An exciting book that seeks to explain who Jesus actually was based on the gospels and scripture, stripping away the mythic superstructure that Christians built after Jesus' death, and demonstrating that what has become the dominant mode of understanding Jesus' life through scripture is only one of several metaphorical threads that are present in the Bible and understood by early Christians, and this narrowing of meaning has come at significant cost to the imaging of what religious life for the Christian should be.

Borg argues that Jesus never knew himself to be the Son of God in a unique sense, or as one whose mission was to die for the sins of the world. That picture comes out of the Gospel of John, which contains the great "I am" statements of Jesus, which are agreed by Biblical scholars to be ahistorical. John, the latest of the gospels, presents Jesus as he had come to be understood by Christians of that time. The earlier gospels do not show Jesus speaking in such a manner.

Rather, Borg sees Jesus as what he calls a "spirit person", one who has visions and direct experiences of the reality of God. People who have such experiences are found across cultures and times. Born into a culture whose social structure was rigidly based on a purity scheme, whose vision of religious life was to be as "pure" as God demanded, Jesus did not recognize his culture's social/religious constructs as consistent with his experience of God. His teaching sought to replace the "Be holy for I the Lord your God am holy" command of Leviticus with a "Be compassionate as God is compassionate" instruction (Luke).

His public life also contained an argument for moving from secondhand religion to firsthand religion: moving beyond secular and religious conventional wisdom, which is what we are taught to believe by others, to a subversive wisdom that comes from personal relationship and experience with God. The religious life is thus about relationship, not measuring up to a body of rules and regulations and expectations.

Borg brings out three main story narratives in the Bible, which originate with the experiences of the Hebrews but extend to have meaning for everyone in every time:
1)The Exodus story is saying that the human condition is bondage (to what? a great many things...) and the solution is liberation, which involves a journey through the wilderness, toward God and with God.
2)The Exile and Return story says that we feel separated from our true home and long to return. Exile is often marked by grief, and the religious life is a journey with God back home.
3)The Priestly story says that we are sinners who are guilty before God, in need of forgiveness. Religious life is not so much a journey as a story of sin, guilt, sacrifice and forgiveness.

All three of these stories were important to Jesus and early Christianity, but over time one of them came to dominate the popular understanding of Jesus and the Christian life. Obviously that would be the Priestly story.

Borg lays out six "severe distortions in our understanding of the Christian life" that result from the dominance of this priestly story:

1)Produces a static understanding of the Christian life, a repeated cycle of sin, guilt, and forgiveness.

2)Creates a passive understanding of the Christian life. Rather than seeking transformation, in ourselves and in our culture, we see that God has already done what needs to be done. It is a politically domesticating story... which suited the rulers of those societies where Christianity became the official religion quite well.

3)Tends to an understanding of Christianity as primarily a religion of the afterlife: better get right with God before you die!

4)Imagines God primarily as lawgiver and judge, whose forgiveness becomes conditional on our believing a certain dogma, that of Jesus' atoning death.

5)Creates a narrative that is very hard to believe: God's only and literal son came to this planet to sacrifice himself for the sins of humans, because God could not forgive us otherwise, and we are saved from damnation only by believing this. It's a powerful metaphor, but argued literally it alienates many people from Christianity.

6)Some people don't feel much guilt, for whatever reason. Yet they may recognize their state of bondage, or their feelings of alienation and estrangement. The priestly story offers them nothing, while the other Biblical narrative stories do.

In all, the book is a great popular level manuscript that demonstrates a less well known historical understanding of Jesus and his teachings, and offers an alternative to the dominant theological interpretations present in our culture. ( )

The author provides an account of contemporary Jesus scholarship -- told in simple language for lay readers -- and of his personal struggle to find authentic, mature faith. Highly recommended - Library Journal

As a non-Christian living in the US in the early 21st century, I almost instinctively recoil from Jesus talk. And the title of this book almost made me reject reading it. But I'm glad I did, as Borg does an admirable job of breaking down those barriers for people like me.

