The Great Spiritual Migration: How the Worlds Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian by Brian D. McLaren

The Great Spiritual Migration: How the Worlds Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian Reviews

• 
  Clif Hostetler

  This book provides an articulation of a positive and progressive view of Christianity that calls for migration toward a way of life defined by love and away from being a religion about beliefs. This includes rejecting the image of God as a violent supreme Being and embracing the image of God as the renewing Spirit at work in our world for the common good. McLaren describes this as identifying less as organized religion and more as an “organizing” religion consisting of spiritual activists dedicated to healing the planet, building peace, overcoming poverty and injustice, and collaborating with other faiths to ensure a better future for all.
  
  McLaren’s message will come as welcome relief to progressive Christians who are frustrated with the way right wing politics has highjacked the widely perceived meanings for the word “Christian” as well as the related adjective “evangelical.” Somehow conservative activists have caused these terms to become synonymous with “anti-poor, anti-environment, anti-gay, anti-intellectual, anti-immigrant, and anti-science (not to mention pro-torture, pro-inequality, pro-violence, pro-death penalty, and pro-war).”
  
  McLaren in this book encourages Christians "to rediscover their faith not as a problematic system of beliefs, but as a just and generous way of life, rooted in contemplation and expressed in compassion, that makes amends for its mistakes and is dedicated to beloved community for all”, migrating “from defining their faith as a system of beliefs to expressing it as a loving way of life.”
  
  So how does the author explains all those people who understand differently from him? His explanation is that they are at different Christian maturity levels. A person's understanding of God can vary from God 1.0 to 5.0. Unsurprisingly, the author is at 5.0, the other people with differing understandings are at the other levels. The various levels are roughly described as follows (my shorthand descriptions):

  God 1.0—God's role is to provide whatever you demand.
  God 2.0—God 1.0 plus wants you to be a good person.
  God 3.0—God 1.0 and 2.0 plus obey authority figures and rules.
  God 4.0—God 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 plus commit to service for others.
  God 5.0—A God of the inclusive we

  In order to elaborate further of God 5.0 McLaren provides the following statements by Jacqueline Lewis:

  We need God 5.0 to lead us away from the precipice of cataclysmic war.
  We need God 5.0 to save us from paralyzing polarization.
  We need God 5.0 to teach us to wisely revere and care for the earth upon which we all depend.
  We need God 5.0 because we now realize we have evolved together with all other forms of life on this tiny, fragile planet, which means that all creatures are our relatives, our relations. We are all part of one family tree, one web of life, and we need our understanding of God to embrace that reality.

  McLaren addresses the various approaches to the Bible with the following grid. Presumably "Integral/Literary" is the author's preferred approach. (I tend to be more "Critical/Literary".)
  
  In the second part of the book McLaren describes some the damage that conventional, unconverted understandings of God have caused and are causing. In the third part of the book he develops a fresh understanding of communities, institutions, and movements so Christians can migrate from organized religion to organizing religion (i.e. organizing for the common good).
• 
  MG

  I love Brian McLaren and have been greatly influenced by him--especially by the two NEW KIND OF books, CHRISTIANITY and CHRISTIAN. But his latest one disappointed me. First, I felt the main metaphor--a grand spiritual migration taking place--seemed more asserted than described in any detail, let alone proven. Also, he seemingly sees this emerging shift as between those who think Christianity should be about love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and justice and those who are mean and angry; these two groups also seem to break down cleanly between progressives and conservatives (also called fundamentalists). Being in the progressive camp myself, I still felt this breakdown was way too simplistic. Further, I really wanted to know which institutions and communities were giving reality to this emergence--because I would love to support them but have had a very difficult time locating any thriving examples (besides conferences where Brian speaks). Finally, one of the migrations is moving away from a conception of faith as obsessing over getting our beliefs right to focusing on incarnating the faith in community and caring (amen!) and then Brian spends the rest of the book obsessing over the beliefs of this new group. What? I read Brian to be challenged and to see the familiar in a wholly new light (one of his many gifts), but I have to say that I learned very little in this book despite being very sympathetic to its goals.
• 
  Randal Martin

  Liberating book. Some parts are challenging for a recovering Baptist like myself but that's the beauty of Progressive Christianity. It's less about having the correct beliefs than it is the fruit of your beliefs. While many churches get caught up in maintaining the old practices even in the face of new questions and challenges, Brian's book challenges you to allow questions to be asked. Re-look at the way you have just accepted some things about your faith in the past. Remember that Jesus started this great migration away from being bound by the law; why have we as a church chosen to re-incarcerate ourselves insides those very same walls?
• 
  David Robertson

