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An affirming gay Christian (GLBT) site dedicated to ...
"Building (ALL) the Body of Christ in Love!"
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An affirming gay Christian (GLBT) site dedicated to ... "Building (ALL) the Body of Christ in Love!"
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Marcus J. Borg
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All Christianity is, to some extent, idolatrous. Christian worship is a response to a worshiper's image of Jesus, and all images of Jesus fall short of his reality--in the same way that all biographies and portraits fail to depict a whole person. In Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, New Testament scholar Marcus Borg attempts to understand how popular images of Jesus connect Christians to their savior and isolate them from him. Borg writes about his own evolving ideas of who Jesus was, considers the scholarly and popular religious evolution of Jesus' public image, and investigates with special care the effects of Historical Jesus research on contemporary images of Jesus. Meeting Jesus Again is written in an affable, gracious, and unflinchingly honest voice. Borg's description of his own faith particularly exemplifies these qualities, and gives the reader a simultaneously safe and unsettling new perspective on the peasant from Galilee: "[T]he central issue of the Christian life is not believing in God or believing in the Bible," he writes. "Rather, the Christian life is about entering into a relationship with that to which the Christian tradition points, which may be spoken of as God, the risen, living Christ, or the Spirit. And a Christian is one who lives out his or her relationship to God within the framework of the Christian tradition.
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In the companion to Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (1994), Borg argues for panentheism the conception of God as being both transcendent (God is more than everything) and immanent (God is in everything). The ancient Jews and the early Christians, he says, understood God in this way, as being "right here," at the same time that God was also thought to be supernatural and transcendent, the all-knowing king-judge "out there." Panentheism entails imaging God, not as a monarch to whom we owe fealty, but as a lover with whom we have a relationship. Borg ultimately maintains that living in relationship with God enjoins an open heart; a politics based in compassion and, especially for Christians, just communalism rather than a system of individualistic competition; and the understanding that salvation is an ideal for this world, not any afterlife. The many enthusiastic readers of Borg's Jesus book will be further cheered by his God book.
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Borg follows up two
of his previous releases about the Bible and Jesus with a volume that
could easily have played on those titles, because this highly readable
book is essentially about looking at Christianity again for the first
time. In that respect, it provides a valuable glimpse into the essence of
Christianity for those who have left the faith because they no longer
believe its doctrines and those who are trying to remain in the faith
while questioning its doctrines. With those people in mind, Borg
emphasizes the transformational aspect of Christianity by examining the
"emerging paradigm" that is gradually replacing the belief-centered
paradigm of the last several hundred years. The new paradigm, Borg writes,
is about loving God and loving what God loves, rather than rigidly
adhering to a specific set of beliefs. In exploring this new way of "being
Christian," Borg offers a middle ground for conservative and liberal
Christians, though it's unlikely conservatives will conclude, as he does,
that Jesus was not really the Son of God, nor are liberals likely to begin
using the term "born again," as he advocates. Still, there's much here
that both sides can agree on, possibly helping to bring them a step closer
to the unity that has eluded them for centuries. As always, Borg writes
with clarity and precision, which should also help the ongoing
conversation.
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Reading the Bible Again for the First Time is Marcus Borg's follow-up to Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. Like his earlier book, this one is written for lay people whose faith has been frustrated by their misapprehension that fundamentalism's claim to be the one true faith is valid. Borg, a professor of religion at Oregon State University, describes an alternative to fundamentalists' so-called "literal" readings of scripture. (He believes that such "literal-factual" readings do not live up to that description, and that the limitations of such readings have alienated many people who would otherwise remain part of the church.) Borg calls his alternative "historical-metaphorical" reading, a way of "taking the Bible seriously without taking it literally." Reading the Bible begins with a history of recent conflicts regarding biblical interpretation. Borg navigates the minefields of his subject with sensitivity and precision, explaining, for example, the important distinction between evangelical and fundamentalist readings of the Bible. He then offers historical-metaphorical readings of some key texts from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Throughout, Borg writes with calm assurance and respect for those who would disagree with him. Reading the Bible is a credible guide to the project it names. It is a faithful exercise of reason, undertaken to help Christians hear more clearly the many voices recorded in the Bible.
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