Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart

by Brian D. McLaren

A highly readable, deeply insightful exploration of how to live with wisdom, resilience and love in our turbulent times

For the last quarter-century, author and activist Brian D. McLaren has been writing at the intersection of religious faith and contemporary culture. In Life After Doom , he engages with the catastrophic failure of both our religious and secular leaders to address the dominant realities of our time. McLaren defines doom as the “un-peaceful, uneasy, unwanted feeling” that “we humans have made a mess of our civilization and our planet, and not enough of us seem to care enough to change deeply enough or quickly enough to save ourselves.”

Blending insights from philosophers, poets, scientists, and theologians, Life After Doom explores the complexity of hope, the necessity of grief, and the need for new ways of thinking, becoming, and belonging. If you want to help yourself, your family, and your community, small and greater, to find courage and resilience for the deeply challenging times that are upon us ― this is the book you need right now.

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality, Theology, Christian, Self Help, Philosophy, Religion

290 pages, Hardcover

Published May 14, 2024

About the author

Brian D. McLaren is an internationally known speaker and the author of over ten highly acclaimed books on contemporary Christianity, including A New Kind of Christian, A Generous Orthodoxy, and The Secret Message of Jesus.

Reviews

[David Crumm · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Truly Good News in Doom

This is the 20th anniversary of my conversations with Brian McLaren—in my role as a journalist covering religious and cultural diversity for half a century. Through my reporting since 2004—like a lot of other religion writers—I've helped to chart Brian's spiritual pilgrimage away from the rigid confines of evangelicalism toward an inclusive vision of Christianity that we can carry with us into an uncertain future.

How did we meet? An alert editor at The Detroit Free Press plopped a new book on my desk in 2004 and told me: "As our religion editor, you've pretty much gotta interview a guy who titles his new book: 'A Generous Orthodoxy—Why I am a missional + evangelical + post/protestant + liberal/conservative + mystical/poetic + biblical + charismatic/contemplative + fundamentalist/calvinist + anabaptist/anglican + methodist + catholic + green + incarnational + depressed-yet-hopeful + emergent + unfinished CHRISTIAN.' This Brian McLaren seems to be the hottest new thing from the guys up in Grand Rapids at Zondervan—so the story's got a Michigan hook to it. So, read the book. Then, call the man."

I took the assignment, of course. And, if you're not familiar with Brian's big breakthrough book on the national publishing circuit—those 32 words, 15 plus signs and six slashes did, indeed, form the title of his book. Then, sitting just above all those words on the cover of his book was Brian's bespectacled face with a sort of Mona Lisa smile. It was obvious from that book onward that this guy has a hopeful sense of humor. So, first as a journalist for major newspapers—then later as the editor of an online magazine—I made it a point to check in with Brian once or twice each year for an interview to highlight whatever was the latest of his two dozen or so books to hit bookstore shelves.

My last major interview with Brian was about his 2022 book, exploring the many reasons that organized religion seems toxic to a growing number of Americans. He called that book Do I Stay Christian?: A Guide for the Doubters, the Disappointed, and the Disillusioned. (I was not active in Goodreads in 2022, so don't look for my coverage of that book in this online forum—but that magazine story with Brian about the 2022 book is still online elsewhere.)

So, given the trajectory of Brian's writing, in my interview this week about Life after Doom, I asked Brian a question that caused him to chuckle, at first.

I asked, "So, how do you identify yourself today when people ask you to give your religious affiliation?"

After chuckling at my question, he pondered a while before responding: "I’ve been around long enough that I don’t get asked that question too often anymore. But—I still identify as a committed Christian. Then, if people ask what I mean by that I say, 'I’m the kind of Christian who believes that the better Christian I am—the more I’ll love my Muslim and atheist and Jewish and Hindu neighbors as myself.' "

So, that's the first thing you need to know about this new book: Yes, it's written by one of the nation's most influential Christian authors—and the overall thinking is shaped by Brian's deep faith—but this also is a book for "everyone" as Brian argues in the Introduction:

"Life after Doom is for everyone who has reached a point where not facing their unpeaceful, uneasy, unwanted feelings about the future has become more draining than facing them. It's for anyone who understands that we've entered a dangerous time and we need to prepare ourselves to face that danger with wisdom, courage, character and compassion."

If that sounds like you—then I can assure you this will be welcome reading!

But, if you're still undecided about putting this on your reading list, let me share a few things I really like about this book.

1.) Starting with compassion: Brian models that compassion he's seeking, as an author, by doing something I can't recall another author doing in such a timely book. He actually tells readers, before Chapter 1, that if the early portion of the book (in which he explains the nature of the global crises we face) is too depressing to read right away—skip ahead into the middle of his book and start with the more hopeful chapters. Yes, he writes, those early chapters "are really important, but for some readers, going to the end and then coming back to the middle may make more sense."

2.) Considering Native American wisdom: Brian turns to the emerging wave of Native American voices—especially Steven Charleston (see my review of Charleston's We Survived the End of the World). The truth is that indigenous people around the world have experienced centuries of near-extinction and yet many of those communities survive and some of them are thriving. Brian's humble recommendation to listen to Native voices is a passion I share as well as a journalist. (And, before Native American-conscious friends on Goodreads critique this review as romanticizing indigenous cultures—you'll find Brian introduces this whole idea in a very nuanced, balanced and appropriate way. Read the book to see for yourself.)

3.) Talking to our children: Brian and his wife have four adult children and five grandchildren, the oldest of whom is 14. As a grandparent myself, I appreciate the appendix to this book in which Brian suggests ways to talk with young people about the crises we are facing. Those are very challenging conversations, in many cases, even with preschool kids—believe me, I know as a grandparent. Brian's suggestions include a model letter from a grandfather to the next generations. We all should write such letters, shouldn't we?

4.) Acknowledging our biases: If you're familiar with Brian's writing, you know that he's no arm-twisting salesman trying to convince readers to adopt his plan for meeting these crises. Yes, he does encourage readers to develop their own plans and he does offer a few suggestions. But, this book is not some kind of a sales pitch for Brian's 10 Tips for Avoiding the Apocalypse. In fact, at the close of his book are seven pages titled "A Short List of Biases"—and those pages alone are worth the price of this book.

This is a terrific book for small-group discussion and, yes, Brian includes tips for organizing such groups, including how to divide up the chapters of this book—depending on how many weeks you're thinking of devoting to this theme.

Given my life-long specialty as a journalist, I am always looking at the wide range of books about the various crises we all are facing. That's part of my vocation. I then select some to thoughtfully read and a few to recommend to friends—through my writing. The fact that I decided to read all of Brian's book—and some sections several times—means that I've lived with this book for a couple of weeks in a serious way.

And I must admit that, each time I picked up this book—perhaps because of its sky-blue cover and certainly because of its subject matter—a song kept running through my mind: It was that Vera Lynn World War II classic that Stanley Kubrick chose to play at the very end of Dr. Strangelove as a mushroom cloud was rising and doom seemed certain. I've always been a fan of that film's biting satire and especially that closing moment when Vera Lynn's lilting voice sings:

We'll meet again
Don't know where
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again
Some sunny day.

The last thing I want to say about Life after Doom is: Unlike the folks who brought us Strangelove, Brian wrote this new book because he really does believe there can be more sunny days.

And that's the truly good news in Doom.

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Doom referenced in the title of this book is the future caused by climate change and ecological overshoot. It is not necessarily referring to recent American Presidential election results, but the two are obviously related since the new administration scoffs at the threat of climate change.

Early in the book the author predicts we are heading to one of the following four scenarios.

Scenario 1 ... Collapse Avoidance (This scenario is fictionalized in Kim Stanley Robinson's novels New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future.)

Scenario 2 ... Collapse/Rebirth (Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven and Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games unfold in this scenario.)

Scenario 3 ... Collapse/Survival scenario. (This is the setting of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Cormac McCarthy's The Road.)

Scenario 4 ... Collapsed Extinction (Adam McKay's film Don't Look Up and Alan Weisman's imaginative nonfiction book The World Without Us are portrayals of this scenario.)

In the above listing I have not included the author's detailed description of the four scenarios, however I thought his listing of other works of literature which describe the scenarios to be of particular interest so I have included them. (I have included the author's detailed descriptions of the scenarios in the "Excerpts" section of this review.)