  Its difficult to describe in a few words how bad this book actually is! And I am astounded that anyone is taken in by its smug pseudo-spiritual waffle. Mclaren demonises those he disagrees with, sets himself up as some kind of guru leading a new movement (hence the need for follow up study guides and leaders guides), attacks the Bible he purports to believe in, demonstrates a spectacular ignorance of history and is illogical in his arguments. For example the fact that he argues against those who have beliefs, on the basis of his own beliefs! Perhaps the greatest sin of all is that he is just so unoriginal - this is just 19th Century Liberal Protestantism re-incarnated into the language of American broad evangelicalism. Embarrassingly bad.
  
  I have written a much fuller review here -
  https://theweeflea.com/2017/09/06/the...
  
  
• 
  Marty Solomon

  I find that I am often personally drawn to two kinds of nonfiction books. There is the practical, useful book that is full of readily practical insights, well packaged and delivered clearly. Then there is the poetic, romantic, idealistic writing that inspires my soul and fills me with hope and energy.
  
  McLaren has bridged the gap (again) with this book. This very, very timely read could be a monumental shift for so many people trying to navigate a Church/Christian (?) subculture that just doesn't feel like home anymore. McLaren take us on a journey of describing what could be the next great spiritual migration. The book starts with a very profound and thorough reflection of what's wrong and what needs to be done; he does this with a generous and noncritical spirit that is so unexpected and refreshing. He moves on in the last half of the book to talk about what this looks like to actually do something about practically. And showing that it is A) totally daunting, but B) also quite possible.
  
  McLaren has always been an author that has shaped my life, ministry, and thinking with his contributions. The way that he has been able to keep growing, learning, listening, and staying on the front edge of culture is really something that I admire. His work here did not disappoint.
• 
  Laura Beard

  I read it on audio. Definitely good to get overview but would need to listen again or read it to really think deeper about some of the things brought up. It helped me feel like I’m not alone in some of the things I’ve wondered about/struggled with Christianity. I liked that it highlighted that churches are doing a lot of good things, but that there are things that can “migrate.”
• 
  Georgia Gietzen

  Excellent read and it resonated great truth regarding my own journey through “organized religion”. I have never found peace or “my truth” in the Christian church. Church leaders many times say the “right” words but when it comes time to take stand and speak that truth to “power” the church remains silent. This book has so many good discussion points of how things could be different … in my opinion, better. I’m excited to read and discuss at a future bookclub gathering. We can start planting seeds. A migration to being a better Christian is possible!
• 
  Julianna

  Reviewed for
  THC Reviews
  "4.5 stars" Brian McLaren has been on my radar since he came to my attention as an occasional contributor to the Sojourners blog. I enjoyed what he had to say in those posts, and as a result, I’ve had more than one of his books on my TBR list for a while. Our church book club chose The Great Spiritual Migration, and even though it wasn’t one of his books that I’d had on my list the longest, I was very eager to read it. I found it interesting that both Rev. McLaren and I come from similar faith backgrounds. We were both raised in a more fundamentalist atmosphere, but later in life, have gravitated toward a more progressive view of Christianity. This is why I very much appreciated the chapter of the book titled “God 5.0,” in which he explains how each individual’s view of God changes dramatically from infancy into adulthood and it’s not until we reach the 5.0 version of God that we’ve truly climbed to the pinnacle of understanding. That’s where I’m trying to go right now, although it’s sometimes a steep trek to getting there.
  
  This also ties into Rev. McLaren’s discussion of how many Christians are seeking to define themselves through lives that are more about expressing love toward others, while leaving behind rigid lists of rules and regulations. I very much enjoyed the chapter on “Learning How to Love,” in which he talks about moving away from dehumanizing and scapegoating others and into humanizing them and seeing them as our brothers and sisters in the human race. If we take this tack, we’ll always want what’s best for others and focus more on the common good, rather than just on ourselves or our own little “tribe.” If churches put half as much effort into simply loving each other in a generous and selfless way as they seem to put into trying to get people to believe a certain way (which BTW is pretty pointless IMHO, considering how may different Christian denominations there are out there), then we could really change the world for the better.
  
