Jesus At 2000

by Marcus J. Borg (Editor)

On February 9-10, 1996, six internationally known Jesus scholars participated in the first national symposium to commemorate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus. Talking about the historical, religious, and cultural significance of Jesus, these scholars drew mass media attention and inspired a phenomenally successful follow-up discussion group on the Internet. Jesus at 2000 makes the symposium available to those seeking an introduction to the controversial historical study of Jesus and Christian origins and to those wishing to examine the intricacies of this New Testament scholarship more carefully.In addition to the papers presented by Marcus J. Borg, John Dominic Crossan, Alan F. Segal, Harvey Cox, Karen Jo Torjesen, and Huston Smith, this book includes questions from the symposium as well as a concluding chapter that introduces the historical study of Jesus and Christian origins to the newly curious. Readers will appreciate the wide range of perspectives offered, from historical Jesus scholarship to Jewish studies, early Christian history, world religions, and religion and culture. Written for a general audience, the book will be useful in both academic and church settings for those wanting to know what the academy is saying about Jesus.

Genres: Christianity, Religion, New Testament

188 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Borg was born into a Lutheran family of Swedish and Norwegian descent, the youngest of four children. He grew up in the 1940s in North Dakota and attended Concordia College, Moorhead, a small liberal arts school in Moorhead, Minnesota. While at Moorhead he was a columnist for the school paper and held forth as a conservative. After a close reading of the Book of Amos and its overt message of social equality he immediately began writing with an increasingly liberal stance and was eventually invited to discontinue writing his articles due to his new-found liberalism. He did graduate work at Union Theological Seminary and obtained masters and DPhil degrees at Oxford under G. B. Caird. Anglican bishop N.T. Wright had studied under the same professor and many years later Borg and Wright were to share in co-authoring The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, an amicable study in contrast. Following a period of religious questioning in his mid-thirties, and numinous experiences similar to those described by Rudolf Otto, Borg became active in the Episcopal Church, in which his wife, the Reverend Canon Marianne Wells-Borg, serves as a priest and directs a spiritual development program at the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, Oregon. On May 31, 2009, Borg was installed as the first canon theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

Marcus J. Borg is Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, OR. Internationally known in both academic and church circles as a biblical and Jesus scholar, he was Hundere Chair of Religion and Culture in the Philosophy Department at Oregon State University until his retirement in 2007.

Described by The New York Times as "a leading figure in his generation of Jesus scholars," he has appeared on NBC's "Today Show" and “Dateline,” PBS's "Newshour," ABC’s “Evening News” and “Prime Time” with Peter Jennings, NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, and several National Geographic programs. A Fellow of the Jesus Seminar, he has been national chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature and co-chair of its International New Testament Program Committee, and is past president of the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars. His work has been translated into eleven languages: German, Dutch, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, Russian, and French. His doctor's degree is from Oxford University, and he has lectured widely overseas (England, Scotland, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Israel and South Africa) and in North America, including the Chautauqua and Smithsonian Institutions.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A REVISED TRANSCRIPT OF SIX SCHOLARS' PRESENTATIONS

Marcus J. Borg (born 1942) is a fellow of the Jesus Seminar, and former Professor at Oregon State University before his retirement in 2007; he has written/cowritten/edited many other books, such as 'Jesus: a New Vision,' 'Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time,' 'Jesus in Contemporary Scholarship,' 'The Meaning Of Jesus - Two Visions,' etc.

