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Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith
Of the many recent books on the historical Jesus, none has explored what the latest biblical scholarship means for personal faith. Now, in Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg addresses the yearnings of those who want a fully contemporary faith that welcomes rather than oppresses our critical intelligence and openness to the best of historical scholarship. Borg shows how a rigorous examination of historical findings can lead to a new faith in Christ, one that is critical and, at the same time, sustaining.
Drawing on his own journey from a naïve, unquestioning belief in Christ through collegiate skepticism to a mature and contemporary Christian faith, Borg illustrates how an understanding of the historical Jesus can actually lead to a more authentic Christian life - one not rooted in creed or dogma, but in a life of spiritual challenge, compassion, and community.
In straightforward, accessible prose, Borg looks at the major findings of modern Jesus scholarship from the perspective of faith, bringing alive the many levels of Jesus's spirit person, teacher of alternative wisdom, social prophet, and movement founder. He also reexamines the major stories of the Old Testament vital to an authentic understanding of Jesus, showing how an enriched understanding of these stories can uncover new truths and new pathways to faith.
Drawing on his own journey from a naïve, unquestioning belief in Christ through collegiate skepticism to a mature and contemporary Christian faith, Borg illustrates how an understanding of the historical Jesus can actually lead to a more authentic Christian life - one not rooted in creed or dogma, but in a life of spiritual challenge, compassion, and community.
In straightforward, accessible prose, Borg looks at the major findings of modern Jesus scholarship from the perspective of faith, bringing alive the many levels of Jesus's spirit person, teacher of alternative wisdom, social prophet, and movement founder. He also reexamines the major stories of the Old Testament vital to an authentic understanding of Jesus, showing how an enriched understanding of these stories can uncover new truths and new pathways to faith.
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First published January 1, 1994
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About the author
Marcus J. Borg
48 books357 followersBorg 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 389 reviews
March 7, 2012
I read this little book several years back, and wanted to make sure it isn’t forgotten. Marcus Borg is one of my favorite writers, and this is what I’ve always considered his “coming out” book. The one that lays bare Borg’s understanding of the historical Jesus, and Borg’s journey from blind belief into a more complete, contemporary appreciation for Jesus and what his message means for mankind today. In this book is a Christianity for the 21st century and a Jesus who can be embraced by everyone.
One quote sums up the book well: Borg describes Jesus as a “spirit person, subversive sage, social prophet, and movement founder who invited his followers and hearers into a transforming relationship with the same Spirit that he himself knew, and into a community whose social vision was shaped by the core value of compassion.” I’m uncertain if Borg would use precisely the same words today, sixteen years later, because the wheels of Jesus scholarship continue to turn, but I’ll bet he wouldn’t change much … he has found the core Jesus. Meeting Jesus again for the first time, we are invited to appreciate Jesus’ beauty against a backdrop of dominating religion, and share in Jesus’ struggle to help compassion overcome purity. It was this very purity system of the Jews which led to social injustice, and which Jesus found most constricting.
This is one of those books everyone should read before giving up on Christianity.
One quote sums up the book well: Borg describes Jesus as a “spirit person, subversive sage, social prophet, and movement founder who invited his followers and hearers into a transforming relationship with the same Spirit that he himself knew, and into a community whose social vision was shaped by the core value of compassion.” I’m uncertain if Borg would use precisely the same words today, sixteen years later, because the wheels of Jesus scholarship continue to turn, but I’ll bet he wouldn’t change much … he has found the core Jesus. Meeting Jesus again for the first time, we are invited to appreciate Jesus’ beauty against a backdrop of dominating religion, and share in Jesus’ struggle to help compassion overcome purity. It was this very purity system of the Jews which led to social injustice, and which Jesus found most constricting.
This is one of those books everyone should read before giving up on Christianity.
January 2, 2015
I've had a decade and a half of estrangement from the religion of my youth (Christianity), with fits and starts of making peace with it and attempting to integrate it into my current spirituality and worldview. Marcus Borg gives me a way to perfectly integrate Jesus into my spirituality, as well as my work as an interfaith minister. Since finishing this book, I've been (only half jokingly) referring to myself as a Borgian Christian. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone from a Christian background--especially those who left evangelical or fundamentalist forms of Christianity that seemed nonsensical, narrow, and out-of-touch. This little book is an elixir for the wounded former-Christian soul.
Also worth noting, it's a quick and easy read, but contains many pages of notes for further inquiry and research if interested.
Also worth noting, it's a quick and easy read, but contains many pages of notes for further inquiry and research if interested.
February 16, 2017
I found myself nodding my head in agreement quite a lot more then I had expected to as I read this book. When I began reading Christian books way back in college, one of the first I read was The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. I am pretty sure Borg, as a member of the Jesus Seminar, was mentioned in that book in a not-positive way. My experience with Borg was limited for many years to mentions in books by those who disagreed with him. Eventually I read a book where he and NT Wright dialogues and I found myself in much more agreement with Wright. At the same time, I did recall finding Borg not as...evil as my perception of him had become.
In other words, Borg, and those like him, had been painted as evil people, perhaps servants of Satan, with an agenda to tear down historic Christian faith. But as I read that previous book, then the first chapter of this one, I was moved by Borg's personal story. It turns out he is just a man trying to figure out the truth of who Jesus is.
Do I disagree with him on many things? Yes. I am still in the more traditional camp on issues such as the Trinity and the resurrection of Jesus. Yet in that disagreement I can still appreciate his scholarship, as well as a well-written, often moving book such as Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time.
This book is not a scholarly examination of who Jesus is. There is a little of that, but it reads, at least to me, much more like a Christian living book. As far as Borg's message is a call for us to seek to follow Jesus rather than go along with whatever it is the surrounding world preaches, this book could almost sneak into the "evangelical devotional" category.
Maybe I'm just getting kinder in my old age. Years ago I may have gotten mad at this book for all I disagreed with, ignoring the places I agree. Now I find truth and encouragement where I agree and manage to gently move past, though not ignore, the things I disagree with.
I guess the test will be when I read more Borg books and he works hard to show how the resurrection didn't really happen...will I still be kind or will I throw the book across the room?
In other words, Borg, and those like him, had been painted as evil people, perhaps servants of Satan, with an agenda to tear down historic Christian faith. But as I read that previous book, then the first chapter of this one, I was moved by Borg's personal story. It turns out he is just a man trying to figure out the truth of who Jesus is.
Do I disagree with him on many things? Yes. I am still in the more traditional camp on issues such as the Trinity and the resurrection of Jesus. Yet in that disagreement I can still appreciate his scholarship, as well as a well-written, often moving book such as Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time.
This book is not a scholarly examination of who Jesus is. There is a little of that, but it reads, at least to me, much more like a Christian living book. As far as Borg's message is a call for us to seek to follow Jesus rather than go along with whatever it is the surrounding world preaches, this book could almost sneak into the "evangelical devotional" category.
Maybe I'm just getting kinder in my old age. Years ago I may have gotten mad at this book for all I disagreed with, ignoring the places I agree. Now I find truth and encouragement where I agree and manage to gently move past, though not ignore, the things I disagree with.
I guess the test will be when I read more Borg books and he works hard to show how the resurrection didn't really happen...will I still be kind or will I throw the book across the room?
August 16, 2017
Loads of food for thought. Loved his thoughts on Jesus as a man preaching a compassionate God.
October 8, 2018
At what point is ANY of this crap actually Biblical Christianity?
Borg would probably agree with me - he doesn't really get his Jesus from the WHOLE Bible. Once again; a NEW and improved secular Buddhist-type Jesus that everyone can love (except those pesky Bible-thumping Conservative Saints. They don't tolerate this cherry-picking cut & paste social gospel theology that belittles their King and Savior.)
I didn't bother to mark this book up - there was WAY TOO MANY problems to even begin not highlighting every paragraph. I was thinking maybe I could read the book twice and make comments the 2nd time. But that would be a waste of my precious life and scholarly resources (I do have about 50 actual GOOD books to read). And I think the goddess of wisdom "Sophia" would have a proverb or two to say about that.
One fun thing I do with these liberal crap books is: notice the names of people that support them. Basically a who's who of the liberal Jesus Seminar Anti-Biblical movement. Rt Reverend J. Shelby Spong always cracks me up as a source of approval. Then I notice the places, or institutions these people are supported by, and remind myself to generally mock them. They are no friend to Biblical Christianity.
____________
I learned something new - Marcus is a clergy spouse. His lady is an Episcopal Priest. And as we know: neither of those things are really Biblical. My question is: Why does Marcus even attempt to toy with Jesus and Christianity? There's not much in it that he accepts as trustworthy and Godly.
So lets get this Jesus Seminar crap out of the way first. These people claim to know the Bible better than JESUS, or Paul, or Peter, or Moses. They know it so well that they have deemed themselves worthy of tossing most of it in the garbage. Then they mosey on pretending they are enlightened secular Bible scholars with the remaining 10%. And they justify this by? Ummmmh... preference and opinion. Yep!
So this is what we are dealing with in this book. Which is really NOTHING of historical Christianity (From the Garden incident to the Book of Revelation).
Horrifying quote:
"I received this image of Jesus in what I have since learned to call the state of precritical naivete..."
Now Marcus is so wise and critical he accepts Sophia, his NEW goddess of wisdom. Thanks to him putting the cart before the horse and applying later feminism issues to the Word of God. Critical indeed!
Once again, Borg is too smart and sophisticated to have childlike faith: "...the images of Christianity and of Jesus that I had received as a child were no longer persuasive or compelling. I had become aware that it was difficult and perhaps not necessary to take the Bible and Christian teachings literally..."
And the sad "Hellish" declaration by Marcus:
"...Jesus as the divine savior who knew himself to be the Son of God and who offered up his life for the sins of the world--was not historically true. That, I learned, was not what the historical Jesus was like."
But it's okay Borg says: "...the understanding of the gospels that has developed over the last two hundred years of Biblical scholarship. I learned that the gospels are neither divine documents nor straightforward historical records. They are not divine products inspired directly by God...nor are they eyewitness accounts written by people who had accompanied Jesus and simply sought to report what they had seen and heard."
