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    Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith
    Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith
    Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith
    Ebook259 pages4 hours

    Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith

    By Marcus J. Borg

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    About this ebook

    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."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMar 17, 2009
    ISBN9780061747625
    Author

    Marcus J. Borg

    Marcus J. Borg (1942–2015) was a pioneering author and teacher whom the New York Times described as "a leading figure in his generation of Jesus scholars." He was the Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University and canon theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, and he appeared on NBC's The Today Show and Dateline, ABC's World News, and NPR's Fresh Air. His books have sold over a million copies, including the bestselling Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, Jesus, The Heart of Christianity, Evolution of the Word, Speaking Christian, and Convictions.

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    Reviews for Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time

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    • 5/5
      If you’re ready to give upon Christianity, read this short, powerful, intelligent book before you throw the baby out with the bath water.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      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
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      Clear writer & thinker. I disagree with his assumptions about what could and could not have happened historically and about who Jesus was and is.
    • 4/5
      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."

    Book preview

    Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time - Marcus J. Borg

    Preface

    This book owes its title–Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time–and much of its content to a series of lectures I delivered at the annual meeting of the Northern California Conference of the United Church of Christ at Asilomar, California, in May 1992.

    The title for the lectures was given to me by John Brooke, moderator of the Northern California Conference and chair of the Asilomar meeting. Normally I provide the title for my lectures, but not in this case. I grew to like it very much. As I explain in greater detail in the first chapter, though we have all met Jesus before, meeting Jesus again can be like meeting somebody new.

    In content, the book is not an exact transcript of the Asilomar lectures but has approximately doubled in size. Some features of the lecture style remain. I have permitted myself frequent use of first-person pronouns, illustrations, anecdotes, and personal references.

    Occasions such as the Asilomar conference enable me to bring together the two worlds in which I live. On the one hand, I live in the world of the secular academy: as a professor at a state university, my teaching position is supported by public funds; as a Jesus scholar, the professional organizations to which I belong are committed to the nonsectarian study of Jesus and his world. In those settings, it is inappropriate to speak of the potential meanings of this material for the Christian life.

    I live in a second world as well–the world of the church. I grew up in the church and have lived within it all my life, except for a hiatus of about ten years spent in a kind of exile. Since that period, which ended about a decade ago, I have not only returned to the church but become increasingly more involved in its worship and life, and more deeply committed to the Christian journey. Indeed, I am a clergy spouse: my wife, Marianne, is an Episcopal priest. I must admit that being married to a priest was not one of my childhood

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