  The chapter titled “The Genocide Card in Your Back Pocket” was particularly eye-opening. I knew that ever since it allied itself with empire during the reign of Constantine over the Roman Empire, the Christian faith has had a long sordid history of human rights abuses. But Rev. McLaren managed to enlighten me on a few new ones I wasn’t familiar with, and let me say, it’s truly stomach-churning stuff. In light of this, I can’t help but feel that my faith has a lot for which it needs to repent and atone. And I’m not just talking about the past. Many things are still going on today, such as Christian ties to white supremacy, Christian exceptionalism, Christian alliances with politics, and more that we really need to clean house on. In order to do so, we must first give up our view of God as a violent Supreme Being and embrace a new view of God as a sacrificially loving and renewing Spirit.
  
  Lastly I very much enjoyed the chapter on “The Bible in Labor,” which seeks to explain the different ways of reading the Bible. Some subscribe to an absolute literal interpretation, while others view it as a literary work that contains artistry and has deeper meanings to glean from its pages. Rev. McLaren shows that reading of this holy text can be done in more than a simple binary way, and in fact is a two axis system. I loved the little chart he provides in which literal vs. literary are on the horizontal axis, while innocent/critical/integral are on the vertical axis. It really helped me to understand these different way of interpreting Biblical texts and served to convince me that more people need to look much deeper than the surface. In doing so, we can come to an understanding that what we might see as tensions or contradictions between certain passages are really contractions or the equivalent of a woman being in labor. Many worry that rethinking their approach to Bible-reading may call into question whether Jesus still matters, but in reality, looking at it from this perspective can make Jesus even more beautiful by disarming both our understanding of the Bible and of God.
  
  Overall, The Great Spiritual Migration is an excellent book that challenges readers to open themselves to a more generous orthodoxy, which coincidentally is the title of one of Rev. McLaren’s other books. It invites persons of faith to rethink their old – and perhaps, in some cases, outdated – views of God to take a fresh look at theology. And since so many of the faithful are beginning to look for ways to ensure a better, more peaceful future for us all, it also dares us to move away from organized religion and into organizing religion to help others through collaboration. Basically it’s time to migrate and change just as the faith has done several times down throughout history, and I, for one, am ready for that journey.
• 
  Robert Irish

  For those who have been struggling to find their place in a church that seems increasingly irrelevant or to be masterfully missing the point, for those who are complacent in a church that is comfortable holding onto its conceptual beliefs while ignoring its issues, for those who have already rejected anything that smacks of church because it seems hate-filled and narrow-minded, for those who are upset that the KKK can claim they are "Christian" while spewing their hate-filled bile, this is a book to read.
  I find McLaren's writing style quite frustrating, I confess. Too often he is dropping names of his friends or those who think like him. I find this distracting from the point. He is also somewhat self-indulgent in his personal narratives with dubious relevance to his point. However, in spite of these annoyances, I am giving this five stars because I think it is an essential read.
  McLaren is here taking on a huge task that pushes to the next step of his earlier projects in
  A Generous Orthodoxy and
  Everything Must Change. Here, he is talking about how the church needs to move or die. The goal is to re-claim a faith based in a more accurate view of God and the Biblical objective.
  Perhaps most useful was his paradigm of reading from literal to literary (one axis) and innocent to critical to integral (on the other axis). This is a helpful way of thinking about how one comes at reading, and how one might benefit from rethinking one's approach. He privileges the literary, but makes the basic point that we MUST move away from the innocent reading, whether literary or literal.
  He also establishes that the church needs to separate itself from the military industrial suicide machine and stand with the disenfranchised (including the environment). This is easier said than done, of course, but McLaren also talks about communities that are growing around exactly such a new message and way of being.
  He is not naive: he recognizes that things could get ugly as this proceeds. Both within the church and within the military-industrial complex, there is great resistance to a church that is more concerned with relational beliefs than with conceptual beliefs. McLaren does define both types of belief, and it forms a useful paradigm for thinking about what is essential as one interprets the Bible and as one approaches God and the concepts associated with God.
  As someone who has often struggled with "systematic" theology -- with its emphasis on the correct beliefs (conceptual beliefs) -- I found McLaren's casting of theology as needing to move from correct belief to living a deep and meaningful life grounded in God's Spirit inspiring and empowering as very refreshing and an essential corrective to the problems of the religious system as it currently exists and as it catechizes those enquiring into the meaning of faith.
  I know I will come back to this one, and would encourage others to read it.
• 
  Jonathan Schut