There's really no reason to discuss the rest of the book. NO reason to bother with Borg's Jesus at all.
The only real question is: Why does Borg claim to be a Christian or Jesus' follower at all? There's basically no Holy Spirit, no risen savior, no Israelite promise, no Satan or angels & demons, (not even a Freakin' Talking Donkey... that's it for me then, I'm out!) no trustworthy word of God (especially the Gospel of John)... Just a few historical random scribbles that sound kind of Buddhish and Spiritual. But there's SURE a goddess Sophia. (that silly Episcopalian church stuff. That's what you get for letting your wife be a Priest.)
----------------
Comprehending the Bible is a mystery to Marcus. He proves this by not understanding Jesus and his use of parables: Borg babble "The aphorisms and parables of Jesus function in a particular way: they are invitational forms of speech. Jesus used them to invite his hearers to see something they might not otherwise see."
Ummmh? Actually it's the opposite Marcus. Mark 4
11And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12so that “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.”
13And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
Yes Borgy, how WILL you understand any of the Bible? Which brings me to this imaginary Q source crap. Borg assumes since there is OBVIOUSLY no Holy Spirit to connect the writings of the Gospel accounts - then there must be a secular atheistic shared source called "Q". Which nobody has ever seen or claimed to have seen (or used). Basically that is all the Jesus seminar buddies ever do - sit around and poke at a steaming pile of manure like this -- until it becomes an academic cooked-steak for the masses.
It is kind of funny when Borg trumps Bibical scripture with gnostic writings and other church-discarded historical toiletries. I would expect nothing less from the Jesus Seminar.
---------------
The funnest bit of this book was the Wisdom Sophia claims. Chapter 5: Jesus, the Wisdom of God - Sophia Become Flesh.
That pretty much says it all right there. Pretty similar to Eve in the Garden buying into Satan's best lie from a talking snake. (Maybe if Borg actually believed any of the Bible he wouldn't have fallen for the same old lines.)
Genesis 3
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So we get 150 pages from Marcus J. Borg on how to open our eyes. Be just like Sophia.
So what do we do with this Wisdom goddess? Well we DON'T make a deity out of her - or try to claim that she is Jesus. We let Proverbs use her as a simple pleasant little personification of Motherly wisdom. like we do anytime the Bible gives a Disney scenario to help understand. Here's a fun example:
Proverbs 9
The Way of Folly
13The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
14She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
15calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
16“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
17“Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
18But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
Are we supposed to assume the goddess FOLLY is in the Trinity as well? NO, we simply allow the story to be what it is: a personification for making a point.
Strange that Borg makes a god out of Wisdom...yet does nothing with Folly? Or did the Jesus Seminar simply erase these verses for secular materialistic scholarship?!
Funny that Borg would quote the Bible by showing:
Proverbs 1:20
SOPHIA cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice.
So I checked 22 other Bible translations...none mentioned Sophia. This is how Borg poorly proves his desperate point. Later Borg says "The Jewish personification of wisdom as Sophia, and the attribution to her of Divine qualities, becomes even more developed in two intertestamental books - Sirach, and the Wisdom of Solomon."
YES, very nice. But that doesn't make Sophia a Biblical deity. Simply a Wisdom reference. And don't get too attached to the non-biblical books - fun to read. But just not scripture. Although I bet Borg would LOVE to force us to accept them and his pet deity.
Once again, just to prove the point: Borg babble
"Thus the language about Sophia is not simply personification of wisdom in female form, but personification of God in female form. Sophia is a female image for God..."
Remember to go back to that QUEEN FOLLY bit in Proverbs 9. Marcus tries desperately to get us to gullibly accept that Jesus agrees with Borg about this Sophia nonsense. Borg shows us: Luke 11:49
"Therefore also the Sophia of God said, "I will send them prophets and emissaries, some of whom they will kill and persecute..."
Of course, 22 other Bibles basically state:
"Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute..."
Sorry borgy - but this time Jesus is actually talking about God. THE GOD! God the Father. Chances are - God put this in the Bible just for liberal butt-heads to swoon over in the 21st century. God is fun that way. Many people don't realize the Bible does as much damage as it does good. Atheists and liberals are offended by the Word of God --- and the Saints are endlessly inspired and filled with Hope and Promise from our Savior. Sadly - Most readers of this crap assume they are in the wrong group.
-----------------
And for future entertainment. Borg boasts:
"But John Dominic Crossan in his recent book on Jesus argues that, with the collapse of the apocalyptic understanding of the kingdom..."
I'll stick with John MacArthur and Chuck Swindol (and 100's of other trusted Bible scholars) on this one. And generally just laugh endlessly at Borg and Crossan and their silly Bible-hating club.
Borg would probably agree with me - he doesn't really get his Jesus from the WHOLE Bible. Once again; a NEW and improved secular Buddhist-type Jesus that everyone can love (except those pesky Bible-thumping Conservative Saints. They don't tolerate this cherry-picking cut & paste social gospel theology that belittles their King and Savior.)
I didn't bother to mark this book up - there was WAY TOO MANY problems to even begin not highlighting every paragraph. I was thinking maybe I could read the book twice and make comments the 2nd time. But that would be a waste of my precious life and scholarly resources (I do have about 50 actual GOOD books to read). And I think the goddess of wisdom "Sophia" would have a proverb or two to say about that.
One fun thing I do with these liberal crap books is: notice the names of people that support them. Basically a who's who of the liberal Jesus Seminar Anti-Biblical movement. Rt Reverend J. Shelby Spong always cracks me up as a source of approval. Then I notice the places, or institutions these people are supported by, and remind myself to generally mock them. They are no friend to Biblical Christianity.
____________
I learned something new - Marcus is a clergy spouse. His lady is an Episcopal Priest. And as we know: neither of those things are really Biblical. My question is: Why does Marcus even attempt to toy with Jesus and Christianity? There's not much in it that he accepts as trustworthy and Godly.
So lets get this Jesus Seminar crap out of the way first. These people claim to know the Bible better than JESUS, or Paul, or Peter, or Moses. They know it so well that they have deemed themselves worthy of tossing most of it in the garbage. Then they mosey on pretending they are enlightened secular Bible scholars with the remaining 10%. And they justify this by? Ummmmh... preference and opinion. Yep!
So this is what we are dealing with in this book. Which is really NOTHING of historical Christianity (From the Garden incident to the Book of Revelation).
Horrifying quote:
"I received this image of Jesus in what I have since learned to call the state of precritical naivete..."
Now Marcus is so wise and critical he accepts Sophia, his NEW goddess of wisdom. Thanks to him putting the cart before the horse and applying later feminism issues to the Word of God. Critical indeed!
Once again, Borg is too smart and sophisticated to have childlike faith: "...the images of Christianity and of Jesus that I had received as a child were no longer persuasive or compelling. I had become aware that it was difficult and perhaps not necessary to take the Bible and Christian teachings literally..."
And the sad "Hellish" declaration by Marcus:
"...Jesus as the divine savior who knew himself to be the Son of God and who offered up his life for the sins of the world--was not historically true. That, I learned, was not what the historical Jesus was like."
But it's okay Borg says: "...the understanding of the gospels that has developed over the last two hundred years of Biblical scholarship. I learned that the gospels are neither divine documents nor straightforward historical records. They are not divine products inspired directly by God...nor are they eyewitness accounts written by people who had accompanied Jesus and simply sought to report what they had seen and heard."
There's really no reason to discuss the rest of the book. NO reason to bother with Borg's Jesus at all.
The only real question is: Why does Borg claim to be a Christian or Jesus' follower at all? There's basically no Holy Spirit, no risen savior, no Israelite promise, no Satan or angels & demons, (not even a Freakin' Talking Donkey... that's it for me then, I'm out!) no trustworthy word of God (especially the Gospel of John)... Just a few historical random scribbles that sound kind of Buddhish and Spiritual. But there's SURE a goddess Sophia. (that silly Episcopalian church stuff. That's what you get for letting your wife be a Priest.)
----------------
Comprehending the Bible is a mystery to Marcus. He proves this by not understanding Jesus and his use of parables: Borg babble "The aphorisms and parables of Jesus function in a particular way: they are invitational forms of speech. Jesus used them to invite his hearers to see something they might not otherwise see."
Ummmh? Actually it's the opposite Marcus. Mark 4
11And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12so that “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.”
13And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
Yes Borgy, how WILL you understand any of the Bible? Which brings me to this imaginary Q source crap. Borg assumes since there is OBVIOUSLY no Holy Spirit to connect the writings of the Gospel accounts - then there must be a secular atheistic shared source called "Q". Which nobody has ever seen or claimed to have seen (or used). Basically that is all the Jesus seminar buddies ever do - sit around and poke at a steaming pile of manure like this -- until it becomes an academic cooked-steak for the masses.
It is kind of funny when Borg trumps Bibical scripture with gnostic writings and other church-discarded historical toiletries. I would expect nothing less from the Jesus Seminar.
---------------
The funnest bit of this book was the Wisdom Sophia claims. Chapter 5: Jesus, the Wisdom of God - Sophia Become Flesh.
That pretty much says it all right there. Pretty similar to Eve in the Garden buying into Satan's best lie from a talking snake. (Maybe if Borg actually believed any of the Bible he wouldn't have fallen for the same old lines.)
Genesis 3
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
So we get 150 pages from Marcus J. Borg on how to open our eyes. Be just like Sophia.
So what do we do with this Wisdom goddess? Well we DON'T make a deity out of her - or try to claim that she is Jesus. We let Proverbs use her as a simple pleasant little personification of Motherly wisdom. like we do anytime the Bible gives a Disney scenario to help understand. Here's a fun example:
Proverbs 9
The Way of Folly
13The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
14She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
15calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
16“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
17“Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
18But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
Are we supposed to assume the goddess FOLLY is in the Trinity as well? NO, we simply allow the story to be what it is: a personification for making a point.
Strange that Borg makes a god out of Wisdom...yet does nothing with Folly? Or did the Jesus Seminar simply erase these verses for secular materialistic scholarship?!
Funny that Borg would quote the Bible by showing:
Proverbs 1:20
SOPHIA cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice.