The likelihood of which scenario we will experience is dependent of how quickly a turn around in carbon release is achieved. The book's position is that we're probably headed for 3 or 4 since it's likely too late to achieve Scenario 1, or even Scenario 2—though we may pass through a Scenario 2 on the way to 3 and 4.

Most of the rest of the book addresses the subject of how to live in a world we know is headed toward disaster while we also know how it could be avoided, but we also know that the combination of the forces of economic, social, and human nature will not change the current direction things are going. What response is called for in this situation? Should a person collapse from despair or conjure a spirit of hope?

The book expands on a discussion of the two sides of hope. Hope can enable peace of mind in the midst of chaos, but it can also be an excuse to do nothing. What's the rational justification for living simply when it won't change the world? The author suggests that it's a moral issue as suggested by this quote from Howard Zinn:

...to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. (p.81)

So the position of the book is that we should advocate for earth and climate friendly changes while knowing it will most likely be in vain as we head toward the end of civilization as we know it. But it won't be the first time it seemed as though the world was ending as the author reminds the reader of previous times in history when certain people experienced what they perceived to be the end of the world as they knew it—Jews after destruction of the temple, fall of the Roman Empire, genocide of American Indians, and Africans removed by slavers. The world as we know it will also change, but we should continue to strive to mitigate the harshness of change where possible, and we should be at peace with the prospect that the population of humanity may be reduced but there is hope that humanity in some form can survive.

One of the book's many suggested ways of coping with the anxiety caused by prospective doom is to meet with like minded people regularly to commensurate and discuss related issues. In this regard the book is arranged to be used as a resource for discussion groups meeting weekly over a span of three months. There are suggested questions at the end of each chapter, and in the Appendix there are additional resources including a suggested reading schedule that spreads the reading and discussions over a span of thirteen weeks.

EXCERPTS: (The following are selected excerpts from the book)
___________
That diagnosis leads us to a disturbing prognosis: Our future will likely follow one of the following four scenarios, which will feature prominently through the rest of the book." (I suggest a few imaginative depictions of each scenario in book or film at the end of each description.)

Scenario 1: Our current civilization will continue to destabilize the Earth's life support systems, and failing life support systems will continue to destabilize civilization, creating a downward spiral in both the environment and in civilization. As we face this dangerous reality, enough of our citizens and institutional leaders will wake up and respond with sufficient urgency, unity, and wisdom to transform our civilization and learn to live within environmental limits, and thus avoid collapse. However, because the needed transformation process will be long, difficult, and messy, we will face many turbulent decades or even centuries before we reach a new, sustainable normal. We will call scenario 1 the Collapse Avoidance scenario. (This scenario is fictionalized in Kim Stanley Robinson's novels New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future.)

Scenario 2: Our civilization will not respond with sufficient urgency, unity, and wisdom to restabilize our environment and to live within environmental limits. Nor will our institutions be able to deal with the cascading effects of social turbulence and decline. As a result, our current global civilization will decline toward collapse, perhaps suddenly, but more likely gradually, like falling down a long stairway, one flight at a time. In the aftermath, some number of people--whether 50 or 10 or 2 percent of our peak population--will be able to regroup in a severely destabilized global ecosystem and rebuild new communities in various locations, retaining some elements of our current civilization. However, unless surviving communities learn what needs to be learned from our current civilization's multifaceted failure, in the longer term they will repeat our current civilization's trajectory of overshoot and collapse. If they gain needed wisdom from our collapse, they will rebuild with a new consciousness, spirituality, or value system that will begin a new chapter in the story of our species. We'll call scenario 2 the Collapse/Rebirth scenario. (Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven and Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games unfold in this scenario.)

Scenario 3: Our global civilization will collapse and humans who survive will face a tenuous future on a decimated Earth. Many or most of the cultural and technological advancements of our current civilization will be lost, and many of the ugliest elements of our history-widespread violence, domination, desperation, brutality-will make a comeback. Survivors will live in post-industrial, post-capitalist ways of life that resemble pre-industrial, pre-modern ways of life, but under far harsher environmental and cultural conditions. They will look upon the ruins of our current civilization and experience shock at how much humanity squandered. We'll call scenario 3 the Collapse/Survival scenario. (This is the setting of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Cormac McCarthy's The Road.)

Scenario 4: As Earth's environment continues to deteriorate, human civilization will descend into a highly destructive collapse process. During this collapse, desperate nations, likely led by desperate authoritarians, will race to exploit remaining resources and eliminate their competitors, speeding up environmental destructon with war, perhaps including nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare. This catastrophic, mutually assured self-destruction of civilization will not only result in total or near-total extinction of humans, but it will also drive a significant percentage of land and sea life into extinction. We'll call scenario 4 the Collapsel Extinction scenario. (Adam McKay's film Don't Look Up and Alan Weisman's imaginative nonfiction book The World Without Us are portrayals of this scenario.)

Feel free to align yourself with one of these scenarios for the moment, but I encourage you to hold your current position lightly for now. You may wonder where I would place myself. For now, that's not important. (I'll tell you in the next chapter.) What is important now is to understand the key reason many people are moving up the scenarios. They are moving from assessing Collapse Avoidance (scenario 1) or Collapse/Rebirth (scenario 2) as our most likely future toward assessing Collapse/Survival (scenario 3) or Collapse/Extinction (scenario 4) as most likely. In all of these scenarios, the primary problem is not the environment. The primary problem is us. Humans don't have an environmental problem; the environment has a human problem. (And, we might add, humans have an energy problem, as we'll see more clearly in chapter 20.) We have built a fast-growing, complex, expensive, unequal, resource-hungry, fragile, fractious, and weaponized civilization that is a threat to both the environment and to itself. (p. 27-29)
___________
So there's the paradox. According to people I respect and trust, hope is essential because it motivates. According to other people I respect and trust, hope is dangerous because it keeps you from facing how bad things really are and responding appropriately.

Good people promoting hope and good people critiquing hope are both against the same thing: foolish complacency. And both are for the same thing: wise action. (p.79)
___________
It takes a lot of practice for people with highly analytical minds to retrain ourselves to put parts together again and see the larger wholes or systems in which they participate. ... (p.97)

Now we can see our current situation unfolding across all four of our local spheres:

1. Geosphere: The Earth's physical systems have already been dangerously disrupted by human activity. Additional disruption is on the way in the form of higher temperatures, changing oceanic currents and wind zones, more extreme storms and droughts, melting ice and rising, acidifying oceans, drying, eroding, and deteriorating soils, depleted aquifers, and disruptive anomalies in familiar regional weather patterns.

2. Biosphere: Physical disturbances in the geosphere pose a threat to all plants and animals in the web of life, a web that connects every living thing to every living thing, a web that includes us.

3. Social sphere: As our geosphere and biosphere become increasingly unstable, our civilization will also grow increasingly unstable, setting in motion unprecedented disturbances that will affect every dimension of society--all our economic, political, educational, agricultural, recreational, religious, and other shared activities. At some point, unless we change our shared way of life profoundly and rapidly, our current global civilization will reach a period of collapse during which civilization shrinks in both population and complexity. Such a descent toward and through collapse will be ugly and scary for every community.

4. Personal sphere: Turmoil in the geosphere, biosphere, and social spheres will create turmoil within each of our individual nervous systems. It will take a new set of habits and practices to sustain personal well-being during this disruptive time.

Our rose-colored glasses put us in a golden hour for the last four or five centuries, a golden hour in which our civilization stored up a lot of gold. Blinded by ever-increasing prosperity, prosperous citizens of our civilization didn't see how the Earth itself was being damaged by human actions. Nor did they see how millions of their human neighbors were being exploited for the comfort, pleasure, and profit of the prosperous. Nor did they see how human civilization itself was becoming unsustainable. Nor did they see how ecological instability would reach a tipping point in which their dreamworld could become a nightmare. Nor did they see how much they didn't see. (p.98-99)
______________
Growth/exploitation, stability/conservation, release/collapse, and reorganization: we can trace this pattern through virtually every civilization of the past about which we have sufficient information. (p.168) ...