  This is a really challenging book to review. McLaren is advocating for much-needed change in the way that Christians approach their beliefs and their practices. In many ways, I would put McLaren in a similar place that I would put Rob Bell. I genuinely appreciate the concerns he expresses and the questions he raises, but I struggle to accept his answers. The value in this book is that it forces all Christians to think about their way of being Christian and whether or not they could be doing a better job. It challenged me in this regard, and I am a better person for having read the book.
• 
  Amy Juhnke

  I didn’t grow up conservative fundamentalist as the author did, and since I didn’t, the entire premise of the book didn’t make sense to me. His point was moving away from a set of rules and religion to a loving way of life; from a violent God who needs to be appeased to a loving concept of God. In my faith, I haven’t experienced or believed God to be a violent and angry God so the idea to throw out rules or any organized religion seems way too extreme and unnecessary.
• 
  Kevin Mackey

  A surprisingly good, profound and important read. The first book in years that my wife and I have read together AND enjoyed. This may sound overstated, but I wouldn't be surprised if we look back on this book in a decade as contributing to one of the most positive turning points in the history of the Christian Church, when it migrated from a religion of exclusivity, hyper-focus on "right belief" and consumption, to a movement of humility, gentleness, love, peace, compassion, generosity, continuous learning and justice.
• 
  Kathy

  My Sunday school class has read a few books by McLaren. McLaren believes that the Christian church needs to change in order to better reflect Christ's teachings. His ideas would probably seem radical (and unacceptable) to conservative Christians, many of whom are content with the status quo and have no desire to change. While I agree with many of the things he says, I think he is idealistic and overly optimistic.
  
• 
  Camille Olcese

  I've stopped calling myself an evangelical for political reasons. However, I have a high view of scripture. Therefore, this book seems theologically radical. Nevertheless, I couldn't find anything in it to disagree with. In fact, McClaren is starting a movement, and I'm in. I so want to discuss it with my friends. Please read it and let me know your thoughts.
• 
  peter

  In this book, Brian McLaren pulls together several areas of concern that I have been exploring over the past few years and presents a coherent, grace-filled, and hopeful vision of the future. Finding this book at this point in my own story has been a gift and an inspiration. I'm sure I'll be coming back to it frequently in the days ahead for insight and guidance.
• 
  Marlies

  5/5 at the beginning, 3/5 toward the ending. This is a great book that the Christian community needs to take in and soak with. How did a religion based on love lose its way and how can it get back on track? McLaren has some great ideas.
• 
  David

  McLaren offers characteristically compelling stories alongside fresh models for interpreting faith. I especially enjoyed the reflections on the impact of "movements" on "institutions."
• 
  Lisa Smith

  A hopeful and enlightening read
• 
  Tim Olson

  An essential read for those trying to discern the future of faith, religion and spiritual life.
• 
  Joe

  It's been pretty difficult for me read Christian nonfiction books over the past couple of years, but I'm trying to make an effort to read more practical and "reconstructive" books of faith . With that said, I found Brian McLaren's The Great Spiritual Migration to be an encouraging, gracious, and refreshing read that was filled with hard truths, sharp cultural insights, and practical next steps for those who have "deconstructed" the Christian faith of their upbringing.
  
  What I liked about this book is that McLaren is well aware of the challenges and pitfalls of the "progressive church" (namely, it seems rather difficult to get people to organize their disparate faith into a coherent belief system that can be replicated). I particularly enjoyed his breakdown of "Social Movement Theory," which helps explain how cultural change is achieved, and I felt rather encouraged by the fact that more inclusive and justice-oriented flavors of Christianity appear to be making headway among younger generations of Christian activists. I'd recommend The Great Spiritual Migration to anyone who feels hopeless about the current state of Evangelical Christianity, alone in their frustrations, or desperate for something that looks and feels more Christ-like.
• 
  Hannah

  I started reading this book and couldn’t help myself from highlighting all the amazing points made by the author. McLaren writes about how we should be making more strides to advance our faith in love and focus on adding to some of the pillars that currently exist in the Christian community. It makes you think deeper about the difference between faith and beliefs within the Christian community, also how we all need one another as members of the same body to progress on this spiritual migration.
  