So I checked 22 other Bible translations...none mentioned Sophia. This is how Borg poorly proves his desperate point. Later Borg says "The Jewish personification of wisdom as Sophia, and the attribution to her of Divine qualities, becomes even more developed in two intertestamental books - Sirach, and the Wisdom of Solomon."
YES, very nice. But that doesn't make Sophia a Biblical deity. Simply a Wisdom reference. And don't get too attached to the non-biblical books - fun to read. But just not scripture. Although I bet Borg would LOVE to force us to accept them and his pet deity.
Once again, just to prove the point: Borg babble
"Thus the language about Sophia is not simply personification of wisdom in female form, but personification of God in female form. Sophia is a female image for God..."
Remember to go back to that QUEEN FOLLY bit in Proverbs 9. Marcus tries desperately to get us to gullibly accept that Jesus agrees with Borg about this Sophia nonsense. Borg shows us: Luke 11:49
"Therefore also the Sophia of God said, "I will send them prophets and emissaries, some of whom they will kill and persecute..."
Of course, 22 other Bibles basically state:
"Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute..."
Sorry borgy - but this time Jesus is actually talking about God. THE GOD! God the Father. Chances are - God put this in the Bible just for liberal butt-heads to swoon over in the 21st century. God is fun that way. Many people don't realize the Bible does as much damage as it does good. Atheists and liberals are offended by the Word of God --- and the Saints are endlessly inspired and filled with Hope and Promise from our Savior. Sadly - Most readers of this crap assume they are in the wrong group.
-----------------
And for future entertainment. Borg boasts:
"But John Dominic Crossan in his recent book on Jesus argues that, with the collapse of the apocalyptic understanding of the kingdom..."
I'll stick with John MacArthur and Chuck Swindol (and 100's of other trusted Bible scholars) on this one. And generally just laugh endlessly at Borg and Crossan and their silly Bible-hating club.
January 14, 2013
Wow, this book shatters everything weird about Christianity and confirms the best: compassionate advocacy for social justice. Please read this book and discuss it with me! Although I do want more details on some of this specific claims Borg makes, he draws an extremely illuminating distinction between the person that Jesus was and the religion created after his death. As I read this book, everything made sense. It doesn't undermine Christianity, but it makes it believable.
October 8, 2018
The best I can say about this book is don’t waste your money. My men’s bible study group started reading this book based on the suggestion of one of the members. We did not research it much ahead of time but will be doing that going forward with any materials.
The Jesus Seminar was, in short, an attempt to destroy Christianity, pure and simple. Thankfully their group has essentially disbanded.
Claiming that the JS was a group of “biblical scholars” was a lie to begin with. Only a few of its many group members could lay claim to that description. Most of them were simply secular individuals with no in-depth knowledge of the bible.
The basis of their claims is that nothing supernatural was possible. Therefore, Jesus never rose from the dead, nor did He appear before others after his death. This in itself denies the entire basis for the Christian faith. No matter how the author tries to spin that basic assumption on the JS part, he is unsuccessful. His commentary in the book conflicts with itself in many places – his scholarship ability is poor overall.
After trying to get through the first chapter, many in the group had a sense to just trash it. Instead, we decided that with all of us being very strong in our faith and the chances that this book would shake any of us in our faith was slim, we kept reading. However, one person said they would not go further, one stopped reading after a couple chapters, and I stopped before the end. As a result, our weekly discussion sessions in essence were comprised of one or two comments, with the remainder of our time spent on other Christian topics.
The Jesus Seminar was, in short, an attempt to destroy Christianity, pure and simple. Thankfully their group has essentially disbanded.
Claiming that the JS was a group of “biblical scholars” was a lie to begin with. Only a few of its many group members could lay claim to that description. Most of them were simply secular individuals with no in-depth knowledge of the bible.
The basis of their claims is that nothing supernatural was possible. Therefore, Jesus never rose from the dead, nor did He appear before others after his death. This in itself denies the entire basis for the Christian faith. No matter how the author tries to spin that basic assumption on the JS part, he is unsuccessful. His commentary in the book conflicts with itself in many places – his scholarship ability is poor overall.
After trying to get through the first chapter, many in the group had a sense to just trash it. Instead, we decided that with all of us being very strong in our faith and the chances that this book would shake any of us in our faith was slim, we kept reading. However, one person said they would not go further, one stopped reading after a couple chapters, and I stopped before the end. As a result, our weekly discussion sessions in essence were comprised of one or two comments, with the remainder of our time spent on other Christian topics.
May 1, 2015
Written by a scholar who is an excellent writer for lay folks, and includes his personal and spiritual growth stories.
This book has it all. Who has grown up in the Judeo-Christian tradition and not wondered what Jesus and his life was really like? Here is a author whose deep curiosity led him to study everything written 'about' the first century, and everything written 'during' the first century, that would impact this middle eastern area of the Roman Empire. His study of the original Greek and Aramaic texts added some interesting nuances to words commonly accepted as truth today. (Elaine Pagels would explain the politics in the choice the translators made of a certain word over another) I especially like the section on the wisdom of God which is the feminine word Sophia. But my favorite section was the explanation of the exclusiveness of conventional wisdom and compassion of alternative wisdom: the wide or narrow path. Seeing the way Jewish life was organized around the purity laws vs. Jesus' challenge to live alternatively with love (nothing or no one seemed unclean or outcast to Jesus)- really puts a whole new perspective on what his message of good news was all about. Each chapter is footnoted with PAGES of resources for those who need more info.
Recommend highly for those ready to go beyond the literal stories we grew up with (and may be bored with) to plum deeper for an alternative eye-opening and truly compassionate experience of the Spirit Jesus tried to show us.
This book has it all. Who has grown up in the Judeo-Christian tradition and not wondered what Jesus and his life was really like? Here is a author whose deep curiosity led him to study everything written 'about' the first century, and everything written 'during' the first century, that would impact this middle eastern area of the Roman Empire. His study of the original Greek and Aramaic texts added some interesting nuances to words commonly accepted as truth today. (Elaine Pagels would explain the politics in the choice the translators made of a certain word over another) I especially like the section on the wisdom of God which is the feminine word Sophia. But my favorite section was the explanation of the exclusiveness of conventional wisdom and compassion of alternative wisdom: the wide or narrow path. Seeing the way Jewish life was organized around the purity laws vs. Jesus' challenge to live alternatively with love (nothing or no one seemed unclean or outcast to Jesus)- really puts a whole new perspective on what his message of good news was all about. Each chapter is footnoted with PAGES of resources for those who need more info.
Recommend highly for those ready to go beyond the literal stories we grew up with (and may be bored with) to plum deeper for an alternative eye-opening and truly compassionate experience of the Spirit Jesus tried to show us.
April 6, 2024
Hmmmm. Marcus Marcus Marcus. I think there is a lot of helpfulness in this book, but at the same time so much bloat. Let me focus on the positives.
The central theme of this book is that following Jesus means we are to be compassionate as God is compassionate and are constantly transforming and growing into people of compassion. That was really nice. I also thought it was quite a 🫣 moment when he said
I really like the discussion of Jesus’ rejection of the purity/impurity systems and His life of inclusiveness and transgressing social boundaries of what was considered “okay”. I thought that the discussion of the Good Samaritan and the Ethiopian eunuch were really good.
I think he is on the right track when he argues that the Christian life is one marked by the fruit of compassion, not being “holy”. The Christian concern is with setting right social injustice and living lives of transformational compassion.
The central theme of this book is that following Jesus means we are to be compassionate as God is compassionate and are constantly transforming and growing into people of compassion. That was really nice. I also thought it was quite a 🫣 moment when he said
Compassion, not holiness, is the dominant quality of God, and is therefore to be the ethos of the community that mirrors God.
I really like the discussion of Jesus’ rejection of the purity/impurity systems and His life of inclusiveness and transgressing social boundaries of what was considered “okay”. I thought that the discussion of the Good Samaritan and the Ethiopian eunuch were really good.
It was a critique of a way of life ordered around purity. The key to seeing this is to recognize the purity issues in the story: the priest and Levite were obligated to maintain a certain level of purity; contact with death was a source of major impurity; and the wounded man is described as “half-dead,” suggesting that one couldn’t tell whether he was dead without coming close enough to incur impurity if he was. Thus the priest and Levite passed by out of observance of the purity laws. The Samaritan (who, not incidentally, was radically impure according to the purity system), on the other hand, is described as the one who acted “compassionately.”
I think he is on the right track when he argues that the Christian life is one marked by the fruit of compassion, not being “holy”. The Christian concern is with setting right social injustice and living lives of transformational compassion.
And discipleship involves becoming compassionate. “Be compassionate as God is compassionate” is the defining mark of the follower of Jesus. Compassion is the fruit of life in the Spirit and the ethos of the community of Jesus… It is an image of the Christian life not primarily as believing or being good but as a relationship with God. That relationship does not leave us unchanged but transforms us into more and more compassionate beings, “into the likeness of Christ.”
Read
August 9, 2022In this succinct punch of a book, Borg lays forth his sketch of the “historical Jesus” in four broad strokes: spirit person, wisdom teacher, social prophet, and movement founder. His illustration is of the “pre-Easter Jesus,” meaning “Jesus as a figure of history before his death.” This Jesus, he argues, is not the same as the “post-Easter Jesus” — the understanding of Jesus that his followers came to after his death. This is the sort of content I expected to find in Borg’s work: a dissection of scripture to illumine the historical life of Jesus. I expected that this would come with a rejection of Christ’s living power.
Profoundly, though, he conveys his idea of the historical Jesus while still affirming that the pre-Easter Jesus of history and the post-Easter Christ of faith can both guide us today. This was perhaps my biggest takeaway — engaging with an academic and historical study of Christ does not necessarily take away from a spiritual relationship with him. As Borg puts it in his penultimate paragraph:
Another of Borg’s central ideas is the understanding of Jesus’s message as one of “alternative wisdom,” which contrasts to “conventional wisdom.” In Jesus’s setting, “conventional wisdom” consisted of the Torah laws of purity upheld by the Jewish establishment. Jesus preached against the system of purity and advocated for a new system of compassion; yet, ironically, the conventional wisdom of today is both brought forth and upheld by the Christian establishment. This understanding of Jesus’s message as alternative wisdom underlines its intrinsically subversive nature.
