1
2
3
5
8
12
20
33
52
83
133
213
340
543
867
1384
2208
3346
3522
5443
5619
6757
7581
7687
7688
7689
7690
7691
8098
8422
8625
8752
8832
8882
8913
8932
8945
8953
8957
8960
8962
8963
8964
8965
▲
▼
| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| a38adf2 | As the biblical vision of a domination-free order, the dream of God, the kingdom of God on earth, what does a politics of compassion imply for Christian perception of and relationship to the social order? It leads to seeing the impact of social structures on people's lives. It leads to seeing that the economic suffering of the poor is not primarily due to individual failure. It leads to seeing that the categories of "marginal," "inferior," .. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 5017afe | It is a life of deep commitment and gentle certitude. Deep commitment, because it involves one's whole being. Gentle certitude, because it is gentle, soft, regarding particular verbal formulations of Christianity, including precise doctrinal statements. These are always human products. They are to be valued as such and to be reformulated when necessary. Depth of commitment and dogmatic certainty about a particular set of beliefs are not the.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| c00c0f7 | Cumulatively, taking the pre-Easter Jesus seriously as an epiphany of God suggests a massive subversion of the monarchical model of God and the way of life (individually and socially) to which it leads. God is not a distant being but is near at hand. God is not primarily a lawgiver and judge but the compassionate one. The religious life is not about requirements but about relationship. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 1707e50 | 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.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| e5579b9 | Even more striking and revealing is how he interweaves "sons of God" twice in Romans 8:14, 19 with "children of God" twice in Romans 8:16, 21--and again in Romans 9:8. It is, for Paul, all about family values--but divine family values, and that is what makes him very, very radical." -- | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 805ecbd | The notions of biblical infallibility and inerrancy first appeared in the 1600s, and became insistently affirmed by some Protestants only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 42d1a74 | W]e pray that [this domination-free order] - God's kingdom - might come on earth every time we pray the Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." But we often miss the connection because of the cadence with which we most frequently pray this prayer: "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done" is separated by a single-beat pause from "on earth, as it is in heaven." But the syntax is clear: we are praying for t.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| dd3af8f | American Christians need especially to see the political meanings of these stories, for we live in a time of the American empire. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 9182575 | empire is not intrinsically about geographical expansion and territorial acquisition. As a nation, that is not our aim. Rather, empire is about the use of superior power--military, political, and economic--to shape the world as the empire sees fit. In this sense, we are the new Rome. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 9fb4485 | Are we among those who yearn for the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace, who seek peace through justice? Or do we, like advocates of imperial theology, seek peace through victory? Where do we see the light of the world? Is America, the American empire, the light shining in the darkness? Jim Wallis, in his important book God's Politics, reports that our president on the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 2001 spo.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 11d8fd6 | Advent and Christmas are about a new world. They are thus intrinsically about eschatology. Recall what we said about this word in Chapter 3: eschatology is about the divine transformation of our earth. It is not about some mass immigration from a doomed world to a blessed heaven. Rather, it is about the end of this era of war and violence, injustice, and oppression. It is about the earth's transformation, not about its devastation. It is ab.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 8b0bcf4 | We do not need to choose between them. Our understanding of Jesus' significance is richer if we see and affirm both the historical Jesus and the canonical Jesus. Both the pre-Easter Jesus and the post-Easter Jesus are the image of the invisible God. Both disclose what God is like. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| ac2d9a9 | we are to participate with God in bringing about the world promised by Christmas. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 95d7d9f | 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. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 3c51115 | God will not change us as individuals without our participation, and God will not change the world without our participation. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 48412f9 | This went on for a few minutes, but to save paper and therefore the trees and therefore the forests and therefore the environment and therefore the world I have tried to keep it short. | David Walliams | ||
| 2086d9d | 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.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 2da763d | 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.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 749690d | 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." | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 35222f8 | 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." | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 0bc4483 | Rather, the language of divine agency here emphasizes the theme of God's grace: God provided the sacrifice. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| d618eb2 | 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.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 33f2f7c | 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. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 8c9a3d3 | 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. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 1d838ad | 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 .. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 2e707a8 | 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. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 7cc464c | 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.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 1f15c38 | 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.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 61bf589 | Zoe also knew her stepmother did not love her. Or even like her very much. In truth, Zoe was pretty sure her stepmother hated her. Sheila treated her at worst as an irritant, at best as if she were invisible. | David Walliams | ||
| 7f4c98f | 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.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 6866611 | 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 . . ." | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 36e07a4 | 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. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 2d49307 | Sin needs to be demoted from its status as the dominant Christian metaphor for what's wrong among us. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| def7a8f | When we emphasize his divinity at the expense of his humanity, we lose track of the utterly remarkable human being he was. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 18d3cf1 | Righteous people are those who do what is right. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 11d6f96 | 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. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| adcfb16 | 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?" | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| f4b45f5 | 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." | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 18e2ff0 | 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. | christianity faith christian-faith | Marcus J. Borg | |
| b5715ec | 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." | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 2e063c3 | 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.. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| ee1f631 | 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. | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| aae75ac | In the United States, the central values of our culture are the "three A's": attractiveness, achievement, and affluence. For" | Marcus J. Borg | ||
| 5c9d560 | 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.. | Marcus J. Borg |