in the list. Instead, it is inherent in the desire that we experience in the other three desires. Divine love is the nest in which the other desires are nurtured, and it is inherent in all other loves. What I’m suggesting recalls the words in 1 John 4, that “God is love.” When we desire the good of the planet, the good of all people, and our own good, we are participating in a love that is bigger than us. As a Christian, I would say we are joining God in God’s loving desire for the well-being of the beloved. To love the love that loves the parts is to love the whole. To unify our desires in love is, I think, what Jesus must have meant by purity of heart (see Matthew 5:8).

Words became not only our primary way of engaging with others socially but they also became the tool by which we each conduct our own inner dialogue. Language became so powerful, both interpersonally and intra-personally, that the web of words in our heads often felt more real to us than the web of life outside our heads.