Along these lines, Borg concludes by laying out three different stories of Jesus’s death and resurrection. The most popular story is one of sin and forgiveness. It goes like this: “because Jesus died and rose again, my sins are forgiven.” It is liberating to be reminded that this is not the only story, especially since this story has been perverted into upholding its own kind of conventional wisdom. The other stories are of exile and homecoming and of bondage and liberation. Borg argues that these two alternative stories of death and resurrection are inherently subversive, which could explain why the focus of the institution became the story of sin, guilt, and forgiveness.
We all, in the West, grow up under the shadow of the Jesus story. I’d recommend Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time to anyone who is interested in exploring what that story was, what that story is, what that story has the potential to be.
Profoundly, though, he conveys his idea of the historical Jesus while still affirming that the pre-Easter Jesus of history and the post-Easter Christ of faith can both guide us today. This was perhaps my biggest takeaway — engaging with an academic and historical study of Christ does not necessarily take away from a spiritual relationship with him. As Borg puts it in his penultimate paragraph:
Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him. Rather, it means to give one’s heart, one’s self at its deepest level, to the post-Easter Jesus who is the Living Lord, the side of God turned toward us, the face of God, the Lord who is also the Spirit.
Another of Borg’s central ideas is the understanding of Jesus’s message as one of “alternative wisdom,” which contrasts to “conventional wisdom.” In Jesus’s setting, “conventional wisdom” consisted of the Torah laws of purity upheld by the Jewish establishment. Jesus preached against the system of purity and advocated for a new system of compassion; yet, ironically, the conventional wisdom of today is both brought forth and upheld by the Christian establishment. This understanding of Jesus’s message as alternative wisdom underlines its intrinsically subversive nature.
Along these lines, Borg concludes by laying out three different stories of Jesus’s death and resurrection. The most popular story is one of sin and forgiveness. It goes like this: “because Jesus died and rose again, my sins are forgiven.” It is liberating to be reminded that this is not the only story, especially since this story has been perverted into upholding its own kind of conventional wisdom. The other stories are of exile and homecoming and of bondage and liberation. Borg argues that these two alternative stories of death and resurrection are inherently subversive, which could explain why the focus of the institution became the story of sin, guilt, and forgiveness.
We all, in the West, grow up under the shadow of the Jesus story. I’d recommend Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time to anyone who is interested in exploring what that story was, what that story is, what that story has the potential to be.
July 12, 2024
Over the past several years, I’ve been progressing through what I call a faith readjustment of the beliefs, attitudes and practices in the religion/faith that I consider myself an adherent of and that I once held sacrosanct. One leader of my faith once derisively described my current attitude as attending a buffet table and picking and choosing what and how I believe and adhere to. Yup. That’s my faith now. I quite literally found some of my former beliefs too toxic to continue in. Some of these beliefs required more cognitive dissonance than I wanted to practice. I no longer enable gaslighting in my faith and life.
I have come to realise that I’m a very liberal, progressive partitioner of Christianity and my faith. For many of my faith, this admission is considered apostasy because I no longer hold the words of the living prophets (12 + 3) to be infallible and thus I have no choice but to follow them for I can not “see” what the Gods allow them to see.
But I’m so much happier as I’ve grappled with these fundamental religious beliefs that affect my faith, instead of simply believing and practicing with little or no question.
I wish I had known about this author and read this book years ago. It would have helped my transition immensely. This book is a result of the author’s similar religious belief quest he went through.
Essentially this book calmed my still at times doubting soul, that somehow I’m committing a form of heresy or as one close relative told me, that I’ve now gone to the “dark side”.
I have come to realise that I’m a very liberal, progressive partitioner of Christianity and my faith. For many of my faith, this admission is considered apostasy because I no longer hold the words of the living prophets (12 + 3) to be infallible and thus I have no choice but to follow them for I can not “see” what the Gods allow them to see.
But I’m so much happier as I’ve grappled with these fundamental religious beliefs that affect my faith, instead of simply believing and practicing with little or no question.
I wish I had known about this author and read this book years ago. It would have helped my transition immensely. This book is a result of the author’s similar religious belief quest he went through.
Essentially this book calmed my still at times doubting soul, that somehow I’m committing a form of heresy or as one close relative told me, that I’ve now gone to the “dark side”.
July 15, 2014
Fascinating and illuminating book that is both scholarly with some elements of the personal in which Borg chronicles his own evolving Christianity and relationship with Jesus as well as teaching the lessons of his 30 years of work and study as a Biblical scholar. Ultimately, Borg offers an extremely useful and informative book both looking at how beliefs and understandings of who Jesus was have been in a constant state of change since his death, but also of how a historical/metaphorical reading of Jesus and the Bible can open the door to a deeply meaningful religious experience and Christianity. That believing in Jesus's literal divinity/resurrection isn't the necessary litmus test to being Christian.
In this book, he unpacks what we know of Jesus as a man, a teacher of "alternative wisdom," that challenged the conventional wisdom of the age (and still challenges it) and that he was a not just a wisdom teacher, but the "Wisdom of God," Sophia (the gendered FEMALE personification of God's wisdom. That he didn't need to be the literal son of God (and, indeed, Borg unpacks how little shows that Jesus ever thought he was - as part of this, he unpacks how the book of John in the Bible is non-literal speech of Jesus), but rather Jesus spoke and taught of a deeply personal relationship he had with God, that others could seek as well. In that, Jesus was a "highly spiritual person," for whom God was an experiential reality.
I would do a disservice trying to paraphrase Borg's book here, because his ideas and arguments build on one another, with lots of examples and backing for his claims. The ultimate lesson though, from Borg, is that reading and understanding Jesus in this historical and metaphorical way, in no way diminishes his power or in the believer's Christianity. This is, I'm sure, a way of understanding Jesus that is heretical to many fundamentalists, but it is a way of understanding Jesus that can be powerful for other Christians, and a way toward "being transform[ed] into more and more compassionate beings, 'into the likeness of Christ.'" (136)
However, while this is in no way an attempt to reconstruct the research and arguments of this book, here are a few excerpts to give a taste for the book:
"rather than being the exclusive revelation of God, [Jesus] is one of many mediators of the sacred," (37) --- i.e. this understanding allows you to a Christian pluralist, i.e. all the worlds Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists, etc., aren't going to hell because they were raised non-Christians. There are many ways to approach God, and Jesus and Christianity is one of those very real, and very valid, ways.
In this type of understanding, "Christian life moves beyond believing in God to being in a relationship to God." (39)
On the Bible and Bible stories:
"Since they were originally oral stories, we should not think of them as the set pieces we have in the gospels, recited word for word." (86)
And that the reason and power of pursuing a relationship with God through Jesus is that: "A relationship with God leads from anxiety to a life of peace and trust. It leads from bondage of self-protection to the freedom of self-forgetfullness. It leads from life centered in culture to life centered in God." (88)
He concludes with this statement that: "Belief did not originally mean believing in a set of doctrines or teaching; in both Greek and Latin its roots mean to 'give one's heart to.' The 'heart' is the self at its deepest level. Believing, therefore, does not consist of giving one's mental assent to something, but involves a much deeper level of one's self. Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him. Rather, it means to give one's heart, one's self at its deepest level, to the post-Easter Jesus who is the living Lord, the side of God turned toward us, the face of God, the Lord who is also the Spirit." (137)
And also that: "It is an image of the Christian life not primarily as believing or being good but as a relationship with God. That relationship does not leave us unchanged but transforms us into more and more compassionate beings, 'into the likeness of Christ.'" (136)
So, in a lot of ways, Borg articulates a Christianity that is unlike the one in which fundamentalist believe in. I wish every fundamentalist would read this book, not that they would all open their minds to the arguments here, or agree with all of them, but that they should at least open their minds to these ideas, because ultimately, regardless of your approach, Christianity should turn one towards compassion and love. And likewise, I wish non-Christians read this to understand that while the fundamentalist creationists are the public face of Christianity in the media, they do not represent, or even begin to touch, the fullness, depth and breadth of what it can mean to be a Christian.
In this book, he unpacks what we know of Jesus as a man, a teacher of "alternative wisdom," that challenged the conventional wisdom of the age (and still challenges it) and that he was a not just a wisdom teacher, but the "Wisdom of God," Sophia (the gendered FEMALE personification of God's wisdom. That he didn't need to be the literal son of God (and, indeed, Borg unpacks how little shows that Jesus ever thought he was - as part of this, he unpacks how the book of John in the Bible is non-literal speech of Jesus), but rather Jesus spoke and taught of a deeply personal relationship he had with God, that others could seek as well. In that, Jesus was a "highly spiritual person," for whom God was an experiential reality.
I would do a disservice trying to paraphrase Borg's book here, because his ideas and arguments build on one another, with lots of examples and backing for his claims. The ultimate lesson though, from Borg, is that reading and understanding Jesus in this historical and metaphorical way, in no way diminishes his power or in the believer's Christianity. This is, I'm sure, a way of understanding Jesus that is heretical to many fundamentalists, but it is a way of understanding Jesus that can be powerful for other Christians, and a way toward "being transform[ed] into more and more compassionate beings, 'into the likeness of Christ.'" (136)
However, while this is in no way an attempt to reconstruct the research and arguments of this book, here are a few excerpts to give a taste for the book:
"rather than being the exclusive revelation of God, [Jesus] is one of many mediators of the sacred," (37) --- i.e. this understanding allows you to a Christian pluralist, i.e. all the worlds Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, atheists, etc., aren't going to hell because they were raised non-Christians. There are many ways to approach God, and Jesus and Christianity is one of those very real, and very valid, ways.