And now, we find ourselves in the late days of the conservation stage or (more likely) the early days of the release stage, as our current global system finds both growth and homeostasis harder and harder to sustain. It's a paradox, both ironic and tragic: if we keep fueling our civilization with fossil fuels, we destroy the ecological balance on which our civilization depends. But we cannot easily stop fueling our civilization with fossil fuels because both the elites and the masses are too comfortable with the status quo and want to keep it going . . . just I little longer. (p.169)
__________
You and I have tried to do something difficult in these chapters. We have imagined a lot of super-undesirable, painful situations we never would choose, situations of great turbulence at the intersection of environmental overshoot and civilizational collapse:

Melting polar ice caps leading to weather disruption, sea level rise, and coastal flooding.

Rapid climate disruption leading to extinctions, crop failures, and far-reaching economic impacts.

Flooding, wildfires, extreme weather leading to mass migrations.

White supremacist and nativist attacks on immigrants and minorities, with conspiratorial falsehoods and stupidities spread by demagogues seeking power.

Volatile stock markets, runs on banks, credit and bank defaults, currency failures.

Cascading failures of political leaders, leading to cascading failures of public institutions.

Mass and social media spreading mass deception leading to mass delusion leading to mass hysteria.

Authoritarian regimes preying on fear and resentment, eventually replacing or compromising democracies.

Food shortages. Water shortages. Supply chain disruptions. Decline in both health and health care, and increases in violence. Electric grids and internet crashes due to weather events or terrorist action.

This imaginative work has, unfortunately, been easier than we might have expected, because we see many signs of this turbulence already in motion. (p.179-180)
_____________
True, this isn't a great time for an easy life, but if you want a meaningful life, you showed up right on time. (p.229)
_____________
Authoritarianism is not merely a matter of state control, it is something that eats away at who you are. It makes you afraid, and fear can make you cruel. It compels you to conform and to comply and accept things that you would never accept, to do things you never thought you would do.

You do it because everyone else is doing it, because the institutions you trust are doing it and telling you to do it, because you are afraid of what will happen if you do not do it, and because the voice in your head crying out that something is wrong grows fainter and fainter until it dies.

That voice is your conscience, your morals, your individuality. No one can take that from you unless you let them. They can take everything from you in material terms--your house, your job, your ability to speak and move freely. They cannot take away who you truly are. They can never truly know you, and that is your power. But to protect and wield this power, you need to know yourself--right now, before their methods permeate, before you accept the obscene and unthinkable as normal.

In that context, she wrote, "You need to be your own light." (The above is quote of Sarah Kendzior, p.243-244)
______________
So here are a batch of ways to focus on what matters and what matters more. I'm making an expanded version of this chapter available online at BrianMcLaren.net, so you can share it with others if you'd like. Even better, add to the list as you share it, because along the way, you'll learn more about what and how the way teaches.

1. Voicing your concern matters, and voicing your commitment matters even more. ...

2. Your anxiety matters and your citizenship matters even more. ...

3. What you've already learned matters, and remaining curious matters even more. ...

4. What you've already contributed matters, and your ongoing contributions will matter even more. ...

5. The salary and benefits of your job matter, but the benefits your work provides to others and to the Earth matter even more. ...

6. The return on your investments matters but the impact of your purchases, investments, and donations matters even more. ...

7. Whether or not you have children matters and how much you care for everyone's children matters even more. ...

8. Your individual actions matter and the institutions and social movements in which you play a part matter even more. ...

9. Your mistakes or failures matter way less than what you learn from them. ...

10. Your organized religion matters and your spiritual organizing matters even more.

11. What you think matters and how you love matters more. ...

12. Your anger matters and your sadness and joy matter even more. ...

13. Your arguments matter and your agreements matter even more. ...

14. Your family matters, and your community of resilience matters even more. ...

15. What I'm telling you on this page matters way less than what you tell yourself when you turn the page. ... (p.255-261)

[Gail Holman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grateful that McLaren gave me a framework and container for thoughts I have been having for years. It lowered the threshold of despair for me to feel there are things I am capable of doing. It brought me back to the belief that the work I can do is of value.

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from the library at a moment when I was feeling pessimistic about the election in November. I felt like I needed something to help me prepare mentally for a second Trump administration. I knew that the book was about climate change, an issue that I have been concerned about for the past decade or so. But I thought it could help me prepare for one disaster as easily as another.

About two chapters in, I forgot all about the election. This book is life-changing.

McLaren is a former Christian pastor, and approaches the issue of climate change from both a practical and a spiritual standpoint, which is exactly what I think is needed. His approach, reflected in the book’s four sections, is that people have to wake up to the emergency, change our way of seeing the world as a result, plan to be resilient in face of what’s coming, and determine to let our light shine come what may. (I have simplified greatly, obviously. Also, as it happens, those are also good steps for the catastrophe I was originally worried about).

McLaren has no words of comfort as far as what is coming. What’s coming is already baked in. All we can control is how we respond. He has several chapters on the topic of response, and it’s not just what you think: wash your clothes in cold water, get a heat pump, blah, blah. All of that is great. But McLaren goes further. He is talking about is a personal and communal spiritual transformation that will make us resilient and allow each of us to shine our light in the world. It was exactly what I was looking for.

This book might not be for everyone. If you are an atheist, you might not find McLaren’s message as powerful as I did. If you’re a more fundamentalist Christian, you may be offended by a lot of it. But, if you’re spiritually open and you’re ready to really confront climate change, this book will change you.

Like my reviews? Check out my blog
Author of The Saint's Mistress

[Antonie Fountain · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most important - and hopeful - books I have read in a long long long time.

If, like me, you’re worried about the future of humanity, make sure you read this. You might not become less worried, but it will help you find a role in how to deal with it.

[Patrick M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian McLaren has always been tricky for me. He obviously inhales huge piles of scholarly books, and he puts things together very well, but he can be just a bit too cutesy sometimes.

This book is a huge contrast to a lot of Christian writing on climate and related crises, which usually falls directly into a pattern of a) here's some problems, b) here's some Bible verses that talk about "creation care", and c) there's your hope!. McLaren looks squarely at what Adam Tooze calls the polycrisis - not only climate but biodiversity, resource depletion, the Limits to Growth and associated financial and social implications - and wrote this book to describe how he's dealt with it.

It's a weird and prickly book which I have some standing to critique, given my day-to-day work of "staring into the abyss". He's definitely done the reading, and is fluent with much of the basic collapse literature. If I were a better gambler, I'd put money on his being a frequent reader of r/collapse, and it shows in his slightly ahistorical collapse typology, which despite references to Joseph Tainter in the beginning and nods to civilizational patterns later on, has a more present-oriented focus. I'm actually more optimistic in that I'd put myself in his second category (and I recommend Eric Cline's recent scale in "After 1177 BC" as a more historically-informed scale).

But what makes this so fascinating isn't those quibbles - it's that despite his protestations early on, McLaren engages his pastoral and theological background fully against the reality of the polycrisis, and he articulates things on that level brilliantly in place after place. He might oversell his point of the Bible as indigenous literature of resistance somewhat, but only by a bit - it's still a compelling lens.

Fair warning - while I didn't think it's that bad, for most people, this is a downer. "50 Ways to Save The Earth and Feel Good About Yourself While Doing It", it ain't. And I fear the people who most need to read it won't, because this kind of message isn't the kind that institutional Christianity prefers. It's prophetic in every sense - yeah, it's a little scruffy, but it's the lack of slickness that gives it a sense of the Real.

If you're Christian, read it - even if you'll need a break/drink after multiple chapters. If you're not Christian, read it too.

[William Weld-Wallis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tough, but very powerful read. Not recommended for people who struggle with depression, particularly around climate change. McLaren paints a bleak picture of our future, but also offers us wisdom and encouragement to face what may be difficult years ahead, particularly for our kids and grandchildren. His suggestions on how to read Christian/Jewish scripture and sacred books of other traditions are helpful, though the book is not necessarily aimed at a faith-based audience. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter are soooo good and meaningful, as is his reliance on indigenous wisdom. The science is numbing, but the way forward is encouraging. Hope is redefined in helpful ways. I'll finish with a great poem from farmer/poet Wendell Barry that he quotes before his last chapter:

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts....
Practice resurrection.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian McLaren was a pastor for many years, writing books on spirituality, but in LIFE AFTER DOOM, he steps away from that framework to consider how we might approach the global climate crisis, and considers whether it can be done without losing hope, particularly as there are plenty of other landmines our world is facing.

