A Heretic's Guide to Eternity

if you know me, you know i'm going to like a book if it's got the word "heretic" in the title. so i was biased before beginning this book based on that. plus my bias was increased by having had the opportunity to meet the author, Spencer Burke, on monday night.

one of my professors, Dwight Friesen, invited us over to his house to meet Spencer and hear him talk about his newest book, A Heretic's Guide to Eternity. this book had already caught my attention, especially since i've been spending a lot of time reading articles on theOOZE.com lately, which is a website that Spencer created several years ago. so when given the opportunity to hear him speak about his book, Jak and i jumped at the chance.

it was a fun night. what i found most interesting was watching the varied responses in the room to things that Spencer had to say, from total agreement to utter disbelief with expressions showing that they certainly believed him to be a heretic.

so of course, since i'm in the final month of the semester and therefore have more work to do than before, i have spent this week reading Heretic's Guide and falling behind on my schoolwork.

i'll give my critique first, and then some of my favorite quotes.

i found that he was trying to explore so many things, and some of the ideas were great, but often he stopped short of explaining himself enough. i often got the feeling that if he'd spent another couple of pages - or even paragraphs - on a subject, he really could have delved deeply into some of the subjects in a really positive way. so i was often frustrated feeling like he left off the best parts of his ideas, stopping short of really getting to the meat of the matter.

his overall concept in the book is that religion (in general, but especially christianity) tries to be the gatekeeper of grace, and by doing so misses the point because God is the one who is and gives grace, not religion. he believes that religion places rules and regulations in place of spirituality and relationship. he points out how the religious leaders of the day viewed Jesus as a heretic because he didn't follow the rules of the religion but instead put people and God first, and Spencer calls us out to do and be the same. his views of grace and salvation would make many an evangelical cringe at first sight, yet i believe that if we can get past this initial reaction and hear what Spencer is saying we will find much truth in his words, and maybe begin to see him as a prophet showing us errors in our religious thinking. in line with Brian McLaren, Spencer views salvation as something that should not be focused solely on the hereafter, but on the here and now instead.

the first quote i'll place here is actually Spencer quoting Michael Dowd:

To know the joy of reconciling when I've been estranged; to experience the ecstasy of forgiveness when I've been bound by guilt; to feel passion and energy when I've been sick; to see clearly when I have been spiritually blind; to be comforted when I've been grieving; to be empowered when I've been paralyzed with fear; to be inspired when I've been depressed; to let go when I've been attached; to accept the truth when I've been in denial; to be back on purpose when I've been flounder - each of these is a previous face of salvation. And salvation belongs to God, not to any religion; it is what God offers to all His children.

there were several things i wanted to quote from this book, but i feel that this post is already too long. so i'll just add one more quote from one of his final chapters:

Mystical responsibility is a radically different take on what a relationship with God in this world can look like. Whereas traditional religion and institutional churches stress holding certain beliefs, mystical responsibility emphasizes living in faith.

Mystical responsibility highlights how broad and varied our experiences of the sacred can be. It captures our experiences of the sacred, those moments when life opens up in ways we never dreamed possible. It also focuses our lives on the future by offering paths to transformation and change.

It is by no means a complete system, nor it is a shrink-wrapped version of new religiosity. Old concepts, new ideas, and incomplete thoughts and notions mix into its unique outline. Mystical responsibility is a way of orienting ourselves to the sacred without some of the baggage we have accumulated over the years. Above all, mystical responsibility is a journey into the new shape of things.