In this type of understanding, "Christian life moves beyond believing in God to being in a relationship to God." (39)
On the Bible and Bible stories:
"Since they were originally oral stories, we should not think of them as the set pieces we have in the gospels, recited word for word." (86)
And that the reason and power of pursuing a relationship with God through Jesus is that: "A relationship with God leads from anxiety to a life of peace and trust. It leads from bondage of self-protection to the freedom of self-forgetfullness. It leads from life centered in culture to life centered in God." (88)
He concludes with this statement that: "Belief did not originally mean believing in a set of doctrines or teaching; in both Greek and Latin its roots mean to 'give one's heart to.' The 'heart' is the self at its deepest level. Believing, therefore, does not consist of giving one's mental assent to something, but involves a much deeper level of one's self. Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him. Rather, it means to give one's heart, one's self at its deepest level, to the post-Easter Jesus who is the living Lord, the side of God turned toward us, the face of God, the Lord who is also the Spirit." (137)
And also that: "It is an image of the Christian life not primarily as believing or being good but as a relationship with God. That relationship does not leave us unchanged but transforms us into more and more compassionate beings, 'into the likeness of Christ.'" (136)
So, in a lot of ways, Borg articulates a Christianity that is unlike the one in which fundamentalist believe in. I wish every fundamentalist would read this book, not that they would all open their minds to the arguments here, or agree with all of them, but that they should at least open their minds to these ideas, because ultimately, regardless of your approach, Christianity should turn one towards compassion and love. And likewise, I wish non-Christians read this to understand that while the fundamentalist creationists are the public face of Christianity in the media, they do not represent, or even begin to touch, the fullness, depth and breadth of what it can mean to be a Christian.
September 19, 2019
This the second book I have read by Marcus J. Borg. I am a fan! He challenges Christians to move beyond a fideistic image of Jesus as the divine savior and a moralistic image of Jesus as teacher. Instead he proclaims that Christian life is "ultimately not about believing or about being good." Rather, it is about "a relationship with God that involves us in a journey of transformation."
Borg, who was raised a Lutheran and is an influential leader of the group of Biblical scholars known as the Jesus Seminar, uses illustrative material from his own spiritual autobiography to show how an individual's faith can keep evolving. With four bold strokes, he describes his renewed vision of the the historical Jesus. He was a spirit person who saw himself as a mediator of the sacred. He was a subversive teacher of wisdom using parables and aphorisms to jolt individuals into a fresh awareness of God. He was a prophet who criticized the social elites of his day. And he was a movement founder "who invited his followers and hearers into a transforming relationship with the same Spirit that he himself knew."
These startling images of the pre-Easter Jesus have some profound implications for the life of the contemporary Christian church. Meeting Jesus as a spirit person should enable believers to easily share their experiences of God with spiritual seekers of other traditions. Borg's laser-sharp discussion of Jesus's understanding of compassion as "the central quality of God and the central moral quality of a life centered in God" opens the door for greater dialogue with Buddhists who have been especially attuned to this sacred dimension of life.
Borg also presents a lively assessment of what he calls the three macro-stories of Scripture — the Exodus story, the story of exile and return, and the priestly story. These were used by the early church to shed light on Jesus's ministry. They have ample fire power for our time as well. Borg suggests regarding them as a "pastoral 'tool kit,' each addressing a different dimension of the human condition."
The final image Borg dissects is seeing both the story of Jesus and the Christian life as a journey of transformation. There is no resting spot, only a relationship with God that becomes richer and fuller as one travels along life's pathways. Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time is a breath of fresh air in the musty halls of Christian scholarship. It offers salutary new options for discipleship and dialogue in this era of revved-up spirituality.
Favorite Quotes
“For Jesus, compassion was more than a quality of God and an individual virtue: it was a social paradigm, the core value for life in community. To put it boldly: compassion for Jesus was political.”
“His own self-understanding did not include thinking and speaking of himself as the Son of God whose historical intention or purpose was to die for the sins of the world, and his message was not about believing in him. Rather, he was a spirit person, subversive sage, social prophet, and movement founder who invited his followers and hearers into a transforming relationship with the same Spirit that he himself knew, and into a community whose social vision was shaped by the core value of compassion.”
Borg, who was raised a Lutheran and is an influential leader of the group of Biblical scholars known as the Jesus Seminar, uses illustrative material from his own spiritual autobiography to show how an individual's faith can keep evolving. With four bold strokes, he describes his renewed vision of the the historical Jesus. He was a spirit person who saw himself as a mediator of the sacred. He was a subversive teacher of wisdom using parables and aphorisms to jolt individuals into a fresh awareness of God. He was a prophet who criticized the social elites of his day. And he was a movement founder "who invited his followers and hearers into a transforming relationship with the same Spirit that he himself knew."
These startling images of the pre-Easter Jesus have some profound implications for the life of the contemporary Christian church. Meeting Jesus as a spirit person should enable believers to easily share their experiences of God with spiritual seekers of other traditions. Borg's laser-sharp discussion of Jesus's understanding of compassion as "the central quality of God and the central moral quality of a life centered in God" opens the door for greater dialogue with Buddhists who have been especially attuned to this sacred dimension of life.
Borg also presents a lively assessment of what he calls the three macro-stories of Scripture — the Exodus story, the story of exile and return, and the priestly story. These were used by the early church to shed light on Jesus's ministry. They have ample fire power for our time as well. Borg suggests regarding them as a "pastoral 'tool kit,' each addressing a different dimension of the human condition."
The final image Borg dissects is seeing both the story of Jesus and the Christian life as a journey of transformation. There is no resting spot, only a relationship with God that becomes richer and fuller as one travels along life's pathways. Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time is a breath of fresh air in the musty halls of Christian scholarship. It offers salutary new options for discipleship and dialogue in this era of revved-up spirituality.
Favorite Quotes
“For Jesus, compassion was more than a quality of God and an individual virtue: it was a social paradigm, the core value for life in community. To put it boldly: compassion for Jesus was political.”
“His own self-understanding did not include thinking and speaking of himself as the Son of God whose historical intention or purpose was to die for the sins of the world, and his message was not about believing in him. Rather, he was a spirit person, subversive sage, social prophet, and movement founder who invited his followers and hearers into a transforming relationship with the same Spirit that he himself knew, and into a community whose social vision was shaped by the core value of compassion.”
November 8, 2012
Marcus Borg is a heretic - he denies the orthodox doctrines of the virgin birth, the divinity of Christ, etc. OK, now that's out of the way let me tell you why I enjoyed this book despite its serious flaws.
Borg provides an autobiographical account of his own journey from child-like faith through adolescent skepticism to adult rejection and then back to an identification as, I guess, a "Christian" (although I would argue his view of ideal Christianity more closely represents a New Age spirituality dressed with the terminology of Christianity. His account felt real and demonstrated good self-awareness and I empathised with him. The things he rejected in his evangelical Lutheran upbringing are the things I recoil from in contemporary evangelicalism. When he talks about the Christian life as a transformational journey in relationship with God I think all my colleagues and I would agree with him - except that he doesn't use those words with the sort of meanings that orthodox Christians would use those words to mean. (E.G. God is more of a life-force that is immanent in all the universe and transcends the material plane, but is never described in terms of personhood, so how can there be a "relationship" if God is not a person?)
Borg, as a leading Jesus scholar, obviously has a wide breadth of knowledge about the historical background and there were a few pieces of information that were new to me. That was good. I disagreed, obviously, with the image of Jesus he constructed with them. Unsurprisingly, I largely agree with his four broad strokes of the picture of Jesus:
1. a "spirit person" (i.e. someone who has a direct relationship with God and mediates that experience to others so they can have a direct relationship with God - an insightful way of describing the power of Jesus' ministry even if Borg's terms all have different meanings that my meanings for those terms);
2. a "teacher of wisdom" (i.e. God's wisdom rather than conventional wisdom, although again Borg goes too far in contrasting these two. I think it is best to think of a both/and rather than either/or scenario)
3. a "social prophet" (i.e. challenged the existing social order to advocate for, in my orthodox words, kingdom values)
4. a "movement founder" (his expansion of this I found the most disappointing, probably because I love to think about Jesus' movement and the implications for today).
So, this book is written at a serious but popular level and Borg is clear enough when he rejects orthodox positions that I was able to enjoy the read and pick out the bits of value in it.
Borg provides an autobiographical account of his own journey from child-like faith through adolescent skepticism to adult rejection and then back to an identification as, I guess, a "Christian" (although I would argue his view of ideal Christianity more closely represents a New Age spirituality dressed with the terminology of Christianity. His account felt real and demonstrated good self-awareness and I empathised with him. The things he rejected in his evangelical Lutheran upbringing are the things I recoil from in contemporary evangelicalism. When he talks about the Christian life as a transformational journey in relationship with God I think all my colleagues and I would agree with him - except that he doesn't use those words with the sort of meanings that orthodox Christians would use those words to mean. (E.G. God is more of a life-force that is immanent in all the universe and transcends the material plane, but is never described in terms of personhood, so how can there be a "relationship" if God is not a person?)
Borg, as a leading Jesus scholar, obviously has a wide breadth of knowledge about the historical background and there were a few pieces of information that were new to me. That was good. I disagreed, obviously, with the image of Jesus he constructed with them. Unsurprisingly, I largely agree with his four broad strokes of the picture of Jesus:
1. a "spirit person" (i.e. someone who has a direct relationship with God and mediates that experience to others so they can have a direct relationship with God - an insightful way of describing the power of Jesus' ministry even if Borg's terms all have different meanings that my meanings for those terms);
2. a "teacher of wisdom" (i.e. God's wisdom rather than conventional wisdom, although again Borg goes too far in contrasting these two. I think it is best to think of a both/and rather than either/or scenario)
3. a "social prophet" (i.e. challenged the existing social order to advocate for, in my orthodox words, kingdom values)
4. a "movement founder" (his expansion of this I found the most disappointing, probably because I love to think about Jesus' movement and the implications for today).
So, this book is written at a serious but popular level and Borg is clear enough when he rejects orthodox positions that I was able to enjoy the read and pick out the bits of value in it.
July 11, 2021
I enjoyed Borg's overall point of view in this one, specifically the idea that a life in Christ is about so much more than just believing things that are hard to believe. (Which is wonderful news to the reader who can no longer make a pretense of believing such hard-to-believe things.) Consider this passage:
"The notion that God's only son came to this planet to offer his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and that God could not forgive us without that having happened, and that we are saved by believing this story, is simply incredible. Taken metaphorically, this story can be very powerful. But taken literally, it is a profound obstacle to accepting the Christian message. To many people, it simply makes no sense, and I think we need to be straightforward about that."
