I've become convinced that Brian McLaren's New Kind of Christian (NKOC) trilogy has touched on an issue more fundamental to the history of theological thought than any book in decades. This issue can be summarized as the tension between Plato and Aristotle, or, to use philosophical categories, the tension between Being and Becoming.
Don't be intimidated by the philosophical terminology. One of McLaren's gifts is that of making technical terminology more accessible, and the NKOC trilogy is masterful at this. In fact, the NKOC trilogy, read carefully, is a good introduction to some of the key themes of philosophy. So it is important for us to understand the fundamental concepts that McLaren is really getting at here. So, bear with me...
In The Story We Find Ourselves In (the 2nd in the NKOC trilogy), McLaren's Neo explains how early Christians felt compelled to engage Greek philosophical thought. One of the results of this engagement, according to Neo, was the portrayal of the Garden of Eden as "perfect", not just good. The "Fall" from perfection, to continue the story, left humanity in its current predicament, as a pale shadow of our former perfect selves of the garden, waiting for life in the garden to continue when Jesus returns.
But what if, Neo says, the garden was "good, not perfect", and human civilization since that point has been subsequent emerging scenes of the creativity of humankind - some of our creations being good, others being not so good.
This dichotomy that Neo poses, between, on the one hand, perfection followed by a fall from perfection and, on the other, the emergence of mankind according to his inner qualities (God-given creativity), is a nice summary of the central distinction between the philosophical thought of Plato and Aristotle. McLaren is, I have no doubt, aware of this. And the "Greek thought" that early Christians engaged was the thought of Plato, or, neoplatonism. Plato? What does Plato have to do with this? Part II of this blog to come later.
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