The Last Word and the Word After That

Pastor Dan Poole returns with another personal and theological crisis in this final installment of McLaren's A New Kind of Christian trilogy, which again features fictional characters engaged in nonfictionish theological dialogue. This time around, Poole has been granted an extended leave of absence from his conservative church as it investigates what it believes to be his liberal theological leanings, especially regarding the doctrine of hell and salvation. In rather predictable fashion, Poole finds himself questioning his own beliefs about hell and God's goodness, and just as predictably, Poole's friend Neo gently shepherds Poole away from the traditional doctrine of hell by pointing out that salvation is not just an individual matter but a communal one as well. Once Poole reaches some personal level of understanding about these doctrines through his reading, the church committee miraculously clears him of all charges and, after some emotional meetings, asks him to return to the pulpit. In the end, Poole finds comfort God's goodness and love, but by then readers may have been disappointed by the book's flimsy characters and simplistic insights. Although McLaren has justly earned a reputation for provocative postmodern theological observations, this doesn't live up to his standard. "(Apr.)" ("Publishers Weekly," March 28, 2005)

Brian D. McLaren is a speaker, author, activist, and networker exploring the intersection of Christian faith and contemporary life. He has written or co-written over a dozen books, including A Generous Orthodoxy, The Secret Message of Jesus, and Everything Must Change. For twenty-four years he served as the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in the Washington-Baltimore area. He was named by Time magazine as one of America's twenty-five most influential Evangelicals. He is a founding member of emergentvillage.com. See www.brianmclaren.net. About the Leadership Network The mission of Leadership Network is to identify and connect innovative church leaders and provide them with resources in the form of new ideas, people, and tools. Contact Leadership Network at www.leadnet.org.

Preface to the Paperback Edition. Acknowledgments. Introduction. book one The Last Word. 1. Something Serious. 2. Flare-Up. 3. Poet in a Trench Coat. 4. Party in the Living Room, Torture in the Basement. 5. Playing Hardball. 6. I Don't Know. 7. The Architecture of the Bible. 8. The First Two Threads. 9. The Third and Fourth Threads. 10. The Scapegoat Factor. 11. Better Than We Realized. 12. Something like a Straight Answer. 13. End in Embrace? 14. Piano Lessons and Lumpy Hands. 15. You Have a Tough Job. 16. All over the Map. 17. Deconstructing Hell. 18. Proposal, Plan, Implementation. 19. Homework Assignment. book two The Word After That. 20. How Can I Hurt Him? 21. Nice Walleye Fishing Charters. 22. Wolves in Lawyers' Tuxedos. 23. Up Toward the Stars. 24. A Colorful Breakfast. 25. A New Kind of Christianity. 26. Second Thoughts. 27. To God, All Are Alive. 28. A Part of Me at the Core of My Mind. 29. The Last, Best Word. Commentary. The Author.