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Christ For Unitarian Universalists Paperback – May 1, 2016
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The retired dean for religious life at Stanford University presents this engaging and thoughtful inquiry into Christianity for Unitarian Universalists and other spiritual seekers—including skeptics, non-religious people, liberal Christians, and those who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious.”
With his customary warmth and hospitality, Scotty McLennan poses and responds to a series of provocative questions. They address Jesus as historical figure and Jesus as the present Christ; they explore the reality and meaning of the Christmas and Easter stories, the Trinity, Christ’s divinity, miracles, salvation, religious pluralism and exclusivism, and more.
Rather than proselytize, Christ for Unitarian Universalists seeks to stimulate dialogue about Jesus Christ, whether or not we find him central to our faith life. It aims to build bridges and cross the great cultural gulfs in our society. It addresses frank questions with integrity and intellectual honesty. Yet it also presents a sincere and genuine sense of love as embodied in Jesus Christ that is so heartfelt, so unconditional, and so revolutionary it will take your breath away.
- Print length296 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSkinner House Books
- Publication dateMay 1, 2016
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.7 x 8.4 inches
- ISBN-101558967729
- ISBN-13978-1558967724
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Editorial Reviews
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“Anyone interested in the swiftly moving changes within and among religions today, and in the way they shape and are shaped by social and political events, needs to read this book. McLennan has been around the block more than once and he knows whereof he speaks.” —Harvey Cox, author of The Future of Faith and How to Read the Bible
“If all Scotty McLennan offered in Christ for Unitarian Universalists was his superb chapter on what we know about the historical Jesus, I would still call it required reading for Unitarian Universalists. Yet he gives both those who claim a Christian identity within Unitarian Universalism and those who wouldn’t dream of doing so, a lot more. Even Christians outside of Unitarian Universalism will find in these pages a refreshing perspective on their faith. I cannot recommend Rev. McLennan’s book highly enough.” —Rev. Erik Walker Wikstrom, author of Teacher, Guide, Companion: Rediscovering Jesus in a Secular World
“Scotty McLennan has produced a profoundly personal, theologically deep exploration of key Christian concepts and how they have been used in service to liberal values by Unitarian Universalists, and by respected theologians ranging from the writers of the canonical epistles to Marcus Borg to Martin Luther King Jr. While it is not intended to convert Unitarian Universalists to UU Christianity, it may well open some doors to spiritual exploration and growth that had previously been impenetrable to people who thought Jesus or Christianity had nothing to offer them. This book offers a wonderful opportunity for Unitarian Universalists to open our own internal dialogue about Christianity and its dynamic, living place in our tradition.” —Rev. Dr. Anita Farber-Robertson, co-author of Called to Community: New Directions in Unitarian Universalist Ministry
“Having left Christian orthodoxy, many Unitarian Universalists today hold hurt-filled stereotypes about Christianity. Unchallenged, this cuts many of us off from needed spiritual healing, from deeper dialogue and interfaith collaboration. Even those of us who think we know the heart of those trying to embody the spirit of the living Christ will gain much from this gracefully written, profound apologetic. I know I did. Dare yourself and your atheist friends to read and discuss this book!” —Rev. Dr. John Buehrens, author of Conflagration: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, and Social Justice
“Scotty McLennan’s Christ for Unitarian Universalists confronts head-on the doubt and fears that Unitarian Universalists have had about Christianity and re-interprets them through the lens of our liberal religious faith. Written for both Christian and non-Christian Unitarian Universalists, this book is a goldmine of history, theology, and wisdom from his lived experience as college chaplain, Unitarian Universalist minister, and practicing Christian.” —Rev. Kathleen C. Rolenz, editor of Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism
“As a Unitarian Universalist and a Christian, as a sceptic and a believer, Scotty McLennan has brought together his disparate worlds in a remarkable book. He presents us with thoughtful, serious, and compassionate Christians who live their faith—and question it. His clear, sensible writing and irenic intelligence make this a must for any Unitarian Universalist interested in moving beyond caricatures to real people, however different from most of us.” —Rev. Carl Scovel, author of Never Far from Home: Stories from the Radio Pulpit
About the Author
Scotty McLennan is a Unitarian Universalist minister, lawyer, and educator, currently teaching ethics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was the University Chaplain at Tufts for sixteen years and Dean for Religious Life at Stanford for fourteen years. He is the author of Finding Your Religion and Jesus Was a Liberal, and co-author of Church on Sunday, Work on Monday.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I hope Jesus Christ can be seen as a genuine inspiration for us as Unitarian Universalists, even though the vast majority of us don’t identify as Christians. I know that many of us have been badly burned by Christianity and see it as a deeply regressive force in society. Rather than wanting nothing to do with it, though, we can find a lot in Jesus Christ and the tradition that’s grown up around him, which can be profoundly encouraging, sustaining, and life changing. I hope that, by having presented a set of provocative questions that we naturally ask about Christ and Christianity, and by fully engaging with those questions, I have provided some useful and generative answers. It’s been my aim to provide a fresh, twenty-first century appreciation of Christ that is compelling and personally engaging for us as Unitarian Universalists.
