Book Review: Jesus Was a Liberal

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One of my goals for this year is to read at least 25 books. Last night, I completed book number one: Jesus Was a Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All.

Written by Unitarian Universalist minister Scotty McLennan, Jesus Was a Liberal, is an exploration of liberal Christianity in a modern context. How do liberal Christians differ from conservatives? Can a Christian be liberal with regard to divisive issues like abortion or gay marriage and still be faithful to Christ?

If this book had been written about 5 or 6 years ago and I had read it at that time—a time when I was exploring the Christian faith—I might be a Christian today. I may have still ended up in the Unitarian church, but I’d likely be there as a liberal Christian, rather than as the undefined pseudo-deist-atheist-internal-contradiction that I am now.

Christianity doesn’t have to be in opposition to gay marriage or a woman’s right to choose, says McLennan. He backs it up with both scriptural reference and examples from the cultural history of both the Jewish and early Christian traditions.

A Christian doesn’t have to believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. It’s OK not to accept the idea of the Trinity (in this regard, McLennan is a Unitarian Christian in the original sense of the term). It’s even OK to think of the virgin birth and resurrection of Christ as metaphorical rather than literal.

For McLennan, liberal Christianity is about applying reason and logic to questions of faith. It’s about finding the truth and value in the Chrisitian master story, even if you don’t accept it all as literal fact. The essence of Christianity, McLennan says, is love, often expressed in the form of social justice movements.

The book is well written and easy to understand. While McLennan doesn’t shy away from biblical scholarship and discussions of abstract ideas, like the mathematical concept of infinity, he presents these things in ways that are understandable for the layperson.

Despite having very little knowledge of the Bible, beyond the few books that I’ve actually read (many years ago), I was able to grasp everything that McLennan discusses in Jesus Was a Liberal.

While the book is primarily intended for liberal Christians, I think that it’s an excellent read for both non-Christians and conservative Christians.

It’ll help non-Christians (especially the non-religious) realize that Christianity is not the exclusive domain of the ultra-conservative, and that Christianity has been and can continue to be an agent for positive change in the world. And conservative Christians will be able to develop a better understanding of the more liberal members of their faith. Perhaps they’ll even realize that just because someone is liberal doesn’t mean that they aren’t a “real” Christian.

Jesus Was a Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All is available from Amazon.ca and in most bookstores.