Borg revisited

6/3/2005
Raymond Dague: The Theology of Heresy in Central New York

Excerpt: "Borg is in the tradition of Spong and Pike. In a well written book The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions by Marcus J. Borg & N. T. Wright, Borg describes what he thinks about Jesus, and often what he does not think about Jesus.

Borg believes that Jesus was not conceived by Mary as a virgin, but was the biological child of Joseph and Mary. Jesus was “more likely” born in Nazareth and not in Bethlehem as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. None of the things associated with the nativity of Jesus such as the appearance of the star, the shepherds seeing the angel, or the magi visiting the baby ever happened. Also the geologies of Jesus were fabrications, or as Borg likes to say, “history metaphorized.” Jesus did not know that he was the Jewish Messiah. Jesus did not predict his own death, nor did he see his death as the salvation for the sins of man. Jesus did not utter the words of the Eucharist at the Last Supper over the bread and the wine. There was never a trial of Jesus before the Jewish or Roman authorities. Whether the tomb was empty on Easter morning is “irrelevant” to the Christian faith. He describes the Nicene Creed as “not…a set of literally true doctrinal statements to which I am supposed to give my intellectual assent, but as a culturally relative product of the ancient church” which he prefers to chant or sing, rather than say.

Borg is an attractive and glib speaker, and a fine writer. He cranks out book after book debunking orthodox Christianity, and is a bit better than his predecessors Pike and Spong in trying to articulate actual content to what he believes. But basically his calls himself Christian by remaking Christianity as he “imagines” Jesus. When you see a theologian, bishop, or priest speak about “imagining” or “re-imagining” God, watch out. They, like Pike, Spong and Borg, are remaking God in their own image, and to their own liking."



7/20/2005
Reflections on Vacation Bible School: Marcus Borg
Brad Drell @ 7:42 am

I’ve been helping down at the church every night this week with Vacation Bible School. The program this time is Jerusalem Marketplace. Our parish hall and the kids are all decorated to match the period (with the usual creative anachronisms, like the plastic juice dispensers tied to ropes inside the well in the middle of the marketplace), and they are learning about the Torah and about Jesus. Very cool.

Each night, we’ve told the kids about Jesus - what he did, who he was.

While Borg “likes folks that tell those stories", these aren’t stories about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny - these are stories about God. Children look up to adults and expect them to tell them the truth and not to lie to them. I have a couple of questions for Mr. Borg.

The rest: http://descant.classicalanglican.net/index.php?p=377

And......


7/20/2005
Is 97% Good Enough? What about this, Mr. Borg?
Brad Drell @ 1:41 pm
Jesus story ‘gets it 97pc right
By BARNEY ZWARTZ The Age

It is 97 per cent certain that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead - based on sheer logic and mathematics, not faith - according to Oxford professor Richard Swinburne.

“New Testament scholars say the only evidence is witnesses in the four gospels. That’s only 5 per cent of the evidence,” Professor Swinburne, one of the world’s leading philosophers of religion, said last night.