He draws a distinction between "pre-Easter Jesus" and "post-Easter Jesus." In other words between Jesus the man and Jesus the Christ his followers turned him into after his death. In this book, he almost exclusively focuses on pre-Easter Jesus, and how and why as a teacher and spiritual person, Jesus was a revolutionary. This focus allows the reader to see and understand his teachings without requiring the belief in the supernatural aspects of the story. ( )

The author provides an account of contemporary Jesus scholarship -- told in simple language for lay readers -- and of his personal struggle to find authentic, mature faith. Highly recommended - Library Journal

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. ( )

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. ( )

This is the first Borg book that I read for myself (previously my opinion of Borg was mitigated by my reading of N.T. Wright). There is a bunch here that I disagree with, but there were some insightful things as well. I would disagree with Borg that there is a strong distinction between the pre-Easter Jesus and the post-Easter Christ. I think Jesus thought himself the Messiah and was self-aware of his part in the divinity. Borg, as a member of the Jesus seminar, is skeptical of what we can know about the historical Jesus and what his self-awareness was. I don't share Borg's skepticism and agree with Wright that if Jesus saw himself as a Spirit person initiating a movement and re-interpreting and subverting the symbols of the Judaism of his day, he probably also saw himself as the Messiah (as did others like that in first Century Judaism).

But Borg says more than this and some of it is worth pondering. He also paints a picture of Jesus as a teacher of wisdom which challenged the conventional wisdom of the dominant culture. He paints a picture of the compassionate Jesus who included those who were excluded by the practices of the purity codes which developed in first century. He talks about the 3 meta-metaphors(my word) within the Bible: The Exodus, The Exile (and return) and the Priesty Story and the various ways the early Christian community made use of the metaphors.

Even if I do not share his skepticism there are some great insights here which help reveal who Jesus was and is. ( )

For a long time now, I’ve heard that Marcus Borg is THE intellectual theologian of liberal Christians and as a result, I’ve been wanting to read some of his work. See, I was born into a strict evangelical, near fundie, home and grew up indoctrinated in evangelical tenants, taught to fear and hate “liberal” Christians, who weren’t actual Christians at all and who were going to hell. By the time I reached college, I was so disgusted with my religion, I left the church – went as far away as I could – and stayed away for two decades. Sometime in my mid to late 30s, for some unknown reason, I felt drawn back to God and the church and explored my old church and others like it because I knew no better. And I was overwhelmed by the judgmentalness, intolerance, dogma, right wing politics, hatred of the poor, and obsession with wealth. Literally, in my old church, the richest man in town went to “our church,” the mayor went to “our church,” a state senator went to “our church,” the governor was an elder at “our church,” a congressman went to “our church,” 5,000 people went to “our church” which had a huge campus you needed a map for and a budget in the tens of millions. It was truly disgusting. I’ve read what Jesus taught and did while he lived and these people certainly didn’t reflect that, in my opinion. So, it took a long time, I guess because I’m stupid, but I finally figured out I’m not an evangelical in my 40s and went looking for a new church. And found a home in a mainline church. Which seems to teach what Jesus taught, unlike the evangelicals and fundies. Now, in all honesty, even though I know Jesus wouldn’t approve, evangelicals repulse and disgust me and I can’t stand them and can’t stand to be around their arrogant, I’m-better-than-you, I’m-the-only-person-saved, yuppie asses. If there is a hell, I personally think most of them will wind up there. But then I sound too much like them, so maybe I better retract that statement.

Anyway, Borg. I got this book and started reading eagerly. And to my astonishment, I was beyond disappointed. I was appalled. Borg is literally bone headed stupid. He’s a dumbass of the first degree. He’s not a “real” Christian, in my opinion, probably doesn’t even know what one is, and this book is a sham. Even though I view myself as a fairly liberal Christian, I’m afraid I’m going to probably come across sounding like my old evangelical self in this review. And that disturbs me.

First of all, Borg grew up Lutheran. And didn’t really know too much about Christianity, even by his own admission. He began having doubts at a young age, like many people. However, unlike many people who wonder why God allows horrors to happen to “innocent” people, he wondered how God could be everywhere when he was clearly up in Heaven. Which strikes me as odd. Just odd.