  One of my favorite quotes from the author was a reminder that love was not only the heart of who Jesus was but the heartbeat of His daily life. As Christians, we should be showing others love and grace each day, just like God gives to us.
• 
  Mary Ann

  Read this for my study group at church. Very enlightening. Love the perspective of focusing on the way we live as opposed to dividing ourselves by what we believe
  
  
  
  
• 
  Neil

  Progressive Christianity. You either love it or you hate it. Well, there’s a third option where you aren’t interested in Christianity, so it leaves you cold. For me, having identified as a Christian for over 50 years, it’s hard to remain neutral on the subject.
  
  I like reading McLaren’s books because they challenge me to think about what I believe (more coming on the subject of beliefs). I like his approach to Christianity, despite some alarm bells about “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” going off in my head as I read. These alarm bells are a legacy of my conservative evangelical upbringing. Not surprisingly, McLaren argues that I need to push past them and into a new experience of God and my faith.
  
  Lots of people don’t like McLaren’s books. You don’t have to search very hard to find reviews accusing him of heresy.
  
  Here’s the thing, though. Two hundred years ago, people used the Bible to justify slavery and oppress whole nations. One hundred years ago, people used the Bible to justify the oppression of women. Nowadays, most of us who call ourselves Christian would distance ourselves from these views - we have a different understanding of the Bible, one we would say is truer. Slavery is wrong. Male and female should be treated equally. What drove me to books like those McLaren writes is the simple view that if we have moved forward from past interpretations of the Bible, what gives us the right to think we now have it sorted? Surely we should learn exactly the opposite and recognise that it is most likely we still have things wrong. In one hundred years from now, it is likely that people will read books about us and say “Can you believe they thought that then?”. I suppose the prime example of this in the modern church is the LGBT community (I am speaking of my own experience of church - I know that in many parts of the world there are other issues that dominate).
  
  The question is where you draw the line. McLaren raises this question right at the start of the book when he says
  
  And what are the qualities of Christian faith that really matter, regardless of the packaging?
  
  McLaren’s opponents would say he does not include enough.
  
  Take, for example, the initial argument in the book. McLaren discusses the subject of belief. He contends that the church needs to change from being defined by belief to being defined by action. This is a very Biblical statement (e.g. Jesus said “by their fruits you shall know them”, and James wrote “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds”, an Old Testament prophet said God required “mercy not sacrifice”), but McLaren asks what it really means.
  
  If Christian faith can be redefined in this way, if our prime contribution to humanity can be shifted from teaching correct beliefs to practising the way of love as Jesus taught, then our whole understanding and experience of the church could be transformed.
  
  He then moves on to examine what might be required to take the church forward from being an institution with the Bible as its constitution (belief based) to being a movement with the Bible as its guidebook (action based). Of course, for many people, they are content with the church as an institution. For many, I should not have used the word “forward” in the first sentence of this paragraph. And if, like me, you have a 50+ year background of church as institution, some of the ideas are challenging.
  
  But this is what I enjoy about reading these books. Some of it might make me feel uncomfortable, but I would rather that happened, and I spent time thinking why I am uncomfortable, than that I ignore different viewpoints and potentially miss something. Maybe I will decide McLaren goes too far. Maybe I will decide I need to change some of my views. Maybe it will be a mixture of the two.
  
  The spiritual migration of the book’s title is the Christian church as a movement, it is the church less concerned with “organised religion” and more with “organising religion” - spiritual activists dedicated to healing the planet, building peace, overcoming poverty and injustice and collaborating with other faiths to ensure a better future for us all.
  
  This is a very interesting and challenging book. I know many people will disagree with it, but I found it thought provoking.
• 
  Marie

  If books were anthems, then The Great Spiritual Migration would be the anthem for the Deconstructionist/Emerging Church/Evolving Faith Movement (or whatever you want to call it). It encapsulates the stirrings that many are seeing happen in traditional Christian faith circles, convicts the heart of the reader-activist towards humility and love, stirs indignation towards what needs urgent attention in our world, gives hope and practical direction to those of us who want to be a part of what God is obviously doing.
• 
  Ann

  
  Brian McLaren joins others with evangelical Christian backgrounds (i.e., Jim Wallis, David Gushee) who remain in the Christian faith but have moved into what some are calling a “progressive” Christian movement.
  
