#marcus borg

[fierysword]

I am confident that the one who has buoyed us up in life will also buoy us up through death. We die into God.

Marcus Borg

[rivage-seulm]

Jesus Is Not God

Jesus Is Not God

Forensic archeologists say that the historical Jesus looked like this. He was not white and stood about 5 feet tall and weighed about 110 pounds. Last night we had another meeting of our church’s Lenten series discussing controverted questions of faith. So far, we’ve discussed (1) miracles, (2) healing, (3) Jesus and the poor, (4) the tension between American and Christian identities, and (5)…

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[digitaldion]

'The twofold great commandment—to love God and love our neighbor—is so familiar to us that it has become a Christian cliché. But behind the familiarity is their radical meaning as Jesus’s summary of his message. To love God above all else means giving to God what belongs to God: our heart, soul, mind, and strength. These belong to God, and not to Caesar. This is radical monotheism: if God is Lord, then the lords of this world—Caesar and his incarnations throughout history—are not. And to love one’s neighbor as one’s self means to refuse to accept the divisions rendered by the normalcy of civilization, those divisions between the respected and the marginalized, righteous and sinners, rich and poor, friends and enemies, Jews and Gentiles.'

- Marcus Borg, The Last Week

[fierysword]

In Christian history, the more-than-literal meaning of biblical texts has always been most important. Only in the last few centuries has their literal factuality been emphasized as crucial.

The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg

[fierysword]

God wills our liberation... God wills our reconciliation, our return from exile. God wills our enlightenment, our seeing. God wills our forgiveness, our release from sin and guilt. God wills that we see ourselves as God’s beloved. God wills our resurrection, our passage from death to life.

God wills for us food and drink that satisfy our hunger and thirst. God wills, comprehensively, our well-being—not just my well-being as an individual but the well-being of all of us and of the whole of creation. In short, God wills our salvation, our healing, here on earth. The Christian life is about participating in the salvation of God.

Marcus J. Borg, The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authenthic Contemporary Faith

[fierysword]

For the metaphor of God as lover, sin is unfaithfulness--that is, sin is going after other lovers. This is a classic image for idolatry: making something other than Spirit central, giving one's primary loyalty to something other than God. Idolatry - infidelity to God [Love] - is the root sin from which more specific acts follow.

For the metaphor of God as the compassionate one who cares for all of her children, sin is failure in compassion, whether individually or socially in the form of an unjust society. Sin includes inflicting suffering on those who are also God's creation, as well as being indifferent to their suffering.

Dr. Marcus Borg's "The God We Never Knew"

[fierysword]

How can women be in the image of God if God cannot be imaged in female form?

Marcus Borg

[digitaldion]

'As a teacher of wisdom, Jesus was not primarily a teacher of information (what to believe) or morals (how to behave), but a teacher of a way or path of transformation. A way of transformation from what to what? From a life in the world of conventional wisdom to a life centered in God.'

- Marcus Borg, Meeting Jesus Again For the First Time