There are two people who I think who bring game-changing ideas and perspectives to the muddy waters of the emerging/alternative conversations about the church and its futures--Pete Rollins and Kester Brewin. I'm fortunate to count them both as friends and theological soul mates (if only I believed in the soul-haha!). Pete gets more attention this side of the pond because he is around a lot more and travels speaking etc. but Kester shouldn't be underestimated in terms of what he brings to the table. His latest book, Other: Loving self, God and Neighbor in a world of fractures, has recently been released here in the U.S. and I want to encourage everyone to read it. It's a book about options--options to the status quo of mainstream thinking, but also a challenge to the conventional wisdom of much of the emerging conversations. Kester draws from a unique pool of resources and ideas and Other is the fruit of his thinking--thinking about pirate utopias and TAZ(temporary autonomous zones ala Burning Man and Greenbelt), about how and in what ways we might relate to each other, to God and to ourselves in the 21st century.
Kester rattles cages, he is not content to make small adjustments at this point in the game, he is asking hard questions of himself, of us, and is offering up game-changing responses to the current situations that the church finds itself in. I think he is an important theologian for our time and I think Other is a must-read for anyone trying to get their head around the contours and shapes of religion at the turn of the 21st century, so if you haven't read it yet...
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