A Heretic's Guide to Eternity

The Heretic's Guide to Eternity asks questions which many people might find to be bordering heretical. Questions like "Is there a future for the Christian church as an institution?", "Is it possible to encounter God's loving goodness outside the confines of religious patterns & practices?" & "Could it be that God's grace is still grace apart from the issues of human sin or innocence?" Many of the questions & thoughts in this book seem to be in the same vein as Mr. Barna's Revolution, just without any boundaries or limits.
Heavy questions to be sure, and ones without easy answers. Throughout reading the book, I felt myself challenging my long-held thoughts & beliefs (always a good thing) & trying to really get at the heart of faith. One thing many of us can already agree with is that our culture is moving more to spirituality than religion. However, Mr. Burke says that "Moving beyond religion does not mean we have to live in a moral vacuum of our own creation."
Mr. Burke lays out the differences between religion & spirituality as he sees it & then presents more questions about the outgrowth of that than anything else. One could read into it that he is submitting some type of universalism, however, I saw it as simply "thinking out loud". There is a problem with how the Chruch & Christianity sees, relates & interacts with culture & current thought. I think that Mr. Burke is attempting to reconcile that.
In this book, Mr. Burke tackles issues of God's grace, institutional Christianity & mystical faith. Some interesting questions are definitely raised and worth digesting, questions which may seem heretical & easy to write-off, but ones which can 't hurt to at least be asked.

In reading about Mr. Burke, I found that he is the creator of this website which receives "200,000 unique visitors a month". I was about halfway through the book when I tried to access the site on my work computer. We have a internet safety system which is overly restrictive & the site would not come up because it was "Tasteless". I decided to just check it out at home. I did later that night & was shocked when I found that it was more than tasteless. Having seen the site Mr. Burke created & hosts I had no desire whatsoever to bother finishing the book.

I felt a bit cheated because I really do feel some of the questions Mr. Burke raises are worthy to be thought through, but I just could not get myself to get past the site, I guess. So, if you venture forward with this book, either do not check out the website, or wait until after your reading.

UPDATE: thanks to comments from Mr. Burke, I realized that I had visited the wrong site entirely (see comments section). I am quite happy to find this out & apologize for sladering the character of Mr. Burke.


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Category: Emergent