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95d7d9f
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Participatory eschatology involves a twofold affirmation: we are to do it with God, and we cannot do it without God. In St. Augustine's brilliant aphorism, God without us will not; we without God cannot. We who have seen the star and heard the angels sing are called to participate in the new birth and new world proclaimed by these stories.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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3c51115
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God will not change us as individuals without our participation, and God will not change the world without our participation.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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2086d9d
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The United States over the last thirty years has seen a growing gap - indeed, a deepening gulf - between rich and poor. The gap is significantly greater than in any other developed nation. Moreover, the growing gulf between rich and poor is the result of social and economic policy, not because some classes of people worked harder and others slacked off over the last thirty years (all of us, according to most studies, are working harder). Th..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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2da763d
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Finally, then, I conclude with an iconic image of that foundational reconciliation from the later fourth century. It is a bronze hanging lamp from the villa of the aristocratic Valerii on the Celian Hill in Rome, now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum in Florence. The lamp is shaped like a boat. Peter is seated in the stern at the tiller. Paul is standing in the prow looking forward. Peter steers. Paul guides. And the boat sail..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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749690d
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The notion that there was one "right" way of seeing things disappeared. This was enormously liberating, even if a bit alarming. But my curiosity was greater than my fear."
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Marcus J. Borg |
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35222f8
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We learned, in the opening words of the Lord's Prayer, that God is "in heaven." But we also learned that God is everywhere--that is, omnipresent. When one combines the two, the result is panentheism. It is orthodox Christian theology."
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Marcus J. Borg |
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Rather, the language of divine agency here emphasizes the theme of God's grace: God provided the sacrifice.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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d618eb2
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We can now see that the fundamental difference between those divergent visions of earth's final kingdom is not about ends, but about means. The imperial kingdom of Rome--and this may indeed apply to any other empire as well--had as its program peace through victory. The eschatological kingdom of God has as its program peace through justice. Both intend peace--one by violence, the other by nonviolence. And still those tectonic plates grind a..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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33f2f7c
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Its meanings include: The risen Christ journeys with us, is with us, whether we know it or not. Sometimes there are moments when we do recognize this.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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8c9a3d3
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being Christian is about a relationship to the God who is mediated by the Christian tradition as sacrament. To be Christian is to live within the Christian tradition as a sacrament and let it do its transforming work within and among us.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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1d838ad
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When one of the Jewish Sibylline Oracles imagines what God's perfect world will look like on its arrival, it claims: "The earth will belong equally to all, undivided by walls or fences.... Lives will be in common and wealth will have no division. For there will be no poor man there, no rich, and no tyrant, no slave. Further, no one will be either great or small anymore. No kings, no leaders. All will be on a par together" (2:313-38). So we ..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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2e707a8
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to do Christian theology within the framework of religious pluralism and the cross-cultural study of religion. Given its Christian focus and audience, it is written primarily for Christians but also for anybody interested in listening in on a Christian conversation. The conversation is one that has been going on within myself, with other Christians in the present, and with Christian voices from the past.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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7cc464c
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Roman imperial theology is the oppositional context for much of early Christian language about Jesus. The gospels, Paul's letters, and the other New Testament writings use the language of imperial theology, but apply it to Jesus. Jesus is the "Son of God"-- the emperor is not. Jesus is the "Lord" - the emperor is not. Jesus is the "Savior" who brings "peace on earth" - the emperor is not. The contrast is not just a matter of language. The c..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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1f15c38
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These two visions of Christianity--one emphasizing the next world and what we must believe and do in order to get there, the other emphasizing God's passion for the transformation of this world--are very different. Yet they use the same language and share the same sacred scripture, the same Bible. What separates them is how the shared language is understood--whether within the framework of heaven-and-hell Christianity or within the framewor..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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7f4c98f
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The term "evangelist" is based on the Greek word for "gospel," which means "news." As evangelists, the authors of the gospels proclaimed the "news" about Jesus in and for their time and place. The word "news" suggests updating. They proclaimed Jesus for their "now" by updating the story of Jesus "then." They combined proclamation of Jesus for their now with their memory of Jesus then. In this, they did what any good Christian preacher, teac..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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Days pass, and the years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles. Fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing. Let there be moments when your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder, "How filled with awe is this place . . ."