He went to college, I believe at a Lutheran school. And experienced enough doubts to become a closet agnostic. And then a closet atheist. And so, logically (sarcasm intended), he went to seminary. Where he had four life changing experiences that changed his mind forever and brought him back to Christianity. As he wrote this, I eagerly waited to read about them. Imagine my shock and disappointment when he NEVER even wrote what they were, not one of them. What the hell? What is that about? Bizarre!

So Borg went on to become a religious studies professor at Oregon State University where he did “research” on historic Christianity and Jesus and came up with some “startling” conclusions. Bear in mind, it took him some 40 years or so to realize this and he’s announcing this publicly in this book – he’s come to the realization that Christianity is not about works or deeds or following commandments or belief or sacraments. Instead it’s simply about having a personal relationship with God! With God! Unreal!!! Can you believe that? I knew that at age four. Ask ANY evangelical child of five years or so and they’ll be able to tell you that. And yet Borg had to study and research and dedicate years to come up with this mind blowing conclusion that he is illuminating the world with, one which most of the world already knows. His stupidity is unsurpassed.

This book then goes on to talk about Jesus. Sort of. It talks about “pre-Easter” and “post-Easter” Jesus. See, pre-Easter Jesus is historical. Post-Easter Jesus probably didn’t exist and is metaphorical. Not possible. Jesus was a “spirit person.” A holy man, but you can’t say that, because holy means spiritual and that’s not cool and of course it’s not PC to say “man,” so spirit person it is. And here’s another startling revelation Borg comes to. Jesus was compassionate! Wow! Borg, you sure are brilliant. However, that’s not all. Oh no. See, Borg talks about wisdom, how important it is in the Bible, how it was present at the beginning of creation, how it connotes with Jesus himself. He then goes on to say that the Greek word for wisdom is the feminine noun, “Sophia.” So he does this neat little trick of quoting several Bible verses, substituting “Sophia” for “wisdom” wherever he finds it, thus making it feminine, yet proving nothing. Except in his own mind. See, he equates wisdom with God. And since wisdom is equated with God and since wisdom is female, therefore God is a woman. Yep. And Jesus was therefore not the Son of God the Father, but the Mother. Not that Jesus was the Son of anyone, nor was he God, nor was he part of the Trinity, cause all of that’s bullshit for Borg. Not possible. Pure metaphor, if not outright lie. I honestly don’t have a problem with a genderless god. In fact, that’s how I view God. But probably due to my ingrained evangelical upbringing, I have a major problem with God as woman. Unless I’m mistaken, God is a patriarchal god throughout the Bible, worshiped as such by his people, a patriarchal people, and worshiped as a male god by Christians throughout the centuries. Now I admit, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true, but I’m unwilling to simply throw that out and change God to a woman just to be PC. I have a woman pastor at my church, so I obviously don’t have a problem with female religious leadership, but in my opinion, both the Old and New Testaments clearly define the female role in society and it’s certainly not to be a matriarchal culture, like it or not, fair or not. Sorry, but true.

Even though I was near the end of the book, after this chapter and after the preceding showcases of utter ignorance and stupidity, I decided not to finish the last few pages of the book. And I’m deleting all of the other Borg books I have on my Amazon wish list. To me, he’s a pathetic fraud and no intellectual. To me, he wouldn’t know Christianity if it bit him on the butt. I’ll be content to read liberal Christian authors like Rob Bell and Brian McClaren. While reading reviews of this highly rated book, I came across a highly placed one star review that sums up a lot of what I think about this book and I’m going to quote it in its entirety, giving credit to the author, but doing so without his permission. I hope he won’t mind.


Oct 04, 2012 Webster Bull rated it 1 of 5 stars
Shelves: faith
Two Episcopalians whom I respect told me I should read this book. Both said that it frames Jesus in a way that makes sense to them. It does not make sense to me.

The non-sense begins with the whole notion of needing to frame Jesus to make him palatable for our liberal, postmodern, science-driven culture. Which is what Lutheran theologian Marcus Borg does in this popular book whose cover claims "Over 250,000 Sold!"