"LIFE AFTER DOOM is for everyone who has reached a point where not facing their unpeaceful, uneasy, unwanted feelings about the future has become more draining than facing them."

Each chapter ends with a "Dear Reader" section, with a summary and list of questions and prompts that can be used individually or in a group.

McLaren does not shy away with hard facts, but he encourages readers to be sensitive to their reactions and step away or skip sections if necessary. Early on, McLaren outlines four likely scenarios that he then refers to throughout the remainder of the book:

Scenario 1: Collapse Avoidance
Scenario 2: Collapse/Rebirth
Scenario 3: Collapse/Survival
Scenario 4: Collapse/Extinction

Each chapter opens with a collection of quotations to set the theme, many of which I was drawn to, like this one by Vaclav Havel:

"Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing regardless of how it turns out.... [This] hope...gives us the strength to live and continually to try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now."

The "Hope is Complicated" chapter, which opens with the Havel quotation, also included this: "Miguel De La Torre says that the best alternative to hope is not despair, but desperation, 'because desperation propels me toward action.'" McLaren doesn't shy away from hard realities, but he finds ways to inject hope and perseverance in what too often feels like an impossible challenge.

LIFE AFTER DOOM is full of statistics and facts and I had to pace myself; when I hoped for brief reprieves from a contentious election season, this book was sometimes set aside for others that allowed a temporary escape from all that we are facing. Yet it is a welcome resource for anyone wanting to process the very real challenges ahead, particularly if you are interested in a pastoral perspective.

(Thank you to St. Martin's Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.)

[Lisa Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure why I read this book. In some ways, it poured gasoline on my struggle with futility. In other ways, it was a balm for the angst my soul feels in response to what feel like inevitable, impending inequities and tragedies. And in all ways, that is the point. It’s a call to grapple. To accept. To settle into the reality of what we have created. I deeply believe we did it unintentionally, but we created something unstable and unsustainable. The complexity and interconnectedness of human problems are overwhelming and in that overwhelm, we have to find personal meaning, personal direction, and personal peace. This is a book about reflection and acceptance. It’s a very hard to read. It’s also very beautiful.

Two thoughts (among many) that were inspiring to me:
“Trust beyond knowledge” - I found this a beautiful phrase and very much how I think of faith. And faith, for me, is a necessity. I have a lot more reflection to do I order to decide how this thinking and my faith fit in the same context.

“Hope is not the same as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing regardless of how it turns out…” -Václav Havel

I am not recommending this book. I can’t think of anyone I love who would want to read it. And I can’t think of anyone I love who doesn’t need to. Proceed with caution.

Audible —A careful, empathetic and impassioned reading by the author. It feels like sitting and having a conversation with him. Hardcopy- for highlighting, rereading slowly and marking. I needed the experience of both mediums.

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book from McLaren answered some of my questions why Christians have not been very concerned about climate change. One insight was the rise of dispensationalism. It taught that the world has to get destroyed so there is really no motivation to save the earth. Another insight was the merging of Christianity and capitalism. He also reminds us of the world we were taught to believe exists – one with unlimited resources to fuel economic prosperity.

My father was a logger and I really like McLaren's analogy of cutting down a big tree. You might saw and saw, moving several inches in. Nothing happens. Perhaps you come back later and saw some more. Still nothing happens. You saw a little more and suddenly you hear a crack. Perhaps the tree falls then. Perhaps it stays upright for a day or two until a wind causes the tree to go past the tipping point and it crashes to the ground. We have been sawing on the tree for some time, thinking nothing bad was happening. Now we are beginning to hear the wood cracking.

McLaren draws from a number of spiritual disciplines. His theology does not correspond to evangelical Christianity so evangelicals will probably ignore this book. That is unfortunate as McLaren encourages us, among other things, to develop critical thinking. That is a skill that would benefit us all. He also encourages us to live with wisdom and courage in the coming years.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

[Steve Worsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different to all other books I’ve read on climate, this one is about how we avoid going mad under the likely future scenarios of doom. I found chapters 5 (the roots of the unhelpful rapture theology, and the belief in unlimited progress) and 12 (Step One of the Twelve Step method – admitting we don’t have the power to change the situation) particularly helpful. Every chapter was something different. Not every chapter jumped out but each contributed to a helpful and broad thesis.

At times I wondered whether the Buddhist idea of detachment was to be the prevailing thought, but more the suggestion was that we detach from materialistic ways of thinking. At times I also wondered whether the author’s age played a role. It’s easier for him to not rage about the planet’s trajectory because he won’t be around to experience the worst of it. This may be unfair and it may be just that as much as I found his conclusions helpful, I also don’t feel ready to give up on the belief that the best of human leadership could turn this around.

Some things I highlighted:

‘There’s no rug in the world that’s big enough to sweep this under’ – Britt Wray, PHD – p15

The seven stages of climate denial:
1. It’s not real
2. It’s not us
3. It’s not that bad
4. We have time
5. It’s too expensive to fix
6. Here’s a fake solution
7. It’s too late; you should’ve warned us earlier
- Prof Mark Maslin, p15

‘Part of me wants to grab every pope, bishop, denominational executive, pastor and seminary professor by the lapels and start yelling, ‘What the frack are you doing? Arguing about theological trivialities while the world burns? Worrying about preserving organ music and quaint architecture as the sixth mass extinction is unfolding? Why aren’t you reorganising everything, rewriting every liturgy, restructuring every hierarchy and revolutionising all your priorities so that you can remobilise all your resources to help save our precious, fragile planet? Aren’t you supposed to be in the saving business? Don’t you see? Without a healthy planet, there will be no healthy people, and certainly no healthy congregations, denominations, religions… or organ music!’ – p21

‘So first the diagnosis. Our global civilisation as currently structured is unstable and unsustainable. Ecologically our civilisation sucks out too many of the Earth’s resources for the Earth to replenish, and it pumps out too much waste for the Earth to detoxify. Economically our civilisation’s financial systems are complex, interconnected, fragile and deeply dependent on continual economic growth. Without continual economic growth, financial systems will stumble towards collapse. But with economic growth we intensify and hasten ecological collapse…’ – p28,29

‘The primary problem is us. Humans don’t have an environmental problem. The environment has a human problem’ – p34

‘There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors.’ – Adrienne Rich – p59

Appreciation comes when we are confronted by loss – p63

Poetry and song can help us find sweetness in grief – p67-68

Ch 5 is great on rapture theory originating with the Plymouth Brethren and also on capitalism and the connection between the two. ‘The Chart of Ages’ is the Brethren teaching on the future that the author was taught. This is placed alongside the GDP Growth Chart – both narratives see the earth destroyed.

Re the Chart of Ages teaching: ‘Nobody seemed to care that our religious profit came at the expense of the earth, her creatures and all our fellow humans.’ – p74 ‘How was I supposed to consider the Earth, all its forests, mountains, rivers and oceans, all the creatures who live within them, creatures that as a nine year old boy I already loved… and then think that their entire reason for existence was to serve as cheap, disposable props in a drama whose only stars were God, angels and members of my religion.’ – p74 This theological narrative is ‘both socially disengaged and anti-ecological.’ – p76

Book title: ‘One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America’ – p78

Greta: ‘I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic … and act as if the house is on fire. Because it is.’ – p89 ‘In my public speaking I often feel what Greta feels. People are willing for me to speak some hard truths as long as I am sure to end on a hopeful note, reassuring them … that everything will be okay. They need me to leave them at least as happy in their relative complacency as when I found them. But here’s the catch: happy and complacent people don’t change.’ – p89

‘To live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.’ – Howard Zinn, p95

‘Zinn wasn’t presenting me with a choice between Team Hope (that thinks we can win and stay in the struggle), and Team Despair (that walks off the field before the game is over, concluding that victory is impossible)… My real choice is between Team Cruelty (Apathy/Selfishiness/Indifference) and Team Wisdom/Courage/Kindness.’ – p95

How would you spend your last 24 hours on earth? Would you want to go out in a blaze of gunfire, venting rage on every living thing? Or drink yourself to oblivion? Or be as brave and kind and good as you could to others? – Nicely worded at end of p96 & 97 (Read out this quote)

The Bible is: ‘the collective diary of an indigenous people who saw what the colonizer mindset was doing to humanity, to the Earth and to her creatures.’ – p126. Adam & Eve, as two indigenous people living close to the earth. Abraham as an indigenous person seeking a land to call home.