  In McLaren’s case, he calls for Christians to focus on living out Jesus’ love rather than emphasizing correct beliefs. He states: “What I care about is whether they are teaching people to live a life of love, from the heart, for God, for all people (no exceptions), and for all creation.”
  
  However, it is not, he says about “pledging mushy allegiance to an undefined spirituality without religion.”
  
  He sees Christians continuing on a trajectory they have always followed: Many Christians used to defend slavery; now they do not. Some used to believe that the conquest of “pagan” lands and forced conversion of natives was God’s will. Few champion that path now.
  
  He calls for Christians to migrate to a higher level once again.
  
  McLaren strikes a middle path. Conservative Christians have rightly championed family relationships but also supported patriarchal domination. Liberal Christians have disowned patriarchy but failed to teach family skills.
  
  He calls for movements within our institutions rather than new institutions.
  
  McLaren’s emphasis on migration and growth rather than division is welcome, not only for new ideas sparked by his book but also for the book’s practicality.
  
  
• 
  Steven Nordstrom

  There is a movement afoot, and Brian McLaren makes the reader want to be a fellow traveler. I'll definitely be rereading this one soon. At times idealism outpaces realism, but McLaren sets for a vision of what could be, and seems to even recommend some definitive steps towards making that vision a reality, and which seem to be worth giving a shot. The alternative doesn't look pretty--our worship of individualism, our acquiescence to economic, political, social, and religious systems that only end up hurting us and the planet all are leading humanity toward self-annihilation, unless something changes in us. Ideologies and misinterpretations of philosophies and doctrines from ages past must be challenged and newer, healthier organizing principles need to emerge if we as a planet are going to survive the next hundred or so years.
• 
  Jeremy Garber

  In his continuing series of personal reflections on his changing theological views, Brian McLaren focuses his description of changing Christianity in the 21st century using the metaphor of migration. In his preface, “Swallow-Tailed Kite,” McLaren begins his book with an outline of the migration of humans from Africa throughout the world, indicating his acceptance of the standard scientific anthropological model. He mentions his love for science fiction and his growing up in the fundamentalist Plymouth Brethren, and how evangelicalism (which many mainline and liberal Christians see as synonymous with fundamentalism) felt refreshingly free. But, as his writing and career show, McLaren did not stop at evangelicalism, but moved on a trajectory from seeing religion as based in belief to seeing it as a relationship with God. McLaren frames the book in the three days of Easter weekend: the Good Friday of realizing the death of old ways of belief; the Saturday of recognizing Christianity’s historic harm; and the Resurrection Sunday of religion as a social movement rather than a static institution.
  
  Chapter One begins with a slightly over-dramatic story of McLaren’s conversion from fundamentalism under a tree, a la Buddha or Jesus. He sees two competing traditions in Scripture: the prophetic/mystical/poetic and the priestly/scholarly. McLaren tries to say that we need both, but clearly he’s more in tune with the prophetic/poetic side. More substantive analysis follows in Chapter Two, which contrasts religion as static and religion as an ongoing method. Chapter Three proposes churches as “schools of love,” with an explicit curriculum on how to love yourself, your family, and your neighbors. Part II is the history of Christianity’s harm, including the Doctrine of Discovery, racism, undeveloped theologies of God, and literal/naïve readings of Scripture. Finally, Part III has a long (and sometimes overworked) conversation with movement theorist Greg Leffel, where McLaren traces the migration of the church between static institution and dynamic movement. (McLaren also spends a lot of time pumping his Convergence movement here, which seems more like distracting advertising than relevant to his argument. But it might help some folks get connected.)
  
  I have some quibbles with McLaren’s overgeneralizing of God as loving, healing, and reconciling all the way through Scripture – but these are norms that I share as an Anabaptist, so I’m down with it. I have a more serious problem with his generalizations about organized religion, but he does better with this in part III with the movement theory. In the end, McLaren summarizes his principles of interpreting Scripture this way: “Rather than satisfying a wrathful God, we could say, Jesus deconstructs the conventional concept of a Supreme Being who is capable of murder, genocide, or geocide. Through his life and teachings, in his compassionate interactions with individuals and groups, in his profound nonviolence even to the point of enduring a violent death, Jesus reveals a generous God, a God in profound solidarity with all creation, a God whose power is manifest in gentleness, kindness, and love.” That’s a God that will preach, and the God I believe in, worship, and teach. McLaren’s outline of the history of such a God migrating through history would be an excellent introduction for anyone on a theological migration of their own.