Borg says that we need to look at our images of Jesus, and if we don't like them, come up with our own. Better yet, adopt Borg's images, for which he provides up-to-the-minute scholarly reasons. He is the Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion at Oregon State University.

Borg doesn't buy the image of Jesus as divine savior. So out it goes. He doesn't particularly like the image of Jesus as a teacher either, because it leads, he claims, to a moralistic image of the Christian life.

Instead, he asks us to "image" Jesus as a spirit person. (Why does "image" have to be a verb? For that matter, who made "narratival" an adjective?)

What, you ask, is a "spirit person"? It is Borg's gender-inclusive term for what used to be known, in the dark ages, as a holy man. Spirit, of course, is that shapeless something so many of us take for granted, the noun form of the comfy, empty, all-embracing adjective "spiritual." Heaven forbid that anyone should be "religious"! But at least we've learned something earthshaking: Jesus was a holy man! Except that we shouldn’t refer to him as a man.

Next, Borg asks us to "image" Jesus as compassionate. What a breakthrough idea! This leads to a discussion of the Jewish "purity system" and how Jesus broke down this system, which of course suggests that we, in our compassion, should break down any and all cultural norms.

Yet the idea of "compassion" overturning cultural norms involves Borg in a circular logic he doesn't admit. If you overturn the old norms for new ones, shouldn't the new ones become new targets of our "compassion"? But he is so determined to make Jesus politically correct that logic goes out the window.

Here's another revolutionary image of Jesus we are asked to embrace: He was a sage! He was a "teacher of wisdom"! This leads to a long disquisition on the Greek word for wisdom, Sophia, and the fact that it is a feminine noun. Soon enough we are asked to envision God as feminine and "womb-like." Borg retranslates passages from the Book of Wisdom, substituting Sophia. The amusing results speak for themselves:

"Sophia cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance tot he city gates she speaks . . . " And so on. Pretty soon, we are asked to consider Jesus Christ's feminine qualities:

"In what sense is Christ the wisdom of (and from) God? In particular, are we to understand 'wisdom of God' in these verses [from St. Paul] as resonating with the nuances of divine Sophia? It is possible, and if so, it means that Paul spoke of Jesus as the Sophia of and from God."

Later: "For Paul, Jesus is the embodiment of Sophia." So the Lord is actually a woman in a man's body? Isn't that what's meant by transgendered? Wow, I never thought of Jesus that way!

Borg ends this flight of theological fancy by analyzing the three "Macro-Stories of Scripture." (For Borg, everything is narratival!) Two macro-stories are acceptable to him: the Exodus narrative and the story of exile and return surrounding the Babylonian captivity. The third is not so acceptable, however: the "priestly story," the whole idea that "the priest is the one who makes us right with God by offering sacrifice on our behalf." To take this story seriously means taking sin seriously, and guilt, and forgiveness. Let Borg speak for himself:

"This story is very hard to believe. 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."

The author throws out so much of the baby Jesus with the bathwater that there's very little left of Him. Arguing against the "purity system," Borg ends with a Jesus who has been air-brushed clean of any possibly offensive qualities, like his manhood, for example. Though Borg says he is searching for the historical Jesus, he ends with nothing but images, thinking apparently that only a politically correct, sanitized, insubstantial Jesus can bring skeptics back to church.

Which of course is why the mainline Protestant denominations are shrinking every week. There's no there there, and nothing left of Jesus, man or God.

Needless to say, this book is most certainly NOT recommended under any circumstance. Unless you’re a transgender, feminist liberal Christian, at which point you’ll probably like it…. ( )

Should be a good guide to Jesus. ( )

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. ( )

Powerful book. Insightful and realistic look at who Jesus was and who Jesus has become. Promotes the value and liberation of considering a metaphorical understanding of the story of Jesus ( )

Marcus Borg is one of the most influential Jesus scholars we have today. His characterization of Jesus is a "spirit person," one who's especially in touch with the divine and connects the power of God to his earthly ministry. He's written at length about it in other books, but here it serves as a backdrop for a different issue: how can we, either as historians or Christians, grasp a relationship with a Jesus who is still living and relevant?

