I finished
this book yesterday. In my opinion it is a great read.
Yes, it is provocative. Yes, many will find it troubling.
But if we are truly generous with the author and seek to understand his intentions (which I believe are to make us think rather than answer every question we might have) then I think we can all greatly profit from this book.
Coming from an evangelical background (and still making a transition to a post-evangelical understanding) many of his remarks concerning evangelicals and their relationship to the world and sinners stung particularly bad.
Also helpful are McLaren's discussion of the Bible, missional/incarnational theology, and the environment.
In
seminary I took an excellent class from
Dr. Danny Carroll called
Reading the Bible from the 2/3rds World. This class was the first time someone ripped the lenses I read the Bible with out from in front of my eyes. I found that my interpretation of Scripture and what I believed to be biblical where greatly influenced by my presuppositions, tradition, culture, gender, and so on.
McLaren's book, if you will allow it, will do the same for you. It will remove the spectacles you see Christianity, Jesus, liberals, conservatives, God, the Bible, etc. from your face. And though it may seem scary or impossible now, you may actually like the view better.