Climate disruption – the flood, then drought at end of Genesis. Abraham’s descendants become climate refugees – p138

‘Do you see the irony? I wanted to throw out something my civilization was using to cause harm … and then I replaced it with something else civilization can use to cause harm, namely the idea that God or the universe or the earth or the economy can bless us with unlimited resources for unlimited economic growth with no limits and no negative consequences. If this God chooses you for blessing, you can kill and oppress everyone who gets in your way. You can exploit the earth and drive as many of its creatures to extinction as you want. You can make yourself the apex predator and dominant herbivore of every ecosystem. You can ignore every scientific finding because of your faith that the Presence in which you live, move and have your being will forgive all your foolishness and deliver dependable profits every quarter as long as you keep defeating your enemies.’ – p160

‘It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work. And when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.’ – Wendell Berry, p161

Reversing her previous thought: ‘Hope is the confidence that what I fear will happen but I don’t have to be afraid.’ – p174

Take that first (AA) step: ‘Our civilization is powerless over our cheap energy addiction; our civilization has become unmanageable and needs to be restored to sanity.’ ‘So far all, or nearly all of our fixes, all of our plans to heal the planet… use the same logic that got us into this mess.’ – p185

‘Are we willing to discount the immeasurable value of uncountable [future] human lives (humans, animals, plants, ecosystems) to squeeze out a few more decades of comfort for ourselves? Might it be better for collapse to happen now?’ – p188

‘It’s a paradox, both ironic and tragic: if we keep fueling our civilization with fossil fuels, we destroy the ecological balance on which our civilization depends. But we cannot stop fueling our civilization with fossil fuels because both the elites and the masses are too comfortable with the status quo and want to keep it going… just a little longer.’ – p202

‘We shift our imaginative energies from averting collapse to building life rafts and arks of sanity, resilience and morality. Then we can make it through a turbulent passage in the company of people who share humane values and creative vision. If we survive we become midwives of new ways of life on the other side, budding ecological communities, piloting multiple ways for humanity to live as part of Team Earth rather than writing a cliched script for a rerun of overshoot.’ – p212

Imagine you could be transported back to the Middle Ages. Read out quote from bottom 218: ‘Where I am from there are buildings where people go to have their diseases healed. They receive new hearts and kidneys…’ ‘Your words would seem like a fantasy’. You respond: ‘Your political system would need to crumble. There will be many wars… eventually there will be no more kings, queens, lords, nobles or serfs.’ - p219

‘There is some good in this world Mr Frodo … and it’s worth fighting for.’ – p252

‘It is a magnificent thing to be alive in a moment that matters so much.’ – Ayana Johnson & Katharine Wilkinson, p267

‘Indigenous prophet and contemplative activist, Jesus’ – p285

Read out summary of whole book from p292, para that begins, ‘First you start waking up…’

‘We have multiple uncertainties and there is a lot we can do.’ – Caroline Hickman, p299

9 things we can do from p304

[hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

thank you to my friend teresa for recommending this beautiful book. it absolutely impacted my mindset about our impending collapse. i am someone who spends a significant portion of her brain power fretting over climate disaster and the fall of civilization, and this book has helped me gain some peace over it--something i never thought i would say. brian mclaren was able to tackle the issue with so much grace and gentleness, and i cannot explain to you how much i needed to read this book.

first, i appreciate how he didn't shy away from the grief and heartbreak that comes from waking yourself up to the reality of the situation we're in. to have that overwhelming feeling of despair, sadness, and anxiety validated was extremely important to me. throughout the book, he didn't sugarcoat things--but he also didn't give into the fear and hopelessness that so easily comes when you're aware.. obviously, hearing that it is unlikely that we avoid climate collapse all together is upsetting, but i'd much rather have someone who has the courage to get real about the situation we're in (and is able to deliver that information with grace and love) than someone who tries to convince us it'll all be okay. too often i have heard people much older than me brush off my fears, telling me that we couldn't possibly experience collapse, and that honestly hurts worse than someone directly telling me that they agree collapse of some sort is pretty much inevitable. having brian, a 69-year-old, plainly state what i have known for years was like getting a comforting hug from a grandparent.

despite the enormity of this grief, brian was able to help readers navigate through that, with tips on how to be aware of your nervous system and how to appreciate what we have and have lost. if i didn't love animals, nature, and this world so much, i wouldn't be struggling. i hope to learn how to balance my overwhelming despair with love for everything i've had, have, and will have in the future. i just really loved this chapter about how grief shows us what's important, how it can help us heal, and how it can inspire us to make better choices in the future.

brian also tackled the issue of hope in this book. similarly to what was discussed in What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, a book i read earlier this year, hope is complicated. it's important so that we don't give into doomerism, but we need to make sure that we don't allow hope to let us get lazy in the present. hope needs to be active; we can't cling to some vision of a better future without actively fighting for it now.

he included some extremely interesting ideas about indigenous wisdom and the bible. i am not religious, and i have a history of side-eyeing christianity, but i adored his indigenous interpretation of the bible. (actually, it was one of the chapters that gave me the most hope despite all my baggage with christianity.) i think his interpretation makes the most sense; jesus was a kind person who cared for and sat with the outsiders of society. he would not enjoy all the wealth hoarding that's happening in his name today. i loved how he pointed out that some christians use jesus as a way to excuse all the terrible things happening. they are groomed to expect terror and turmoil before his return, so it's incredibly easy for them to throw their hands up and say that this is all part of the plan. they don’t have to worry about making earth a better place, since there’s already a perfect place waiting for them when they die. at best, it creates complacency and encourages people to ignore the role they have in shaping the world.

chapter 18 made me sob. despite all of this, all of the suffering, it can be a catalyst for mutual liberation for all of us. without the destruction of the old ways, newer, more beautiful ways can't emerge. one of my favorite quotes from this book is: "I realized I am no longer interested in saving this civilization. I am interested in saving something else." i spend so much time pre-grieving the loss of this society, but i am not even happy here most of the time! there are bigger things, so much more than this capitalist hellscape, and they are the things worth saving.

(another quote i loved is this one:
"In times like these, many things become too late. For example, it is already too late to keep CO2 levels below 350 parts per million. If it is not too late already, it will very soon be too late to keep Earth's temperatures below the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit proposed by scientists in Paris in 2015. It will be too late to save this coastline or that ecosystem, this city or that species, this democracy or that economy. But it is not too late to love, and it never will be. Love will count, no matter what. Even on the last day of the world. In fact, as I imagine a last day for the world, it strikes me that love shown on that day matters no less than love shown on any other day. It may even matter more. Love to a frightened child. Love to a whimpering stray puppy. Love to a withering plant or a wounded bird. Love to the terrified parts of oneself." this means so much to me. we will lose things, we might lose everything, but there will always be love. in fact, i just started tearing up and getting goosebumps while writing that out. )

another chapter that really impacted me was the one about how we are not the first ones here. many civilizations have collapsed before, and there's nothing about this one that is particularly special. we are just humans, living in a weird time, but there were humans long before us who were ALSO living in weird times. (and, as he mentioned, people like the Indigenous tribes of america already went through a collapse of their society). it may seem morbid, but it seriously helped me come to terms with what's happening. it seems extra important because i'm here, now, (and also because climate change threatens the entire world), but it's really not. somehow, the zoomed out idea of humanity as a whole has calmed me and helped me put things into perspective. we're just part of continuum. societies have collapsed before, and people have continued living through it.

i loved all the different ideas he wrote about to help us cope with what's happening. the idea that change has always been constant (and not things), that our denial of death hurts our species, that we are just wax and wick, how to appreciate things NOW, how we can avoid jumping to conclusions, the importance of building strong relationships, how to start detangling our identities from our current civilization, how to use our powerlessness as a way to inspire new ideas, etc... i felt like i gleaned so many important concepts from all these chapters, and their resources will be extremely helpful in the coming years. (he also included SIX appendixes full of resources on collapse, biases we have as humans, how to encourage and lead discussions, how to create a plan for yourself, and how to talk to children about this. i was so moved by the letter he wrote to his grandchildren. once again, i am thankful people like brian exist, people who are willing to be real with their younger loved ones about the urgency of our situation and still move with grace and love.) he also brought up the connection between climate collapse and fascism, and how they feed into each other as times become more unstable.

overall, i adored this book. it is such an important read in these times, and i will happily recommend it to anyone i know who is struggling with the overwhelm of what’s coming. brian mclaren, thank you so much for this book.