Editor Borg wrote in the Preface to this 1997 book, "This book is one of the results of 'Jesus at 2000,' the first nationwide scholarly symposium commemorating the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus... 'Jesus at 2000' not only featured six internationally known scholars in dialogue with a capacity crowd at Oregon State [University] but was also telecast live by satellite to over three hundred downlink sites across the continent. It was a record-setting event: Never before have so many people at one time taken part of a scholarly discussion of Jesus and his significance... Although this book had its origin in the lectures given at 'Jesus at 2000,' it is not a transcript of what was said on that occasion... the authors were free to revise their lectures... Each lecture was followed by approximately thirty minutes of questions..." (Pg. ix)

The six scholars are Marcus Borg; John Dominic Crossan ['The Historical Jesus']; Alan F. Segal ['Paul the Convert']; Karen Jo Torjesen ['When Women Were Priests']; Harvey Cox ['The secular City']; and Huston Smith ['The Religions of Man'].

Borg was asked, "You said that the stories of Jesus' birth are powerfully true and yet not historical fact. How can that be?" and he replied, "I don't equate truth with historical truth. In this respect, I am like the Native American storyteller who begins his tribe's story of creation by saying, 'Now I don't know if it happened this way or not, but I know this story is true.'" (Pg. 17)

Later, Borg says, "I mention that I am a Christian in part to inform the reader about my own religious stance, but also to emphasize that I have no difficulty reconciling this way of seeing the Gospels and Jesus with being a Christian." (Pg. 122)

Crossan states, "I give one example of what happens when historical Jesus research is undertaken with neither criteria nor methodology. Ben Witherington III has recently written a review ['The Jesus Quest'] of about twenty scholarly studies of the historical Jesus. They all fail, he says, because they see a PART rather than the WHOLE. But the whole, for Witherington, is the full Jesus of the complete canonical tradition.

"In one sense, of course, that is absolutely correct... That is the WHOLE, but it is also not the question, which is, What of all that whole goes back to the historical Jesus?... Witherington ... has to reconcile a message from Jesus that says the Kingdom is present, the Kingdom is future, the Kingdom is imminent, and the Kingdom comes I know not when..." (Pg. 32)

Torjesen was asked about a possible Jesus/India connection, and replied, "I'm intrigued with the India connection, but I don't see any reason to connect it particularly with Jesus. There is an India connection in Alexandria in Egypt. Pantinius, the head of the first Christian catechetical school in Alexandria, was a missionary to India... intellectual exchange might have gone on between India and the Christian and philosophical schools in Alexandria." (Pg. 86)

Smith suggests, "fundamentalism would not have arisen had it not been provoked by secular excesses that... overlook the fact that truth is the whole. It is not true that the earliest accounts of Jesus are the most reliable; even the latest can present Jesus in a more reflective manner." (Pg. 115)

This is an interesting collection of somewhat diverse views, that will be of considerable interest to anyone studying the historical Jesus, and his implications for modern Christianity.

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

The authors present this book as the result of religious scholars of different backgrounds coming together to study Jesus from a historical and religious perspective. That's partially true, but what they don't tell you in the book is that the traditional Christian perspective has been excluded. Many of the authors are atheists or Jews, and all of the authors who identify as Christians don't believe Jesus is the only path to salvation. In other words, the traditional evangelical perspective has been included in name only. The book is geared towards people studying Jesus from an academic perspective, and many of the authors use this as an opportunity to show off how many big words they know without explaining anything that they're saying. To his credit, Marcus Borg did bother to explain all of the terms he mentioned in his chapter, but this was the exception rather than the rule. The only use I see for this book is to have a better understanding of false teachers, and even then, this is a long and boring way to do so.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent scholarly book about Jesus with lots of information from various authors many of whom are Jesus Seminar scholars. Writing is clear and fairly easy to understand. I only had to reread parts of the information. I especially liked the variety of perspectives offered in this book. I am just reading God At 2000 now.

[Trey Nowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent explanation amongst multiple scholars all combined in one book. The various opinions made logical sense and helped explain other religions and their views of what exactly Jesus means to them in their cultures. Definitely a book I'd recommend for people learning at the scholarly level or enrolled in in a seminary/grad school.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borg can explain complicated religious in an interesting and understandable way. This book is a follow-up
to a teleconference program with several scholars in the fall of 1996.