Home / Authors / Brian D. McLaren

Brian D. McLaren Quotes

Pastor

Brian D. McLaren is an American pastor and writer known for his critical thinking on Christian tradition and modern culture. He began his pastoral career in the 1980s and started writing in the early 1990s. McLaren's work often emphasizes social justice, inclusivity, and religious dialogue, and he is considered a significant figure in the emerging church movement and postmodern theology.

Filter quotes by topic

All Jesus Christian Thinking Ifs People Way World Messages Church Helping Answers Believe Religious Spiritual Christ Christian Faith Doe Hell Knows May

Famous Brian D. McLaren Quotes

“I don't think we've got the gospel right yet. What does it mean to be 'saved'? When I read the Bible, I don't see it meaning, 'I'm going to heaven after I die.' Before modern evangelicalism nobody accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, or walked down an aisle, or said the sinner's prayer.”

Thinking Mean Doe Said Dies Jesus Heaven Christ Prayer Modern Jesus Christ Accepted Saved Sinner Savior Aisle Going To Heaven

Author:Brian D. McLaren

“...the tragedy of consumerism: one acquires more and more things without taking the time to ever see and know them, and thus one never truly enjoys them. One has without truly having. The consumer is right-there is pleasure to be had in good things, a sacred and almost unspeakable pleasure, but the consumer wrongly thinks that one finds this pleasure by having more and more possessions instead of possessing them more truly through grateful contemplation. And here we are, living in an economy that perpetuates this tragedy.”

Thinking Knows Enjoy Pleasure Economy Tragedy Grateful Sacred Good Things Possession Consumers Contemplation Acquire Consumerism Possessing Overconsumption Unspeakable

Author:Brian D. McLaren

“I'm so grateful for Living the Questions. These progressive voices offer less rigid and more expansive approaches to Christian faith, and make room for people who practice critical thinking and question the gatekeepers. They help us see that questioning the gatekeepers is exactly what Jesus was all about.”

People Thinking Helping Christian Jesus Voice Rooms Practice Offers Approach Grateful Critical Progressive Questioning Critical Thinking Christian Faith So Grateful Gatekeepers

Author:Brian D. McLaren

“I don't think we've got the gospel right yet.I don't think the liberals have it right. But I don't think we have it right either. None of us has arrived at orthodoxy.”

Thinking Orthodoxy

Author:Brian D. McLaren

“A lot of arguments happen among religious and non religious people about the question of who's going to hell and who's going to heaven and uh, a lot of times Christians get into this argument by saying 'we have the only way to heaven.' And uh, people often ask me what do I think is the way to heaven. I have a problem when they ask me this question because it assumes that the primary purpose of Jesus' coming and the primary message of Jesus was a message about how to get to heaven.”

People Thinking Way Problem Happens Christian Purpose Asks Jesus Heaven Religious Hell Messages Argument Assuming Primaries Ask Me Going To Heaven Non Religious

Author:Brian D. McLaren

“I tried to read The Dubliners, when I went to Dublin a couple of years ago. I think I only go thurogh the first story. Gnomon is such an interesting word. So many different uses for a word nooone has heard of, or uses these days. I googled some pictures of sundials to check that it was the tall shadow casting bit (it is) and then discovered that Saint Sulpice in Paris has a rather fascinating large gnomon- which I shall endeavour to see on my next visit to that fair city. Thanks for such a great word, which I shall try to remember.”

“I’m sure I am wrong about many things, although I’m not sure exactly which things I’m wrong about. I’m even sure I’m wrong about what I think I’m right about in at least some cases.”

Thinking Cases Not Sure

Book:A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/conservative, Mystical/poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian

Source: A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/conservative, Mystical/poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian

“We must never underestimate our power to be wrong when talking about God, when thinking about God, when imagining God, whether in prose or in poetry. A generous orthodoxy, in contrast to the tense, narrow, or controlling orthodoxies of so much of Christian history, doesn't take itself too seriously. It is humble. It doesn't claim too much. It admits it walks with a limp.”