I am one of those people to whom it makes no sense, and it was wonderful to hear such a devout and educated Christian voice acknowledge as much.
Borg hits all the right notes where the skeptic is concerned, talking about the lack of historical reliability of the gospels, metaphor over literalism where belief is concerned, and compassion over legalism where practice is concerned.
Yes, I'm still left with the nagging suspicion that progressive theology uses symbol and metaphor as a a life-support system for an obsolete myth, but I guess that's the problem of faith.
This was my first Borg book, and I do look forward to reading more.
"The notion that God's only son came to this planet to offer his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and that God could not forgive us without that having happened, and that we are saved by believing this story, is simply incredible. Taken metaphorically, this story can be very powerful. But taken literally, it is a profound obstacle to accepting the Christian message. To many people, it simply makes no sense, and I think we need to be straightforward about that."
I am one of those people to whom it makes no sense, and it was wonderful to hear such a devout and educated Christian voice acknowledge as much.
Borg hits all the right notes where the skeptic is concerned, talking about the lack of historical reliability of the gospels, metaphor over literalism where belief is concerned, and compassion over legalism where practice is concerned.
Yes, I'm still left with the nagging suspicion that progressive theology uses symbol and metaphor as a a life-support system for an obsolete myth, but I guess that's the problem of faith.
This was my first Borg book, and I do look forward to reading more.
June 16, 2024
I always enjoy Borg's interpretation of the Bible and Jesus. This is one of his early books though and suffers a little in his particular choice of topics and organization. I prefer his "Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary" (2006).
February 24, 2022
Borg writes about his perspective on the “historical” Jesus, and how the Gospel perspectives are largely unreliable. He presents his ideas as easy to read, and broadcasts to the popular audience.
Unfortunately, Borg presents these ideas with mounds of supposition and very little evidence. While his ideas are interesting, this book is nothing more than a poorly-researched opinion piece (one example of this is his saying the gospel of Thomas might be an earlier source, despite no actual scholars taking this seriously for a multitude of well-researched reasons). Even worse is that Borg attempts to convince the populist reader that Borg’s own views are credible, despite providing no sources besides the opinions of his fellow friends on the Jesus Seminar.
This book is an awful take on how to apply historiography to any ancient event or person. The most embarrassing part of Borg’s argument is when he attempts to convince the reader that voting using color-cards is a useful method to determine what Jesus did or didn’t say (and even here, Borg fails to adequately examine the bias of the modern culture, and more specifically the Jesus Seminar itself).
While it is fun to laugh at books like this, we have to understand the danger of broadcasting opinion pieces like this to the popular audience. Most readers won’t know enough about early church history to understand how much Borg gets blatantly incorrect.
To make a respectable book, Borg could start with spending more time examining arguments from his opponents. He could also attempt to list more sources to back up his erroneous claims, although I’m not sure how many of such sources exist.
I encourage the reader to find reputable and respected authors. Finding a non-biased author in theology is admittedly impossible, but this does not hinder proper scholarly work. “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses” by Richard Bauckham is a much better (and highly respected) source on the historical Jesus.
Unfortunately, Borg presents these ideas with mounds of supposition and very little evidence. While his ideas are interesting, this book is nothing more than a poorly-researched opinion piece (one example of this is his saying the gospel of Thomas might be an earlier source, despite no actual scholars taking this seriously for a multitude of well-researched reasons). Even worse is that Borg attempts to convince the populist reader that Borg’s own views are credible, despite providing no sources besides the opinions of his fellow friends on the Jesus Seminar.
This book is an awful take on how to apply historiography to any ancient event or person. The most embarrassing part of Borg’s argument is when he attempts to convince the reader that voting using color-cards is a useful method to determine what Jesus did or didn’t say (and even here, Borg fails to adequately examine the bias of the modern culture, and more specifically the Jesus Seminar itself).
While it is fun to laugh at books like this, we have to understand the danger of broadcasting opinion pieces like this to the popular audience. Most readers won’t know enough about early church history to understand how much Borg gets blatantly incorrect.
To make a respectable book, Borg could start with spending more time examining arguments from his opponents. He could also attempt to list more sources to back up his erroneous claims, although I’m not sure how many of such sources exist.
I encourage the reader to find reputable and respected authors. Finding a non-biased author in theology is admittedly impossible, but this does not hinder proper scholarly work. “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses” by Richard Bauckham is a much better (and highly respected) source on the historical Jesus.
March 2, 2010
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Jesus, but unsure about (or put off by) all the implications and beliefs included in Christianity. Borg himself was raised Christian, went through a long period of atheism as an adult, and eventually returned to Christianity. He makes an important and inspiring distinction between what he calls second-hand religion (doctrines you are taught by others, or what you learn from reading scripture) and first-hand religion (the relationship with God you arrive at through your own personal experiences). I don't agree with everything he has to say, but he makes a lot of really good points and has a unique perspective on how to be a serious Christian.
The book itself is pretty short and a fast read (I finished it in three days). He's a very academic sounding writer, which I don't care for, but the content is good enough for me to get over things like using "image" as a verb, or words like "Christology."
The book itself is pretty short and a fast read (I finished it in three days). He's a very academic sounding writer, which I don't care for, but the content is good enough for me to get over things like using "image" as a verb, or words like "Christology."
October 17, 2018
A refreshing and interesting proposition about life with Christ. This biblical scholar simply states a theory about what it means to be Christian. His ideas about compassion and community ring a gong in my mind and heart. His analysis seems very sensible and inspired. I am surprised I was not exposed to these ideas before now though on some level his thinking is a form of confirmation of my own beliefs based on my not scholarly view of faith and Christianity. Thanks to my friend John for lending this book to me and exposing me to these ideas.
April 25, 2009
Way over my head for the most part. And didn't like the "Jesus Committee" that decides what Jesus said or didn't say. How can one have a relationship with Jesus, which the author concludes is the most important thing, if you don't believe he really said what is attributed to him in the Bible? There were some good points made though regarding the way we look at Jesus. And I do agree that we need to be more like Jesus and the way he lived, using him as an example for our lives.
March 17, 2025
This is one of those books that will be shocking for many readers. It's also one of those books that will make a lot of sense to many readers. And it's not an either/or situation. You can be filled with shock and anger while in the next chapter you will realize that author Marcus J. Borg has just explained the unexplainable.
The late Professor Borg, a New Testament scholar and theologian who popularized a liberal intellectual approach to Christianity, begins the book with his own story about meeting Jesus again. That is, his childhood vision of Christ that was formed largely by Sunday School in the Lutheran Church was transformed when he was an adult, veering from agnosticism to atheism and then back to a mature belief based on years of study and thought.
In the first chapter he acknowledges that for most adults who grew up in mainline Christian churches our childhood image of Jesus no longer makes sense, but at the same time no persuasive alternative has replaced it. He wrote this book for these people, hoping to create a new image of Jesus.
Borg has some radical ideas, such as (and these are only a few of them):
• A life with God is not about believing or about being good and following the rules. Instead, it is about developing a relationship with God that becomes a journey of transformation.
• The gospels are not historical documents. They are the church's memories of the historical Jesus, written decades after his death. They are reports about what the early Christian communities believed about Jesus, but they are not reports about Jesus's actual ministry during his lifetime. There is a big difference between the historical Jesus and how he appears in the gospels and later Christian tradition.
• During his brief time on earth, Jesus did not think or speak of himself as the literal Son of God whose historical purpose was to die for our sins. His message was not about believing in him. Instead, he was a charismatic "spirit person"—a mediator of the sacred. He was also a subversive sage, social prophet, and movement founder who invited his followers to enjoy the same transforming relationship with the Spirit that he himself knew, as well as inviting them into a community whose social vision was shaped by the core value of compassion.
• For Jesus, compassion was political. He constantly challenged the dominant societal mores of his time, advocating a politics of compassion.
• He was a teacher of wisdom. Using provocative sayings and challenging parables he offered a subversive way of seeing and living—an alternative way of life. He attacked the central values of his social world's conventional wisdom about family, honor, purity, and religiosity, all of which were sanctified by Jewish tradition.
• Find out how the big three stories from the Hebrew scriptures—the exodus from Egypt, the exile from Jerusalem to Babylonia, and the temple/priesthood/sacrifice—are reflected both in Jesus's ministry and our lives as Christians today.
• Learn a new way of what it means to believe in Jesus that is radically different than the one most of us follow.
It's good for your faith to occasionally poke it with a bit of a shock, and that's what this highly readable book will do.
The late Professor Borg, a New Testament scholar and theologian who popularized a liberal intellectual approach to Christianity, begins the book with his own story about meeting Jesus again. That is, his childhood vision of Christ that was formed largely by Sunday School in the Lutheran Church was transformed when he was an adult, veering from agnosticism to atheism and then back to a mature belief based on years of study and thought.
In the first chapter he acknowledges that for most adults who grew up in mainline Christian churches our childhood image of Jesus no longer makes sense, but at the same time no persuasive alternative has replaced it. He wrote this book for these people, hoping to create a new image of Jesus.
Borg has some radical ideas, such as (and these are only a few of them):
• A life with God is not about believing or about being good and following the rules. Instead, it is about developing a relationship with God that becomes a journey of transformation.
• The gospels are not historical documents. They are the church's memories of the historical Jesus, written decades after his death. They are reports about what the early Christian communities believed about Jesus, but they are not reports about Jesus's actual ministry during his lifetime. There is a big difference between the historical Jesus and how he appears in the gospels and later Christian tradition.
• During his brief time on earth, Jesus did not think or speak of himself as the literal Son of God whose historical purpose was to die for our sins. His message was not about believing in him. Instead, he was a charismatic "spirit person"—a mediator of the sacred. He was also a subversive sage, social prophet, and movement founder who invited his followers to enjoy the same transforming relationship with the Spirit that he himself knew, as well as inviting them into a community whose social vision was shaped by the core value of compassion.