As you have seen, I don’t believe it’s enough to talk about Jesus as a great teacher and prophet of an earlier era, a historical figure whom we can look back to as model and exemplar. He became and remains the living Christ for billions of people. Christ means “the anointed one,” who is meant to deliver us, and who still delivers us, to a radically different order and way of being. The pre-Easter Jesus is the historical Jesus who walked and taught and healed in ancient Israel. The post-Easter Jesus, the Christ, is the one whom his disciples experienced as alive and active again, changing people and their communities both in the present and for the future. The Christian Church has been the primary locus of that shared experience of the living Christ, but not the only one. Christ has lived in the hearts and minds and actions of artists and poets, social reformers and innovators, healers and peacemakers, and countless others who were never part of the Church. Christ is available to Unitarian Universalists too as animating force, as comrade, as personally and socially renewing energy in the here and now—and more.
I have not spoken of Jesus Christ as the supernatural, or as the bloody atoner for the sins of humankind, or as the one and only way to spiritual truth. I believe we can read the New Testament and two thousand years of Christian experience as testifying to embodied values of rationality, equality, tolerance, freedom, and respect. Through Jesus Christ we can come to see clearly the inherent worth and dignity of every person, the role of justice and compassion in human relations, the goal of world community, and many other values affirmed by our Unitarian Universalist faith. Through Jesus Christ we can come to direct experience of transcending mystery and won-der, openness to the forces that create and uphold life, love for God and neighbor, and much more that enriches and ennobles our faith.
Product details
- Publisher : Skinner House Books (May 1, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 296 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1558967729
- ISBN-13 : 978-1558967724
- Item Weight : 0.035 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.4 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #751,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #86 in Unitarian Universalism (Books)
- #1,071 in Comparative Religion (Books)
- #1,298 in Christology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
www.scottymclennan.com
The Reverend William L. McLennan, Jr. -- better known as "Scotty McLennan" -- is an ordained minister, lawyer, educator, and author. He currently teaches ethics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
McLennan received his B.A. degree from Yale University in 1970 as "Scholar of the House," an honorary program for a dozen Yale seniors. His final thesis was a monograph entitled "Computers and Infinity."
He earned both Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and Juris Doctor (J.D.) degrees from Harvard's Divinity and Law Schools in 1975. He was ordained in 1975 as a Unitarian Universalist Christian minister, and admitted that year to the Massachusetts bar. After practicing church-sponsored poverty law in a low-income neighborhood of Boston for a decade and founding the Unitarian Universalist Legal Ministry, he was appointed University Chaplain at Tufts University in Medford, Massachuestts, where he served from 1984 to 2000. He also served as a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School between 1988 and 2000. He later was the Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University from 2001-2014.
McLennan is the author of "Finding Your Religion: When the Faith You Grew Up With Has Lost Its Meaning" (1999) and co-author with Laura Nash of "Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenge of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life" (2001). His "Jesus was a Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All" was released in 2009 and "Christ for Unitarian Universalists: A New Dialogue with Traditional Christianity" in 2016.
Scotty McLennan is married to Ellen S. McLennan and they have two sons, Will McLennan and Dan McLennan both of whom are alumni of Stanford University.
McLennan is part of the inspiration for the cartoon character Reverend Scot Sloan in Garry Trudeau's Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoon strip "Doonesbury". The character is also based on the late William Sloane Coffin, McLennan's mentor and former Chaplain at Yale University, where McLennan and Trudeau were undergraduate roommates.
Fore more information, please visit www.scottymclennan.com
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This is an interesting and thoughtful look at the subject matter. I was not brought up a Christian and it is teaching me about the Bible here and there. This book re-affirms my position as a Unitarian Universalist.