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Marcus J. Borg |
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36e07a4
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Two statements about the nature of the gospels are crucial for grasping the historical task: (1) They are a developing tradition. (2) They are a mixture of history remembered and history metaphorized.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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2d49307
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Sin needs to be demoted from its status as the dominant Christian metaphor for what's wrong among us.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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When we emphasize his divinity at the expense of his humanity, we lose track of the utterly remarkable human being he was.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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18d3cf1
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Righteous people are those who do what is right.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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11d6f96
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Eschatology is not, of course, about the destruction of the earth, but about its transfiguration, not about the end of the world, but about the end of evil, injustice, violence--and imperialism.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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adcfb16
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Christmas is not about tinsel and mistletoe or even ornaments and presents, but about what means will we use toward the end of a peace from heaven upon our earth. Or is "peace on earth" but a Christmas ornament taken each year from attic or basement and returned there as soon as possible?"
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Marcus J. Borg |
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f4b45f5
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But "redemption" in the Bible and in Paul is not about the forgiveness of sins. Rather, it is a metaphor of liberation from bondage--from life in Egypt, from a life of slavery. "The redemption that is in Christ Jesus" would be better translated "the liberation that is in Christ Jesus." We are liberated through him."
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Marcus J. Borg |
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18e2ff0
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You can believe all the right things and still be in bondage. You can believe all the right things and still be miserable. You can believe all the right things and still be relatively unchanged. Believing a set of claims to be true has very little transforming power.
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christianity
faith
christian-faith
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Marcus J. Borg |
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b5715ec
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Thus growth in love, growth in compassion, is the primary quality of life in the Spirit. It is also the primary criterion for distinguishing a genuine born-again experience from one that only appears to be one. It is the pragmatic test suggested by William James, quoting Jesus: "By their fruits you shall know them." The fruit is love. Indeed, such fruit is the purpose of the Christian life."
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Marcus J. Borg |
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2e063c3
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I propose, then, a no-holds-barred history on the one hand and a no-holds-barred faith on the other. This, I believe, is to live in the uncomfortable real world, where such things do not shout challenges at each other from behind locked doors but meet, merge, fuse, question each other, uncouple again, swirl round each other, undergird and undermine each other, examine each other's foundations and set about demolishing or reconstructing them..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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ee1f631
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The risen Jesus opens up the meaning of scripture. The risen Jesus is known in the sharing of bread. The risen Jesus journeys with us, whether we know it or not. There are moments in which we do come to know him and recognize him. This story is the metaphoric condensation of several years of early Christian thought into one parabolic afternoon.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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aae75ac
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In the United States, the central values of our culture are the "three A's": attractiveness, achievement, and affluence. For"
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Marcus J. Borg |
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5c9d560
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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..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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it is important that children not be taught in such a way that they will later need to unlearn many things. We
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Marcus J. Borg |
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Taking the God of love and justice and the God of grace seriously has immediate implications for the Christian message. It becomes: God loves us already and has from our very beginning. The Christian life is not about believing or doing what we need to believe or do so that we can be saved. Rather, it's about seeing what is already true--that God loves us already--and then beginning to live in this relationship. It is about becoming conscio..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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The "bad news" version is the saving of some from the devouring fire that will consume the rest. The "good news" version is a vision of transformed people and a transformed earth filled with the glory of God. What's at stake in the question of God's character is our image of the Christian life. Is Christianity about requirements? Here's what you must do to be saved. Or is Christianity about relationship and transformation? Here's the path: ..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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individual responsibility matters, but none of us is really self-made. We are also the product of many factors beyond our control. These include genetic inheritance, affecting both health and intelligence; the family into which we're born and our upbringing; the quality of education we receive; and a whole host of "accidents" along life's way--good breaks and bad breaks. To think we are primarily the product of our own individual effort is ..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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Jesus is, for us as Christians, the decisive revelation of what a life full of God looks like. Radically centered in God and filled with the Spirit, he is the decisive disclosure and epiphany of what can be seen of God embodied in a human life. As the Word and Wisdom and Spirit of God become flesh, his life incarnates the character of God, indeed, the passion of God. In him we see God's passion.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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eb5ca77
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We do not think that Jesus thought that the purpose of his life, his vocation, was his death. His purpose was what he was doing as a healer, wisdom teacher, social prophet, and movement initiator. His death was the consequence of what he was doing, but not his purpose.