• For Jesus, compassion was political. He constantly challenged the dominant societal mores of his time, advocating a politics of compassion.
• He was a teacher of wisdom. Using provocative sayings and challenging parables he offered a subversive way of seeing and living—an alternative way of life. He attacked the central values of his social world's conventional wisdom about family, honor, purity, and religiosity, all of which were sanctified by Jewish tradition.
• Find out how the big three stories from the Hebrew scriptures—the exodus from Egypt, the exile from Jerusalem to Babylonia, and the temple/priesthood/sacrifice—are reflected both in Jesus's ministry and our lives as Christians today.
• Learn a new way of what it means to believe in Jesus that is radically different than the one most of us follow.
It's good for your faith to occasionally poke it with a bit of a shock, and that's what this highly readable book will do.
March 26, 2019
I do not agree with Borg on everything, but there are still some interesting things in this book.
I don't agree with his strong distinction between the "pre-Easter Jesus" and the "post-Easter Christ". Borg is operating from a skepticism that follows from the Jesus Seminar's take on the historical Jesus and historical accuracy of the Gospels
But I really liked the last two chapters of the book:
Chapter 5: Jesus, the Wisdom of God: Sophia Become Flesh
In this chapter Borg connects the language about Sophia/wisdom in the old testament with Jesus. He writes: "the language about Sophia is not simply personification of wisdom in female form, but personification of God in female form. Sophia is a female image for God, a lens through which divine reality is imaged as a woman. In short, the use of Sophia language involves female imagery for speaking of God in the biblical tradition itself."
Borg continues, "The connection to Jesus’ image of God as compassionate, as “like a womb,” is striking. To say that God is like a womb is to say that God is like a woman, just as the personification of God as Sophia suggests that God is like a woman; and Jesus is a spokesperson for the compassion of Sophia/God."
Chapter 6: Images of Jesus and Images of the Christian Life
Borg claims that there are three “macro-stories” at the heart of Scripture that shape the Bible as a whole.
1. The story of the exodus from Egypt
2. The story of the exile and return from Babylon
3. The priestly story regarding the temple, priesthood, and sacrifice.
Much of Western Christianity has placed most or all of the emphasis on the priestly story, which has led to distortions in our understanding of the Christian life. One of these distortions is a "static understanding of the Christian life" where it is an ongoing cycle of sin, guilt, and forgiveness. It also leads to a misunderstanding of Christianity as "primarily a religion of the afterlife", where all that matters is "being right with God before we die: believe now for the sake of salvation later".
I really appreciated his comments on the exodus story and and the exile/return story.
And I really liked one of the last things Borg wrote at the end of the book:
"Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him. Rather, it means to give one’s heart, one’s self at its deepest level, to the post-Easter Jesus who is the living Lord, the side of God turned toward us, the face of God, the Lord who is also the Spirit" (Borg).
I don't agree with his strong distinction between the "pre-Easter Jesus" and the "post-Easter Christ". Borg is operating from a skepticism that follows from the Jesus Seminar's take on the historical Jesus and historical accuracy of the Gospels
But I really liked the last two chapters of the book:
Chapter 5: Jesus, the Wisdom of God: Sophia Become Flesh
In this chapter Borg connects the language about Sophia/wisdom in the old testament with Jesus. He writes: "the language about Sophia is not simply personification of wisdom in female form, but personification of God in female form. Sophia is a female image for God, a lens through which divine reality is imaged as a woman. In short, the use of Sophia language involves female imagery for speaking of God in the biblical tradition itself."
Borg continues, "The connection to Jesus’ image of God as compassionate, as “like a womb,” is striking. To say that God is like a womb is to say that God is like a woman, just as the personification of God as Sophia suggests that God is like a woman; and Jesus is a spokesperson for the compassion of Sophia/God."
Chapter 6: Images of Jesus and Images of the Christian Life
Borg claims that there are three “macro-stories” at the heart of Scripture that shape the Bible as a whole.
1. The story of the exodus from Egypt
2. The story of the exile and return from Babylon
3. The priestly story regarding the temple, priesthood, and sacrifice.
Much of Western Christianity has placed most or all of the emphasis on the priestly story, which has led to distortions in our understanding of the Christian life. One of these distortions is a "static understanding of the Christian life" where it is an ongoing cycle of sin, guilt, and forgiveness. It also leads to a misunderstanding of Christianity as "primarily a religion of the afterlife", where all that matters is "being right with God before we die: believe now for the sake of salvation later".
I really appreciated his comments on the exodus story and and the exile/return story.
And I really liked one of the last things Borg wrote at the end of the book:
"Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him. Rather, it means to give one’s heart, one’s self at its deepest level, to the post-Easter Jesus who is the living Lord, the side of God turned toward us, the face of God, the Lord who is also the Spirit" (Borg).
October 22, 2023
Ten years ago, I read The Jesus I Never Knew, in which Christian journalist Philip Yancey revisited the Gospels to reconcile the “real” Jesus with the various versions that churches and religious leaders tend to present circa 1995 when the book was published – i.e. the perfect Anglo-Saxon one you see in paintings, or the All-American one often invoked by the Christian Coalition, etc. Recently I came across this book (published a year earlier) that covers similar ground from a different angle.
Marcus Borg was a scholar who studied Jesus from a historical, secular point of view. But he was also a Christian who, like many Christians, found that the traditional religious image of Jesus he learned as a kid didn’t make much sense as he got older. It was through his research of the historical (which is to say human) Jesus – plus a few revelatory moments – that everything fell into place for him, and he was able to connect the historical Jesus with the “Christ of faith” – which is to say, the Christian traditions that proclaim Jesus as the Son of God.
Obviously, what readers make of Borg’s portrait of Jesus will depend on who Jesus is to them and how open-minded they are to consider other POVs. For me, it adds a new dimension to the human side of Jesus, which I’ve always found more interesting, and more relatable, than the divine side. I also like Borg’s take on Jesus as a “spirit person” [i.e. someone deeply in touch with the spirit of God], subversive sage, radical social prophet and movement founder who truly understood the human condition and offered the most viable solution, albeit one that’s neither easy nor fast.
Marcus Borg was a scholar who studied Jesus from a historical, secular point of view. But he was also a Christian who, like many Christians, found that the traditional religious image of Jesus he learned as a kid didn’t make much sense as he got older. It was through his research of the historical (which is to say human) Jesus – plus a few revelatory moments – that everything fell into place for him, and he was able to connect the historical Jesus with the “Christ of faith” – which is to say, the Christian traditions that proclaim Jesus as the Son of God.
Obviously, what readers make of Borg’s portrait of Jesus will depend on who Jesus is to them and how open-minded they are to consider other POVs. For me, it adds a new dimension to the human side of Jesus, which I’ve always found more interesting, and more relatable, than the divine side. I also like Borg’s take on Jesus as a “spirit person” [i.e. someone deeply in touch with the spirit of God], subversive sage, radical social prophet and movement founder who truly understood the human condition and offered the most viable solution, albeit one that’s neither easy nor fast.
November 27, 2020
I’m sure a strongly religious or academic theologian would have gotten much more out of this book than I did as a lay person. I had heard it was readable but unfortunately I found it took a much deeper understanding of religious matters than the average reader has. For instance: “Such experiences radically subvert social boundaries and culturally generated distinctions by exposing their artificiality and disclosing the ‘is-ness’ that lies beneath the socially constructed maps of reality we erect.” I could eventually puzzle that out, but it takes a lot of thought, and when the whole book is written that way (passage selected by opening to a random page) the reader risks missing the important messages in the book. The redeeming fact is that there ARE important messages and I took many notes on thought-provoking matters. I’d rather not comment on specifics I gained from reading the book, as it’s likely different readers would have different takeaways. I’d just say if you want to examine the foundations of your personal religious beliefs this book is likely to inspire some thoughts, but approach it from the aspect of religious study and discussion.
January 30, 2021
If to be a Christian one must believe in God, then I am not a Christian. I am an atheist. So, if this disqualifies me, in your eyes, as a reviewer of a very Christian book, I understand. That said, and it must be said, I loved this book, and am looking forward to reading more of the late Marcus Borg's writing on the subject.
I won't bore you with a long explanation for my interest in the subject. Enough to say I was raised Catholic and generally believe that religion can play a positive role in society. I am also an American, and so I am a member of a society in which a vast majority claim to be some manner of Christian. It might be more interesting for an American to explain how he could not be interested in Christianity. Finally, I admire wisdom literatures of many cultures, and I have a keen interest in how this culture in this country has strayed so far from the heart of Christian wisdom as expressed in the teaching of Jesus and recorded in the canonical Gospels.
I say I loved this book for three reasons:
I love clear, logical, well-structured writing. Borg brings a lot more to this subject than just good expository writing, but this is my kind of prose. It is a joy felt deep in the tiny gray cells to let Borg unwind his arguments and insights in this accessible and compelling text. Perhaps because the chapters were originally delivered as lectures, there is almost a conversational tone as well. It is all very appealing to me as a reader - I want more, please.
I crave insights that help me to answer the questions I think about all the time. Borg seems to be looking at our society (he wrote the book in 1994, to be clear) and seeing what I see - on one hand, an unjust system; and on the other, broad complacent endorsement of the status quo among Christians of every stripe. Why is that? Borg only addresses the question indirectly, but his insights and observations of how we have lost our way are obviously applicable to my questions.
Lastly, I suppose I would not have enjoyed the book so much if it left me feeling as if there were no hope, but indeed I come away from this reading with renewed hope that Christianity is not necessarily bound for eternity to self-centered individualism, cruel capitalism, rigid and punitive purity-based moral priorities, and patriarchal authoritarianism.
I will leave you with three teasers - insights from this excellent book that might help you to decide whether this is a book for you.
1) Borg emphasizes that Jesus went to great lengths to undermine the conventional wisdom of his society in that time - conventional ideas of what a man should and should not do - to give one example, healing on the Sabbath. Dining with a tax collector, or speaking with a Samaritan woman at a well, for others. He flouted these laws, rooted in a purity-based set of rules which had become the center of the law. His purpose was to shift our moral focus to loving God, and loving what God loves. He sought to overturn purity as the definition of holiness, and put compassion in its place. If we see that, and also see that most white Christians voted for Trump, after four years of seeing how cruel his regime had been to "the least of these", we can see how the conventional wisdom of Christian America is again in need of overturning. Reform. Conversion.
