As a key voice within the emerging church movement, Brian McLaren has thought widely and deeply about the challenges of Christian mission in a postmodern and pluralistic society. This article explores McLaren’s missiology through exploring three of its key themes: a stress on Jesus as a paradigm for mission, a focus on the kingdom of God as the object of mission, and a revision of doctrine for the sake of mission. While McLaren helpfully encourages Christians to work alongside other faiths in pursuing the common good, his vision for mission marginalises key features of the biblical witness, including its focus on Jesus’ redemptive work.
AllisonD (2010) Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History. London: SPCK.
2.
BassDB (2012) Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. New York: HarperCollins.
3.
CoxH (2009) The Future of Faith. New York: HarperCollins.
4.
D’CostaG (2000) The Meeting of Religions and the Trinity. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
5.
EngelsvikenT (2003) Missio dei: the understanding and misunderstanding of a theological concept in European churches and missiology. International Review of Mission92(367): 481–89.
6.
FlemmingD (2005) Contextualization in the New Testament: Patterns for Theology and Ministry. Leicester: Apollos.
7.
GathercoleS (2006) The gospel of Paul and the gospel of the kingdom. In: GreenC (ed.) God’s Power to Save: One Gospel for a Complex World?Leicester: Apollos.
8.
GoodmanM (1994) Mission and Conversion: Proselytizing in the Religious History of the Roman Empire. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
9.
GuderDL (ed.) (1998) Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
10.
HaightR (1988) The mission of the church in the theology of the social gospel. Theological Studies48: 477–97.
11.
HeimM (1995) Salvations: Truth and Difference in Religion. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
12.
HesselgraveD (2007) Brian McLaren’s contextualization of the gospel. Evangelical Missions Quarterly43(1): 92–100.
13.
KärkäinenV-M (2003) An Introduction to the Theology of Religions: Biblical, Historical & Contemporary Perspectives. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
14.
KärkäinenV-M (2004) Trinity and Religious Pluralism: The Doctrine of the Trinity. Hants: Ashgate.
15.
KirkAJ (1999) What is Mission? Theological Explorations. London: Darton, Longman and Todd.
16.
KnitterPF (1995) One Earth Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books
17.
KnitterPF (2005) Mission and dialogue. Missiology: An International Review33(2): 200–10.
18.
MackenzieE (2012) Mission and the emerging church: Pauline reflections on a new kind of missiology. Missiology: An International Review40(3): 315–28.
19.
McLarenBD (1998) The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.
20.
McLarenBD (1999) Finding Faith: A Self-Discovery Guide for your Spiritual Quest. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
21.
McLarenBD (2002) More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
22.
McLarenBD (2004) A Generous Orthodoxy. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
23.
McLarenBD (2006) The Secret Message of the Kingdom. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
24.
McLarenBD (2010) A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith. London: Hodder & Stoughton.
25.
McLarenBD (2012) Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road? Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2012.
26.
MerriganT (1997) Religious knowledge in the pluralistic theologies of religion. Theological Studies58: 686–707.
27.
MilesTL (2008) A kingdom without a king? Evaluating the kingdom ethic(s) of the emerging church. Southern Baptist Journal of Theology1(1): 88–103.
28.
MouwR (2010) Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World, rev and exp. Dowers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
29.
NetlandHA (2001) Encountering Religious Pluralism: The Challenge to Christian Faith and Mission. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
30.
NetlandHA (2005) Thinking theologically about religious diversity in the west. A Journal for the Theology of Culture2(5): 19–35.
31.
NockAD (1933) Conversion: The Old the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo. London: Oxford University Press.
32.
TruemanCR (2012) The Creedal Imperative. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
33.
VanhoozerKJ (1997) Does the Trinity belong in a theology of religions? On angling in the rubicon and the ‘identity’ of God. In: VanhoozerKJ (ed.) The Trinity in a Pluralistic Age: Theological Essays on Culture and Religion. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
