tiger

Part of what's valuable in McLaren's book is his understanding that
we Westerners have been programmed to think in a certain
way...primarily through the influence of Aristotlean logic. We
****yze everything through logic and reject that which logic rejects.
Yet surely if God exists, God cannot be defined through logic...any
such being that could would be a thoroughly human construct. One of
the problems with Western Christianity, and particularly with
fundamentalism, is that we've been influenced to a much greater
degree by this thinking than Eastern Christians have. Eastern
Christians, as well as other Eastern religions, have for centuries
acknowledged the mystery of God...while we in the West develop
"systematic" theologies to try and explain God.

More recommendations: "New Seeds of Contemplation" by Thomas Merton
(from which my sig comes)

"Christ The Eternal Tao" by Hieromonk Damascene

As well as just about anything from any of the Eastern mystics (John
of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Bernard of Clairvaux, et. al.)

I'm also partial to Taoism, so I'll throw in recommendations for "The
Tao Te Ching" translated by Stephen Mitchell and the writings of
Chiang Tzu.

--
Tiger

"In the devil's theology, the important thing is to be absolutely
right and prove everyone else is absolutely wrong." - Thomas Merton