2) Borg explains that Jesus also sought to undermine the idea of God as a lawgiver and judge. A God of requirements. And rewards. You are saved by grace, through faith, but what if you do not believe? Is that a requirement? Did Jesus come to all of us? Does God love all of us? Or must you believe? And why is that idea of God better than a God who loves us as the father of the prodigal son does? Jesus invites us to celebrate with him the return of the prodigal son, but we are like that other son, and like the workers in the vineyard who arrived early in the day - we resent a God whose love extends equally and without limitation, even to those we deem less worthy. As if it were our job to judge. Who am I to judge, asks Pope Francis? He is right.
3) Borg talks about what Jesus meant by the "Kingdom of God", making it clear that Jesus was describing to his disciples what God wants for us on this Earth, in this life. "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". Borg's idea of Jesus is that he called God "Abba" because he felt close to God the way a child feels the loving presence of his father, his "Abba". It is that intimacy that powers Jesus's vision of the Kingdom of God, and so his explanation to his disciples of the greatest commandment - love your God and love your neighbor - proceeds from his spiritual practice and contemplation. For Jesus, it is not clear there is an afterlife, but there is a way to God, and it is in the transformation of the heart that comes from devotion to God and compassion for all of God's beloved world - for "he so loved the world" as we all know. This is Borg's understanding of the ministry of Jesus - an overturning of conventional wisdom and an invitation to transform ourselves through love of God and one another.
Consider the fight going on today in America, between the Catholic bishops who have turned their back on Pope Francis - quite a few of them. Consider the men in the Senate chamber on January 6, after they made their bloody way into that place, over the broken bodies of policemen and women, where they stopped to pray in Jesus's name. Consider the manifold evil of the Trump presidency and the fact that white Christians overwhelmingly turned out to vote for more.
We all need to ask ourselves why. We need more books like this one to help us find our way to the light.
Note: Borg wrote this 27 years ago, long before Trumpism was a thing, so please don't accuse Borg of some kind of Trump derangement syndrome. He passed in 2015. Some of his lectures are on You Tube, if you are interested.
I won't bore you with a long explanation for my interest in the subject. Enough to say I was raised Catholic and generally believe that religion can play a positive role in society. I am also an American, and so I am a member of a society in which a vast majority claim to be some manner of Christian. It might be more interesting for an American to explain how he could not be interested in Christianity. Finally, I admire wisdom literatures of many cultures, and I have a keen interest in how this culture in this country has strayed so far from the heart of Christian wisdom as expressed in the teaching of Jesus and recorded in the canonical Gospels.
I say I loved this book for three reasons:
I love clear, logical, well-structured writing. Borg brings a lot more to this subject than just good expository writing, but this is my kind of prose. It is a joy felt deep in the tiny gray cells to let Borg unwind his arguments and insights in this accessible and compelling text. Perhaps because the chapters were originally delivered as lectures, there is almost a conversational tone as well. It is all very appealing to me as a reader - I want more, please.
I crave insights that help me to answer the questions I think about all the time. Borg seems to be looking at our society (he wrote the book in 1994, to be clear) and seeing what I see - on one hand, an unjust system; and on the other, broad complacent endorsement of the status quo among Christians of every stripe. Why is that? Borg only addresses the question indirectly, but his insights and observations of how we have lost our way are obviously applicable to my questions.
Lastly, I suppose I would not have enjoyed the book so much if it left me feeling as if there were no hope, but indeed I come away from this reading with renewed hope that Christianity is not necessarily bound for eternity to self-centered individualism, cruel capitalism, rigid and punitive purity-based moral priorities, and patriarchal authoritarianism.
I will leave you with three teasers - insights from this excellent book that might help you to decide whether this is a book for you.
1) Borg emphasizes that Jesus went to great lengths to undermine the conventional wisdom of his society in that time - conventional ideas of what a man should and should not do - to give one example, healing on the Sabbath. Dining with a tax collector, or speaking with a Samaritan woman at a well, for others. He flouted these laws, rooted in a purity-based set of rules which had become the center of the law. His purpose was to shift our moral focus to loving God, and loving what God loves. He sought to overturn purity as the definition of holiness, and put compassion in its place. If we see that, and also see that most white Christians voted for Trump, after four years of seeing how cruel his regime had been to "the least of these", we can see how the conventional wisdom of Christian America is again in need of overturning. Reform. Conversion.
2) Borg explains that Jesus also sought to undermine the idea of God as a lawgiver and judge. A God of requirements. And rewards. You are saved by grace, through faith, but what if you do not believe? Is that a requirement? Did Jesus come to all of us? Does God love all of us? Or must you believe? And why is that idea of God better than a God who loves us as the father of the prodigal son does? Jesus invites us to celebrate with him the return of the prodigal son, but we are like that other son, and like the workers in the vineyard who arrived early in the day - we resent a God whose love extends equally and without limitation, even to those we deem less worthy. As if it were our job to judge. Who am I to judge, asks Pope Francis? He is right.
3) Borg talks about what Jesus meant by the "Kingdom of God", making it clear that Jesus was describing to his disciples what God wants for us on this Earth, in this life. "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". Borg's idea of Jesus is that he called God "Abba" because he felt close to God the way a child feels the loving presence of his father, his "Abba". It is that intimacy that powers Jesus's vision of the Kingdom of God, and so his explanation to his disciples of the greatest commandment - love your God and love your neighbor - proceeds from his spiritual practice and contemplation. For Jesus, it is not clear there is an afterlife, but there is a way to God, and it is in the transformation of the heart that comes from devotion to God and compassion for all of God's beloved world - for "he so loved the world" as we all know. This is Borg's understanding of the ministry of Jesus - an overturning of conventional wisdom and an invitation to transform ourselves through love of God and one another.
Consider the fight going on today in America, between the Catholic bishops who have turned their back on Pope Francis - quite a few of them. Consider the men in the Senate chamber on January 6, after they made their bloody way into that place, over the broken bodies of policemen and women, where they stopped to pray in Jesus's name. Consider the manifold evil of the Trump presidency and the fact that white Christians overwhelmingly turned out to vote for more.
We all need to ask ourselves why. We need more books like this one to help us find our way to the light.
Note: Borg wrote this 27 years ago, long before Trumpism was a thing, so please don't accuse Borg of some kind of Trump derangement syndrome. He passed in 2015. Some of his lectures are on You Tube, if you are interested.
January 28, 2023
Tries to argue for a meaningful Christian walk alongside a more skeptical take on the historical Jesus.
Good:
- Jesus vs. contemporary wisdom
- God is compassion
- Limits of the priestly story of Scripture: 1) Static view of the Christian life; 2) Undervaluing the present life; 3) Domesticates political action.
Bad:
- Most of the good stuff of this book has been powerfully communicated for 2000 years in the conservative traditions Borg is critiquing
- Jesus didn’t use the priestly story to displace the priestly story. He fulfilled the priestly story
- It is hard for me to accept the meaningful narratives of Scripture if many of its propositions are literally false. Some of Christian theology is certainly built on metaphor, but they are metaphors reflecting the literal acts of God in history.
Good:
- Jesus vs. contemporary wisdom
- God is compassion
- Limits of the priestly story of Scripture: 1) Static view of the Christian life; 2) Undervaluing the present life; 3) Domesticates political action.
Bad:
- Most of the good stuff of this book has been powerfully communicated for 2000 years in the conservative traditions Borg is critiquing
- Jesus didn’t use the priestly story to displace the priestly story. He fulfilled the priestly story
- It is hard for me to accept the meaningful narratives of Scripture if many of its propositions are literally false. Some of Christian theology is certainly built on metaphor, but they are metaphors reflecting the literal acts of God in history.
June 24, 2024
This would make a lot of the pastors who taught me in my youth angry, and that is what I like most about it. It is refreshing to read an honest, skeptical account of Jesus as a figure from a religious writer. Borg balances his own faith with academic, secular critique, and it makes for a really thought-provoking read. There are two highlights of this book that make it a worthwhile text for me: first, in all of my years as a pastor's kid, I never once had anyone mention the possible tie between the "wisdom of God/Sophia" and Jesus, so it was incredibly interesting to think about that perspective; and second, Borg's historical and scriptural construction of Jesus asserts compassion as his primary teaching and spiritual focus, which is refreshing when so many characterizations of Jesus paint him solely as a sacrifice for salvation and a beam of moral purity.
I wish I had read this while writing my thesis!
I wish I had read this while writing my thesis!
April 28, 2019
Interesting book although a lot of it was material I had encountered before. I studied under a fellow member of the Jesus Seminar so that perhaps explains why most of the ideas represented in the book seemed familiar.
I would not recommend the next to a non-christian looking for academic New Testament texts, as the target audience is clearly a member or perhaps lapsed member of the faith. Rather I would recommend it to open minded christians interested in a more academic reading of the new testament
I would not recommend the next to a non-christian looking for academic New Testament texts, as the target audience is clearly a member or perhaps lapsed member of the faith. Rather I would recommend it to open minded christians interested in a more academic reading of the new testament
April 25, 2021
This is the book I needed when I first started questioning the Jesus I was taught by evangelicalism. Without this resource, I pursued my own scholarship on the historical Jesus versus the Christian Jesus. Having come to my own conclusions, Borg provided affirmation of what I had already discovered. It was comforting and illuminating and I'm so glad I finally made the time to read this permission-granting book.
October 9, 2024
Maybe 3.5 stars or a little more. It was good. If you haven't had a lot in the academic side of theology/Christianity then it probably was a great place to broach the subject. I wish he cited more of his information or put it into a greater context. But, he kinda said at the beginning the original speech he gave was less than half of this. So I assume he kept to the same delivery style and approach. Had some good insights. He could have done better recognizing that, just like studying history, Christology and theology in general is going to have very limited information with very strong conclusions. Hence the need for greater context.
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