Some Brief Reflections on Naked Spirituality

Some Brief Reflections on Naked Spirituality

By Brian D. McLaren

Harper One, 2011

Brian McLaren continues to be a champion of those who have lost their faith, been hurt by their faith, struggle to keep or regain their faith or have reached a point in their lives where faith simply has no meaning for them anymore.  In Naked Spirituality, McLaren begins with the story of Francis of Assisi striping naked in church, in broad daylight, in front of his angry father, as well as in front of the local Bishop.  Francis said to them, “you can have your clothes back, I shall go naked to meet my naked Lord.”

This is a book about meeting our Lord and His Spirit at a time in our history when, for many reasons, this is not always a simple thing to do.  I share with you some of McLaren’s thoughts from the Preface, Introduction and Chapter 1 to give you a sense of how important I believe this book to be.

From the Preface

“This is a book about getting naked—not physically, but spiritually.  It is about stripping away the symbols and status of public religion….and it’s about attending to the well-being of the soul clothed only in naked human skin.”(p. vii)

“At their best, religious and spiritual communities help us discover this pure and naked spiritual encounter.  At their worst, they simply make us more ashamed, pressuring us to cover up more.”(p. viii)

Some reasons a person may want to read this book:

From the Introduction

“You may have come to a point where the word “God” is problematic for you.  You are so dreadfully sick and tired of hearing God’s name overused and abused that you’d rather not add to the commotion.”(p.2)

“You may be spiritually disappointed and wounded; you may feel God has abandoned you, turned on you, left you, and you do not know where to go next.”(p. 2)

You may be, perhaps without admitting it even to yourself, one of the increasing numbers of theologians, pastors, priests, and lifelong Christians who have practically become atheists because of long-standing disillusionment, unanswered questions, and unresolved pain.”(p.2)

“Doctrinal Correctness, institutional participation, and religious conformity won’t suffice anymore.  You need a life centered on simple, doable, durable practices that will help you begin and sustain a naked encounter with the holy mystery and pure loving presence that people commonly call God.”(p.3)

From Chapter 1

“What Many people experience in religious communities on a popular level seems closer to the opposite of love.  Religion as they experience it promotes conflict and selfishness rather than generosity and otherliness.  It teaches them to prioritize their own personal salvation and religiosity over the well being of others.  It reaches practices and beliefs that make some fear, dehumanize, and judge others.”(p. 15)

“A spiritual life is a Spirit life, a life in the Spirit, and Jesus’ life and work come into proper focus when we realize his goal was not to start a new religion—and certainly not to create a new religion that would seek to compete with or persecute his own religion, Judaism!  No, his goal was to fill with Spirit-wine the empty stone jars of religion—his own religion and any other religion.”(18)

When people say, I am not religious, but spiritual, many of them, I think, see what Jesus saw, that the Spirit’s realm of activity can’t be limited to the sphere of religion in general, much less to any particular religion.  The Spirit of God is the fine wine of justice, joy, and peace; the uncontained wind of creativity, comfort, and liberation; the living water of holiness, beauty, and love.  Whenever people encounter justice, joy, peace, creativity, comfort, liberation, holiness, beauty, love and any other good thing, they are in some way encountering the Spirit, or at least the signature or aftermath of the Spirit.  The spirit, then, is bigger than any particular religion, or religion in general.  Nobody has a monopoly on Spirit,

Get that straight and a thousand other things begin to fall into place.  We can put ourselves into the sandals of that woman drawing water from that well, or Nicodemus hearing the wind in the trees, or the disciples tasting that wine drawn from these ceremonial stone jars.  We might just dare to believe that we too can experience the water, the wind, and the wine.”(pp 18-19)

This is an important book for the emerging church of today and if you see yourself in any of McLaren’s descriptions, then I recommend that you jump in to this book with anticipation and hope.

Ben Alford