[Bob Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian McLaren has written a book with an unflinching description of the doom awaiting our civilization and planet. Then gives his best insights on how to move forward within the knowledge of this doom.

His discussion of hope is enlightening and the idea that our best action is to totally embrace each moment is inspiring.

While I am sure some might disagree with some of the particulars, I would recommend this book as a good point to anchor your thoughts and begin to live intentionally and enthusiastically in the present.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC.

[Jenny Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well researched and persuasive book. I found it difficult to read and at times felt completely helpless/hopeless in this world of ‘overshoot’ (and the author does warn this).

But, as McLaren walks the reader down into the reality of ‘doom’ he skilfully paves a new way of hope summed up in a re-quote from Francis of Assisi ‘I have done what is mine to do. May Christ teach you what is yours’.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book kicked my ass, but in a good way. I've felt really frustrated with the state of the world for a while, and I feel like this book helped me start to figure out ways to attempt to change or reframe the problems I see. It is written from a Christian perspective, as that is McLaren's background, but is affirming of other belief traditions and atheism.

[Rob Cusick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another thought provoking book from Brian McLaren. It does not sugar coat the predicament we are in , but also offers many practical ways we can deal with the doom we are facing. This outstanding author never fails to make me think in new ways and consider my own biases and shortcomings. I highly recommend !

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book that faces head on the fact of man made climate change yet providing wisdom and courage on how to respond

[Suveah :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

torn between 3 and 4 stars. maybe a 3.5? made me feel sad about how willfully oblivious my parents choose to be

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book on how to respond to our present ecological overshoot.

[Kathy Foley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is hard to rate. It is very depressing but honest. Our concern for the environment must grow and actions happen.

[Ruthie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian D. McLaren's Life After Doom presents the climate crisis realistically. While the book includes too much philosophical and quasi- religious rumination and would've been better as a long, focused essay (or a shorter book) about practical preparations for and responses to likely scenarios, it does offer a few helpful takeaways. In the most pointed couple of chapters, McLaren identifies practical strategies for "safe landings and new beginnings," that underscore the need for imagination and integrity no matter where global climate change takes us. The footnotes are pretty good throughout. I wish the bibliography was more extensive, but it's a start. I found the appendices useful.

This book won't convince the skeptic. It does, however, have concrete suggestions and pragmatic resources for the already convinced.

3.5 stars

[Stephanie Pack · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - This book is like memento mori on a global, societal, and ecological scale. Brian McLaren’s words are prophetic, precise, and painful. I can’t recommend this book unless you are prepared to be shaken awake to reality and ready to scrutinize your role in the destiny of our species. This book was hard to read for a lot of reasons but I kept being comforted by the authors compassionate and loving voice. This was written from a place of love and I won’t be the same after reading it.

P.S. DO NOT READ IT ALONE

[Bertus Tichelaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blog n.a.v. 'Life after doom' van Brian McLaren
Leven na de ondergang - dat is de intrigerende titel van dit nieuwe boek van Brian McLaren. In de letterlijke zin is er weinig leven na de ondergang. Maar 'doom' is hier vooral een ervaring, een stemming, het gevoel dat de toekomst hopeloos en gevaarlijk is, en dan eerst en vooral door de klimaatcrisis.

Brian McLaren weet die ervaring heel goed woorden te geven. Wij mensen plegen ecocide, dat is de allerkortste samenvatting. Maar Brian McLaren is niet voor niets ook altijd een pionier geweest op het veld van kerk en theologie. En daarom probeert hij elke individuele lezer ook hoop en liefde mee te geven. Of vooral: om die hoop en liefde in praktijk te brengen. Dan verspreiden miljoenen kleine kaarsjes toch een heel groot licht.

Wat mij betreft een inspirerend boek

Wat mij opviel tijdens het lezen:

“Doom is the emotional and intellectual experience shared by all who acknowledge the dangerous future into which we are presently plunging ourselves, our descendants and our fellow creatures.”

“Four movements became the four parts of this book: letting go (a path of descent), letting be (a place of insight), letting come (a path of resilience) and setting free (a path of agile engagement).”

Letting go – a path of descent

“I became convinced that human civilization as we knew it was destroying itself. It was on a suicidal, eco-cidal trajectory arcing towards the collapse of the global ecosystems upon which we depend.”

“Our future will likely follow one of the following four scenarios. (…) Scenario 1: Collapse Avoidance. (…) our current civilization will continue to destabilize the Earth’s life-support systems, and failing life-support will continue to destabilize civilization, creating a downward spiral in both the environment and in civilization. (…) Scenario 2: Collapse/Rebirth: our civilization will not respond with sufficient energy, unity and wisdom to restabilize our environment and to live within environmental limits. (…) Scenario 3: Collapse/Survival: our global civilization will collapse and humans who survive will face a tenuous future on a decimated Earth. (…) Scenario 4 Collapse/Extinction: As Earth’s environment continues to deteriorate, human civilization will descend into a highly destructive collapse process. (…) In all of these scenarios, the primary problem is not the environment. The primary problem is us. (…) We have built a fast-growing, complex, expensive, unequal, resource-hungry, fragile, fractious and weaponized civilization that is a threat both to the environment and to itself.”

“We need to face what we know. And we need to face what we don’t know. Only what is faced can be changed. That is why I say, and I hope you will join me, Welcome to reality.”

“We can learn to drop down into the sweet current of deep grief that helps u appreciate – to know, to praise and more fully to love – all that we are losing, all that may soon be lost.”

“The only rational explanation for our inaction, future historians will conclude, was that we are all victims of brainwashing – a combination of religious and economic brainwashing.”

“My real choice is between Team Cruelty (of Team Apathy of Team Selfishness o Team Indifference) and Team Wisdom, Courage and Kindness.”

Letting be – a place of insight

“To put is bluntly, our civilization is colonialism, and colonialism is our civilization. Our civilization is supremacy (racial, religious, ideological, national or human), and supremacy is our civilization.”

“Jesus was an indigenous man, part of a people rooted in the land who had resisted arrogant tyrants and colonizing civilizations since Pharaoh. (…) The Bible is the collective diary of an indigenous people who saw what the colonizer mindset was doing to humanity, to Earth and to her creatures. (…) Trying tot live like gods leads to doom. (…) The Ten Commandments can be read as a how-to manual for a sustainable society.”

“Here’s what I believe the experience of doom is helping us to see: we can live reverently, gratefully and humbly with the Earth as a bountiful garden, and we can experience it as a loving source and abiding parental presence (Father God and Mother Earth) … or we can turn that garden into a hellscape that we experience as a raging, angry parent of jilted lover that hates us and wants us gone.”

“We are candles, just wax and wick. But now, at this moment, we are aflame!”

“Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

Letting come – a path of resilience

“If we let go of exploitation and conservation (…) we can pour our energy into what can live on beyond us. What that might be, we cannot know. We can only dream.”

“We need good people exercising fresh imagination in three arenas – repair, adaptation and imagination.”

“It only takes two of three of us to create a little island of composure in a climate of chaos. (..) we will have to pursue strength of character. (…) We will need to develop the skills of interdependence. (…) We will need courage, especially the courage to differ graciously. (…) We will have to discover new depths of the human spirit. Call it religion, call it spirituality, call It contemplation or centredness – whatever we call it, we’re going to need is.”

Setting free – a path of agile engagement

“Beauty abounds. (…) Religious communities can help people go forward on an inward migration towards sovereignty of mind, where in defiance of a rising level of ugliness, people cultivate beauty – seeing it, creating it, savoring it. (…) There is so much goodness in the world, goodness worth savin, my friends, abounding beauty worth living for today.”

“I want you to know that even though I understand why people give up hope, I am not giving up. Even if I give up hope on our current civilization, I am not giving up on you, I am not giving up on humanity, and I’m not giving up on this beautiful world.”

“It is not too late to love, and it never will be. Love will count, no matter what. Even on the last day of the world.”