Borg argues that Jesus' understanding of God was not the vast and transcendent deity that we sometimes picture, "a supernatural being 'out there' who created the world a long time ago...from time to time supernaturally intervenes in this world." That leads to a rather bland experience of "belief," that we affirm that something/someone exists that's greater than us and what else are we supposed to do with that information? Jesus instead brings a God who is an "experiential reality," found not only in his supernatural connections but also the extremely mundane (yet extraordinary) ideals of compassion and connection and love.

A relationship with Jesus develops beyond the passive Christian story of sin and salvation (not that it's not meaningful, but it's been done and we play little part in it). Thus God is acted in order to be "believed in," and believers are challenged to work out who God is and effect God's presence in the world. ( )

About the historical Jesus. ( )

The first examination of the implications of the new Historical Jesus research for contemporary faith.

Clear writer & thinker. I disagree with his assumptions about what could and could not have happened historically and about who Jesus was and is. ( )

I love this book. Borg lays out the difference between the conventional wisdom of the Roman Empire-dominated Mediterranean world in which Jesus lived, and the subversive wisdom of the teachings of Jesus. A book for both those who think the know Jesus and for those who truly do want to meet him "again for the first time." ( )

For many Christians, and perhaps even more people brought up in Christian families but now estranged from their churches, Marcus Borg’s book, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, will foster a sense of liberation. For many evangelicals and other conservative Christians, his work will be considered controversial, perhaps even heretical. Either way, reading the book will raise significant questions and clarify serious issues.

To begin with, Borg distinguishes between the pre-Easter (or historical) Jesus and the post-Easter (or theological) Jesus. At the very beginning, he admits that the pre Easter Jesus was most likely non-messianic and non-eschatological; those dimensions of the character of the Christ were developed in the Pauline epistles, in the written gospels, and in the teachings of the early church. To him, however, the pre-Easter Jesus was a spirit person and a mediator of the sacred; a teacher of wisdom, indeed of alternative wisdom; a social prophet, often in conflict with authorities and critical of the economic, political, and religious elite of his day; and the founder of a movement, a Jewish revitalization that eventually would lead to the early Christian church.

Borg begins his book with his own life story. He grew up Lutheran, in a conventional church. But as a college student and seminarian, he came to question his own belief and struggle with personal doubt. Then finally, he came to understand the centrality of God, or Spirit, in Jesus’ life. “I began to see Jesus as one whose spirituality—his experiential awareness of Spirit—was foundational for his life.” Summarizing what this meant to him personally, Borg concludes, “Until my late thirties, I saw the Christian life as being primarily about believing. . . . Now I no longer see the Christian life as being primarily about believing. . . . 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.”

The rest of the book examines in some detail the nature and meaning of that relationship—a relationship that the historical Jesus modeled and that his followers accept and work out in their own spheres. He emphasizes the compassionate Jesus, the political Jesus, and Jesus as a teacher of an alternative, even subversive, wisdom. Indeed, Borg insists that a prominent image in the New Testament is that of Jesus as the embodiment or incarnation of the Sophia, a Jewish feminine term for the eternal wisdom of God.

Borg’s final chapter develops the relationship of Jesus to three recurring macro stories in Hebrew scripture: the exodus, the exile and return, and the priesthood. But his most moving, most eloquent witness involves the journey as a metaphor for the Christian life. “Discipleship,” he says, “is not an individual path, but a journey in a company of disciples. It is the road less traveled, yet discipleship involves being in a community that remembers and celebrates Jesus.”

So to meet Jesus again for the first time is to love Jesus not less but more and to love others as oneself. It is to “Be compassionate as God is compassionate.” “It leads,” he continues, “from life under the lordship of culture to the life of companionship with God.”

It is, in fact, after all, to believe. “Believing in Jesus,” he has come to understand, “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.”

At the very beginning, Borg says that his work probably should be given the title Beyond Belief, that is, beyond conventional belief in facts and doctrines, beyond a narrow moralistic world view: Beyond Belief to Relationship. By the end, I might give it the title, Beyond Belief to Belief, a new, alternative, spiritual belief.

I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

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.

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