Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time
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Review
It is impossible to read this beautifully written book and remain unenlightened by the results of Jesus research... --Elizabeth A. Johnson, author of She Who Is
In every generation there is a handful of writers of whom it can be said, 'Read everything they write.' Marcus Borg is one of these today: a writer of rare lucidity, original scholarly insights, profound spirituality, and the universal capacity to connect it all to life in the present. He just might change your mind--or life. --Walter Wink, Auburn Theological Seminary
Borg has done a great service for all of us in drawing upon contemporary research to present a fresh and imaginative picture of Jesus that has profound implications for our contemporary faith. --Praying
In every generation there is a handful of writers of whom it can be said, 'Read everything they write.' Marcus Borg is one of these today: a writer of rare lucidity, original scholarly insights, profound spirituality, and the universal capacity to connect it all to life in the present. He just might change your mind--or life. --Walter Wink, Auburn Theological Seminary
Borg has done a great service for all of us in drawing upon contemporary research to present a fresh and imaginative picture of Jesus that has profound implications for our contemporary faith. --Praying
Product Description
Of the many recent books on the historical Jesus, none has explored what the latest biblical scholarship means for personal faith. Now, in Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg addresses the yearnings of those who want a fully contemporary faith that welcomes rather than oppresses our critical intelligence and openness to the best of historical scholarship. Borg shows how a rigorous examination of historical findings can lead to a new faith in Christ, one that is critical and, at the same time, sustaining. "Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him," Borg writes. "Rather, it means to give one's heart, one's self at its deepest level, to . . . the living Lord." Drawing on his own journey from a naive, unquestioning belief in Christ through collegiate skepticism to a mature and contemporary Christian faith, Borg illustrates how an understanding of the historical Jesus can actually lead to a more authentic Christian life--one not rooted in creeds or dogma, but in a life of spiritual challenge, compassion, and community. In straightforward, accessible prose, Borg looks at the major findings of modern Jesus scholarship from the perspective of faith, bringing alive the many levels of Jesus' character: spirit person, teacher of alternative wisdom, social prophet, and movement founder. He also reexamines the major stories of the Old Testament vital to an authentic understanding of Jesus, showing how an enriched understanding of these stories can uncover new truths and new pathways to faith. For questioning believers, doubters, and reluctant unbelievers alike, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time frees our understanding of Jesus' life and message from popular misconceptions and outlines the way to a sound and contemporary faith: "For ultimately, Jesus is not simply a figure of the past, but a figure of the present. Meeting that Jesus--the living one who comes to us even now--will be like meeting Jesus again for the first time."
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First Sentence
We have all met Jesus before. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
We have all met Jesus before. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
66 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's easy for the evangelical-educated eye to see what those of young or narrow christian faith find offensive in Borg's accessible and readable book. Still, such views also miss the point in insightful humour like "Life of Brian" and social comment like "Brass Eye" (on British TV).
Borg tries to paint a word-picture of the real Jesus, asking what he personally taught and believed and what, based on his own sayings, lay at the heart of his ministry. The distinction is made between the pre-Easter Jesus - the flesh-and-blood man who taught by word and deed - and the post-Easter Christ, the focus of organisation of the new christian church. Borg asserts that Jesus' own view was of the need for compassion derived from a daily experience of the living God rather than legalistic purity derived from the rules of the religious status quo. He bravely asserts that Jesus was less concerned about what people believed than about how they allowed the rule of the Spirit and of compassion in their lives.
His careful, educated and well-supported analysis leads the tired christian to a new view of Jesus that can reinvigorate faith without demanding the legalistic focus of either liturgy or dogma. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has been involved in the christian church but grown weary of the limited scope of evangelicalism yet knows that God is and that the Hound of Heaven continues to pursue them. There are things to agree with, things to disagree with but the style is gentle and you, after all, are an adult who can make up your own mind...
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Borg's book develops a powerful intellectual claim about the nature of the historical Jesus. His arguments reveal a Jesus who speaks not of a promised hereafter but who instead develops a powerful, radical critique of his own culture. Borg recovers a Jesus whose message was not about himself ("I am the way and the light") and the end of the world but about the renewal of the world through faith in our common humanity. The book seems to me to offer modern agnostics, fed up with the religious right and its claims for a God who damns sinners and rewards the conservative faithful, a new vision free of the superstitions of 2000 years. Borg's vision allows for the complexities that the right rejects. No need to check your intellect at the door: Borg, a New Testament scholar at Oregon State and a member of the Jesus Seminar, challenges the reader to read-and to believe--with reason and passion. It's an excellent book aimed at a general readership. Borg's _Jesus: A New Vision_ incorporates many of the same arguments made here, and I hope that he plans an in-depth, scholarly treatment of these materials. I begin to wonder if every member of the Jesus Seminar was writing a book in the course of the discussions, given the torrent of recent tomes: Borg's is the clearest and most convincing voice to emerge yet.
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is aimed at any Christian whose belief has grown stale. The author describes a radical new way of looking at Jesus which may appeal to anybody who is sincere in a desire to grow in Christ but feels hopelessly stuck with an unsatisfactory image of Jesus.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
For thinkers
If the Bible for you is the irrefutable word of God, and your faith is based on the things your pastor and church browbeat you with on a regular basis, this is not the book for... Read more
Published 27 days ago by David Kloss
One star is two too many
In the book "The Five Gospels", a particularly daft book of pseudo-scholarship put out in 1993 by the late Robert Funk and other members of the self-proclaimed "Jesus Seminar", we... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Kriss Mascard
Make spiritual progress
Meeting Jesus AGAIN for the First Time
Marcus J. Borg
It depends on where you are in your faith whether you find this book totally inspirational or a contradiction... Read more
Marcus J. Borg
It depends on where you are in your faith whether you find this book totally inspirational or a contradiction... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Tony Raine
A Refreshing Perspective
At 20 years old and a year into my theology degree, I was tired of two positions. For a good nine years I was conservative and evangelical in my views and attitudes. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Andrew Grey
Say goodbye to the real Jesus Christ
NOTE: In order to understand what Borg really means when he talks about "contemporary scholarship" (and similar phrases) the reader must know that "scholars" and "scholarship" are... Read more
Published on 12 July 2008 by A. J. Bradbury
Attack against Christianity and Scholarly Wrong
This book was one of the texts for one of my Theological subjects. In my opinion it is not a book worth reading and I consider it trash. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 1999
Borg promotes self at expense of faith
Like all Christians Marcus Borg is on a journey of faith, but he got off of the train too soon at the oportunistic station called "Jesus Seminar Bucks" The doubts and... Read more
Published on 26 Feb 1999
I gave up my faith after reading this one.
When the author gets finished with Jesus there is little left. If he were really honest, he would just give up the faith entirely and be an atheist. Read more
Published on 25 Dec 1998
Rethinking the Jesus of Lutheranism
This book was highly recommended to me by a person with the same background as the author, a graduate of a Lutheran seminary who teaches religion in a secular school, and who is... Read more
Published on 18 Nov 1998
A good start but not the end of the quest for Jesus
I very much enjoyed Borg's autobiographical material and the personalized material. Borg's scholarship, however, is suspect in places and doesn't hold up to serious scrutiny. Read more
Published on 14 July 1998
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