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Marcus J. Borg |
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78efb2d
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Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart" (Deut. 6:6). "Serve the Lord your God with all your heart" (Deut. 10:12). "Incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel" (Josh. 24:23). "Return to the Lord with all your heart" (1 Sam. 7:3). "The Lord looks on the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). "I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart" (Ps. 9:1). "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to ..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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40b962b
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Jesus courageously kept doing what he was doing even though he knew it could have fatal consequences. So we do not think Jesus saw his purpose as dying for the sins of the world. Rather, this interpretation, like the others in the New Testament, is post-Easter and thus retrospective. Looking back on the execution of Jesus, the early movement sought to see a providential purpose in this horrendous event.12
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Marcus J. Borg |
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the domination system, understood as something much larger than the Roman governor and the temple aristocracy, is responsible for the death of Jesus. In words attributed to Paul, God through Jesus "disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in the cross."17 The domination system killed Jesus and thereby disclosed its moral bankruptcy and ultimate defeat."
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Marcus J. Borg |
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to affirm "Jesus is the sacrifice for sin" was to deny the temple's claim to have a monopoly on forgiveness and access to God. It was an antitemple statement. Using the metaphor of sacrifice, it subverted the sacrificial system. It meant: God in Jesus has already provided the sacrifice and has thus taken care of whatever you think separates you from God; you have access to God apart from the temple and its system of sacrifice. It is a metap..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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Do you mean, do I believe that Jesus died for our sins?" She said, "Yes." I then explained, as I have here, that historically, no, I don't think that Jesus literally died for our sins. I don't think he thought of his life and purpose that way; I don't think he thought of that as his divinely given vocation. And then I continued. But I do have faith in the cross as a trustworthy disclosure of the evil of domination systems, as the exposure o..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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3a1beab
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Thus Jesus is a metaphor of God. Indeed, for us as Christians, he is the metaphor of God. Of course, he was also a real person. As metaphor of God, Jesus discloses what God is like. We see God through Jesus. We are accustomed to speaking of the death of Jesus as the "passion" of Jesus, and the stories of his death as the "passion narratives." When we do so, we typically think of "passion" as meaning "suffering." And it does mean that. But i..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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I think Jesus would have said, "It's not about me." During his lifetime, he deflected attention from himself. In an illuminating passage in our earliest gospel, when a man addressed him as "Good Teacher," Jesus responded with, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone."22"
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Marcus J. Borg |
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183f304
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The guild of New Testament studies has become so used to operating with a hermeneutic of suspicion that we find ourselves trapped in our own subtleties. If two ancient writers agree about something, that proves one got it from the other. If they seem to disagree, that proves that one or both are wrong. If they say an event fulfilled biblical prophecy, they made it up to look like that. If an event or saying fits a writer's theological schem..
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Marcus J. Borg |
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30c8e36
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A poem by Billy Collins, poet laureate of the United States, captures the ache of loss at the end of childhood. Its title is significant: "On Turning Ten": The whole idea of it makes me feel like I'm coming down with something, something worse than any stomach ache or the headaches I get from reading in bad light-- a kind of measles of the spirit, a mumps of the psyche, a disfiguring chickenpox of the soul. You tell me it is too early to be..
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Marcus J. Borg |