“We must fit in this planet. We must adapt to her will and ways, instead of always demanding that she submit to our will and ways. We must live within limits, for we are accountable to a power greater than ourselves. (…) Meanwhile, the divine economy … the divine ecosystem of interdependence and sharing, the holy and harmonious arrangement of life in which wildflowers and ravens live and thrive … it goes on. That’s where to put your heart.”

“We need to talk about doom. (…) But in the end, doom isn’t the point. The dram is. (…) Focus on life, and remember the dream. Tell them about the dream.”

“Each of us has the opportunity to change what we can, beginning with the kind of energy we ‘run’ on in the deepest parts of ourselves.”

“In my dream, our life-giving connection to each other and to the living Earth would be fundamental, central and sacred, and everything else, from economies to governments to schools to religions, would be renegotiated to flow from that fundamental connection.”

“We need a billion different people doing a billion different things to make a billion places better today.”

[Lory Hess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve joined the Nonfiction Reader Challenge hosted by Book’d Out, and with my very first read I decided to take on the scariest topic: The Future!

Brian McLaren pulls no punches with the title of his forthcoming book, Life After Doom. The topic may be alarming — the coming environmental collapse, which may come in a variety of forms, none of them pleasant — but rather than staying at a safe distance while laying down the uncomfortable truth, he composes his book as if it’s a conversation with the reader. There is plenty of objective information and science, with abundant footnotes, but McLaren also shares his own thoughts and feelings and experiences, his fears and dreams, even a letter he wrote his grandchildren. He doesn’t claim to have all the answers, and he looks with compassion and curiosity at the strange ways human beings shield themselves from the truth. After each short chapter, he adds questions for individuals or groups to engage with, as we struggle to face uncertainty.

The basic message is that to get through whatever is coming — and nobody really knows what that is, except that it’s the end of the world as we know it — we have to turn towards each other and support one another. People who hole up in survival bunkers and pick off the others with guns will end up in a lonely, aggressive world. Is that the world you want? Or could you imagine a different future, one where you even went to your death while putting love and care for others above everything else? A foolish idea, one might say, but we haven’t done so well with conventional wisdom. Maybe it’s time to try being foolish.

What is happening now on an outer level is a revelation of our long-standing inner orientation toward the exploitation of others for personal gain. This is the worship of the God of progress, in what McLaren identifies as an unholy modern alliance of capitalism and religion. It’s an aberration of religion, really, warped to turn humanity’s striving toward knowledge of its own eternal nature into a short-sighted, selfish quest for survival. Perhaps we can imagine a different deity, a different ideal — the ideal of evolution. How can we participate consciously in our own evolution? That is our challenge today, and it’s an immense gift as well as a sobering responsibility.

McLaren has some sobering words to say about hope: people want and need hope, but when hope puts them off from taking action, it can be self-defeating. (This section reminded me of a verse by Rudolf Steiner which speaks of “the wings that have long been lamed by hope.”) Hoping that someone else will fix what we are responsible for puts us in the power of the forces adversarial to humanity. The hope we need is not a wishing for a better future we don’t have to work for, but a hands-on knowledge of the indomitable strength in the human spirit. That comes only through working together in community, and McLaren’s suggestion for inspiring hope is to start working with others. Even two or three at a time, we can make a difference.

I suspect that any reader will find things in this book to disagree with. I disagree with some of McLaren’s fundamental premises, above all with the notion that maybe after all the Earth would be better off without us, and we should come to peace with that possibility. He lyrically imagines the beauty that would remain if we were gone, but who would be there to see that beauty? There is no beauty on Earth without the human souls in which it comes to life. The Earth would be an empty, dead shell without us.

That’s why we must do our utmost to come through the coming challenges, holding fast to the human mission, which is resurrection from death. To live our lives in a way that gives life to others and to the Earth as a whole is our task, not infinite personal survival. As we face our doom, we might also find out who we really are. And that is a hope worth having, in my view.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We are heading into dark times, and you need to be your own light. Do not accept brutality and cruelty as normal even if it is sanctioned. Protect the vulnerable and encourage the afraid. If you are brave, stand up for others. If you cannot be brave-and it is often hard to be brave-be kind." Sarah Kendzior

McLaren states in the introduction that Life After Doom is for everyone who has reached a point where NOT facing their unpeaceful, uneasy, unwanted feelings about the future has become more draining that facing them. It's for anyone who understands that we've entered a dangerous time, and we need to prepare ourselves to face that danger with wisdom, courage, character, and compassion."

McLaren defines the “unpeaceful, uneasy, unwanted feeling” that “we humans have made a mess of our civilization and our planet, and not enough of us seem to care enough to change deeply enough or quickly enough to save ourselves” as doom. Doom, indeed.

And while this book is definitely a warning about the unaddressed ecological crisis we've created, it's much broader than that. It considers many of the crises we're facing, and the darkness and turbulence we must navigate as a result.

And here's the thing, during turbulent times, people grow afraid and that fears creates its own kind of energy, as Sarah Kendzior, an anthropologist, describes it. And McLaren points out that if we don't learn how to control the psychological energy of our own fear and resentment, we can be sure others will exploit our emotional energy for their own selfish and destructive projects. Guess who excels at manipulating the energy of fear and resentment...if you guessed authoritarians, bingo. So if you're still wondering how Trump pulled off a win, fear mongering and exploiting that fear has a lot to do with it.

McLaren, in a beautifully pastoral style, gently guides the reader through an exploration of what ails us and how to respond. He turns the conventional idea of "hope" on its head, and "hope" it better for it. He contrasts motivations for staying engaged and love comes out the winner. He provides spiritual guidance for using the Bible as a resource for how to love well, and alerts the us to the dangers of reading scripture from the position of a conqueror, as we tend to do in the West even without realizing it.

He walks the reader through the rise of "dispensationalism" and the use of this End Times worldview to justify the hardheartedness of so many conservative Evangelicals in regards to creation care and ecological injustice. Fascinating and deeply disturbing.

He encourages engagement with the wisdom of indigenous peoples to gain a deeper appreciation for creation. I highly recommend Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer as a resource. McLaren does too.

He challenges the reader to develop their own path forward with practical suggestions for consideration. That chapter alone is worth the book!

If you're open to exploring the consequences of exploiting the world's natural resources and committing various injustices, and you're looking for wisdom and insight to help shape your response, this book is of you.

[Ryan Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life After Doom

3/2025.

I’ve read a lot of Brian McLaren’s recent contributions to Father Richard Rohr’s daily meditations, and was generally aware of his other works. Here, he steps fully into a recognition of the possibilities of civilization’s collapse, mostly with a focus on the ecological and economic issues mankind faces a quarter of the way through the century. These are all clearly interlinked, as the growth-crazed financial system compels short term ecological damage with a goal of externalizing negative impacts like resource overconsumption and creation of a toxic ecology.

He does this with great care and professionalism. He doesn’t exploit the coming disasters to prescribe his solutions, but rather is very empathetic with the audience and offers a supportive arm to lean on as we process the new and emerging reality.

How to process this shocking emergent reality? McLaren gives us contemplation as an important tool for us, and I agree. To be able to “observe” and not “deal with” or “judge” is a critical skill for what we have to do in response to the critical moment we face. He also shows that the “religious industrial complex” has done more than its share of damage by getting people to accept and even hope for Earth’s demise. It’s “both socially disengaged and anti-ecological.” When you think that’s a precursor to being in Heaven, it’s a price you might be willing to pay.

Chapter 6 seems to be the central principle around which the book comes together. Hope is good, when it’s real. But false hope can trick us into inaction. Despair can also compel action, because it liberates us to do what’s right.

In chapters 9 and 10 he gives us a good way to reframe our way of thinking about the Bible and religion, as a collection of indigenous wisdom that stands in opposition to a civilization that overshoots its ecological limits and enables oppressors. As a former evangelical, this gives me hope that there’s still goodness worth retaining and something salvageable about my faith tradition.

In chapter 11, McLaren helps us reframe our perspective on death, to one that accepts the eventual embrace of death on all that lives, so that new life can begin. We should stop living like gods trying to attain immortality and accept that we are impermanent. In this way, even the worst case scenario for mankind odds part of a bigger unceasing event of life itself.

