In light of the – not optimistic – scenarios that lie before us, those who do not sink into despair want a Plan. What are we going to do?...

“The universe is a cosmic dance of energy…Everything we humans do is about energy.” (pg 240) Energy comes from sunlight, liquids, food...

This book is called “Life After Doom”. But what does “doom” mean? Its roots lie in the medieval concept of “law” and “justice”. A...

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that...

It is a great temptation nowadays to respond to the “outrage of the day”. (Just in the last week free speech and due process rights have...

How will we as communities and individuals respond to the deconstruction or collapse of our environment and perhaps our civilization? How...

“We live in a time of stunning and contagious collective stupidity [i] . Anti-Nazi German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Letters...

Imagine what a “safe landing” would look like in a swirling, stormy world, in which we experience “economic meltdown, climate countdown,...

“The world has been ending off and on for almost all of recorded history….” Mathematician and collapsologist B. Sidney Smith, in How to...

Those struggling with addiction are familiar with the Serenity Prayer, which is often used to close Alcoholics Anonymous meetings:   God...

“In 1973, anthropologist Ernest Becker published the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Denial of Death . The book explains how our species...

We left you last chapter with a question: you may wonder if McLaren is too negative about Western civilization. Is there nothing that...

Brian McLaren has tried to show us that it is hard if not impossible for us to remove the rose-colored glasses through which we view our...

At the end of the last chapter we concluded that we would need some help removing our rose-colored glasses that only allow us to see...

We return to our summary of Brian McLaren's Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart . To read previous chapter...

Given the reality of a likely doomsday scenario, what role does hope play?   It’s complicated, says McLaren. Hope as we tend to think of...

Brian McLaren grew up in the Plymouth Brethren community, a very conservative Christian group. From his childhood, he was taught that the...

After the shock of confronting reality and responding with the instincts for survival, belonging and meaning, grief can hit us. Grief,...

The pivotal chapter in Life After Doom  is the 2nd chapter, “Welcome to Reality”, in which McLaren sketches four possible scenarios for...

Brian McLaren posits that a process has been set in motion by humans  that, unless some revolutionary change in thinking and behavior...