I think one of the things that's happening to a lot of us is that there is this

vision of the beauty of God that transports us and that takes us to a new

depth and a new height. And it's one of those things about beauty. You can't

capture it in a word or a formula. When you get to that humble place where the

beauty of God has overwhelmed you, I think it changes everything. You can say the

same creed that you said before. But now it's not a creed that grasps God in

the fist of the words, but it's a creed that points up to a beauty that's beyond

anybody's grasp. Brian McLaren was raised a Christian fundamentalist and later

became one of the most influential outside the box evangelicals in the US. A kind

of progressive counter voice to the media pulpits of Jerry Falwell and Pat

Robertson in the 1980s and 90s. He's a former college literature professor who

then served as a pastor for a large non-denominational congregation in Maryland

for 20 years. The 21st century evolution of Christianity, the idea of an

emerging church and the meaning of progressive evangelicalism. These were

undergirding themes at the 2013 Wild Goose Festival where I interviewed Brian

McLaren. I'm Christa Tippett and this is on Beeing. I spoke with Brian

McLaren with a gathered crowd in folding chairs and on blankets on a campground

in Hot Springs, North Carolina on a sweltering August day. Okay, okay, we were

just instructed to speak to everyone back in the shade. Which is where I would

be if I were out there. Brian McLaren is one of the original articulators of

the notion of emergent Christianity, the emerging church. Among other things he

said he envisions a community where diversity no longer means division. Time

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