Throughout, helps us reach detachment from the current civilizational construct and recognize we exist beyond it and life itself is what is worth keeping. There is no grand plan for saving us, because it’s too hard for us to break free from the values and assumptions that got us here in the first place (even a rapid decarbonization might offer a delay but not a reprieve from collapse). Embracing that we can adapt to a new, if tougher, world is key to accepting that we can move on. Even without a master plan, our individual and collective action can make things go better or worse for all of us.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s the end of the world as we know it. And we’re not fine.

So what can we do?

In Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart, (galley received as part of early review program), Brian McLaren considers our present predicament and how we might deal with it.

He began by describing the possible ways climate change and civilization plays out. Some of the models involve a lot of suffering but most of us would find them not entirely intolerable. Some of the models involve the complete collapse of everything we hold dear, and ourselves.

For many this is all overhyped and excessive. It won’t be that bad, they think. It can’t be that bad. This kind of bargaining is common, as the author well knows, and has experienced himself. None of us want to think it could be that bad. No one can really imagine the end of everything he or she knows.

But that hasn’t ever been able to stop it when things do get that bad, and everything a person knows is gone. Ask the Israelites of the Exile. Ask the western world of the fifth and sixth centuries.

But the book is about life after doom. How to live in light of all these matters? The author addresses the way things are and how they have come about. He points out how we got here because of our colonialist/dominionist heritage of exploitation. He wants us to call in the poets. He wants us to heed indigenous wisdom - although his definition of “indigenous,” which probably does not originate with him, is pretty expansive. He would like to appeal beyond the religious, but the author’s heritage in Christianity and that perspective informs everything. He wants to prepare you for the end of everything; how well one might feel prepared by the end is another story.

But he does not want it to be all about doom and despair. He wants to encourage hope in doing what can be done. The author does well to remind us how this will not be the end of the world: it would seem the earth has been as hot as it is now before, and much more. The earth will persevere until the Lord comes; it might just not be as amenable or comfortable for us. So whatever we can do can at least marginally improve our conditions and perhaps also for the future. We live at arguably one of the greatest times to be alive; our goal should not be to enjoy everything to the hurt and harm of all who come afterward, but to find ways to conserve and preserve our environment.

It is harder today to deny the changes to our climate than it was a decade ago; no doubt it will continually prove harder to deny them, despite all the work of those who profit by the status quo to try to do so. We do well to consider how we can live within our means as human beings on a finite planet without depleting all the finite resources. We cannot know exactly what will be; but, as in all things, we do best when we are prepared for the worst while doing what we can to make it for the best.

[Aaron West · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd been meaning to read Brian McLaren's work for some time now. After Election Day, when it felt as though the bottom had dropped out from under the United States, Ben and I headed to Cleveland to reflect, get away, and recover from the tumult that will inevitably be coming in January. This book waited patiently and quietly on the display shelf in one of our favorite bookstores, and, resigned, I picked it up hoping it would speak something of wisdom in what feels like an alternate universe of stupidity and destruction.

The book was good, well meaning, earnest. Good in the sense that McLaren is well-read and cares deeply about his work in the world. He doesn't sugar coat much of what he writes about; the book takes on the idea of doom in the sense of almost inevitable environmental and climate destruction. He lays out these possibilities in four scenarios, ranging from ideas based on humans' ability to come together to avoid the worse (despite still facing significant upheaval), to our eventual and complete extinction as a species on an earth destined to be exhausted of most, if not all, life.

I appreciate that McLaren doesn't shy away from inevitabilities we face; it's not a naïve book, though his tone sometimes reads as a little earnest or simplistic (though not all that often). Ben used a good word to help me describe the content of this book as "elemental," and I thought that fit very well. McLaren is writing to an audience that might just be starting out in this discussion or even challenging people just beginning their journey in existential questions of survival and making it as a species. I imagine this book being read by book clubs in progressive mainline denominations--mostly by older white liberals who want to do well but aren't immersed in these circles already.

I think McLaren's take on hope as not a pass for complacency or something cheap was refreshing to read. I appreciate his references of marginalized authors and/or indigenous thinkers/workers/experts of color. His discussion of the Bible as indigenous literature was an interesting choice, but his reliance on indigenous voices overall and his insistence that we learn from poets and indigenous leaders and tradition was an important inclusion in this book.

After reading I don't feel necessarily changed, but there were some introductory ideas to contemplation in these pages that would be really useful for older relatives or friends who are just too busy to think about such things regularly but could use the encouragement and freedom that accepting and letting go of what we cannot change (but still working to change what we can for the best). It's a book of important ideas and some good wisdom, too.

[Gretchen Garrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I dream that the wisdom of indigenous people, the wisdom of St. Francis and St. Clare and the Buddha and Jesus, the wisdom of climate scientists and ecologists and spiritual visionaries from all faiths could be welcomed into every heart. Then we would look across this planet and see not economic resources, but our sacred relations ... brother dolphin and sister humpback whale, swimming in our majestic indigo oceans, with sister gull and brother frigate bird soaring above them beneath the blue sky. We would look across the land, and walk across sister meadow and brother forest, feel our kinship with brother bald eagle and box turtle, sister song sparrow and swallowtail butterfly, all our relations."

Ecological viewpoint: McLaren is a former pastor who wants to save the earth from doom. His book contains lots of research about ways that the earth could be protected. I agree with him that sometimes people (including religious folk) can be too flippant about how we take care of nature. There are ways that we could extend resources by being more conscientious. 4 stars

Worldview: McLaren is a bit all over the map in his background. He professes to value faith, but he also seems to believe in evolution and the Big Bang. Those two viewpoints seem to collide. He seems to think that if we could put aside our differences that changes could be made. He seems to see man as kind rather than prone to fighting and destruction. He quotes many different sources whose views seem incompatible. 2.5 stars

Biblical references: Of all the books quoted in this non-fiction title, the Bible appears the most. But McLaren does not seem to fully believe in what the Bible says. Heaven and he** do not make sense to him. Jesus seems to be heralded as just another prophet. Either one believes the Bible or doesn't. The in between perspective is confusing. 1 star

After I finished this book, I almost felt depressed. I am not sure there can be life after doom on this earth. I am holding out for the hope of heaven that Jesus my Savior offers to me upon my belief.

Final rating: 2.2 stars He is a decent writer, but his views are confusing. Unless the reader has a similar perspective of keeping religion in its place, frustration will result. Other than being challenged to be a better steward, I did not walk away with increased knowledge or hope.

I did read this book through NetGalley. Originally, I wanted to read this book, but I was less certain about the book the more I read. There was definitely some skimming going on just so I could complete it. All opinions are my own.

[Smooth Via · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brian McLaren presents a thoughtful, if somewhat bleak, exploration of our current environmental predicament. As a primer on the realities of global warming and the often-frustrating landscape of environmental activism, the book serves its purpose well. McLaren's writing is clear and accessible, making complex issues digestible for a broad audience. He effectively outlines the interconnectedness of ecological, social, and spiritual crises, prompting readers to confront the gravity of our situation.
However, a central thesis of the book is the assertion that hope is counterproductive and a hindrance to genuine action. McLaren argues that hope often leads to complacency, a false sense of security that prevents us from facing the harsh realities of our circumstances. While McLaren's intent is to jolt us into action, his dismissal of hope feels profoundly misguided.
This stance struck me as not only disheartening but fundamentally erroneous. To suggest that we abandon hope is to deny a core element of the human spirit. I found myself disagreeing with McLaren and instead aligning with the profound wisdom of individuals like Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor whose work demonstrated the vital role of hope in human resilience. Frankl's experiences and writings stand as a powerful testament to the fact that people cannot survive, let alone thrive, without a sense of purpose and a belief in a better future.
Furthermore, it is surprising that McLaren (a former pastor) ignores what Scripture says about hope in Romans 5: "Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope; and hope does not put us to shame."
This passage, and countless others, emphasize that hope is not a naive illusion but a powerful and sustaining force, grounded in a deeper reality. It is not a denial of suffering but a means of enduring it, transforming it into something meaningful.
While "Life After Doom" is a valuable contribution to the conversation surrounding environmentalism, its dismissal of hope feels like a critical misstep. The challenges we face are immense, but it is precisely in such times that hope becomes most essential. It is not a substitute for action, but rather the fuel that sustains it. We need not choose between realism and hope; we need both, working in tandem, to navigate the difficult path ahead.