Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus J. Borg
"Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time" by Marcus J. Borg is a reflective exploration of the author's spiritual journey and his evolving understanding of Jesus. Raised in a traditional Lutheran family, Borg grappled with complex theological questions throughout his life, which led him to seminary and a deeper inquiry into the historical Jesus. He distinguishes between the "pre-Easter" Jesus—who was a spirit person, teacher of wisdom, social prophet, and movement founder—and the "post-Easter" Jesus, the figure revered in Christian tradition. This book emphasizes that Jesus' core teachings revolve around spirit and compassion, challenging societal norms of his time and advocating for internal transformation rather than strict adherence to external purity systems.
Borg's perspectives are influenced by the Jesus Seminar, where scholars assess the historical accuracy of Jesus' sayings. He contends that traditional images of Jesus, shaped by creeds and doctrines, often limit one's understanding of the Christian life. Instead, he invites readers to view Jesus metaphorically and emphasizes the importance of relationship over belief in doctrines. Throughout the text, Borg encourages a journey of transformation, advocating for a compassionate approach to spirituality that resonates with contemporary values. This book serves as both a scholarly reflection and a personal narrative, appealing to those seeking a renewed understanding of Jesus within a modern context.
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Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus J. Borg
First published: San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Biblical studies; theology
Core issue(s): Compassion; Gospels; Jesus Christ; scriptures; the Trinity
Overview
Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time offers an intimate and revealing reflection of Marcus J. Borg’s own spiritual journey. He grew up in a Lutheran family where his earliest image of Jesus was very traditional. This image began to change in elementary school as Borg began to struggle with theological issues such as the omnipresence and transcendence of God. Throughout adolescence and college, his questions and doubts only intensified, causing enormous guilt and anxiety. His quest for answers continued as he entered seminary, and it was there that he once again focused on Jesus.
In seminary, Borg learned that the Gospels were written decades after the first Easter and that they reflect the experiences of the early Christian communities and their developing understanding of Jesus. The historical Jesus was not aware that he was the second person of the Trinity, coequal with God, or the substance of God. This distinction was a revelation to Borg, who began a lifelong quest to uncover the historical Jesus. This quest initially led to many years of becoming a “closet atheist.” However, in his mid-thirties, Borg had a series of experiences with what he termed “sacred mystery,” through which he began to view God as the surrounding spirit that is at the center of existence. This led to a transformation in Borg’s understanding of God that profoundly changed his understanding of Jesus.
Borg uses the terms “pre-Easter Jesus” and “post-Easter Jesus” to distinguish between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith. The majority of the book focuses on the pre-Easter Jesus or the life of Jesus before his death. The post-Easter Jesus is defined as the Jesus of Christian tradition and experience.
To begin his discussion of the pre-Easter Jesus, Borg describes his involvement with a group of scholars known as the Jesus Seminar. This group meets twice a year to vote on the historical accuracy of the sayings of Jesus. The purpose of the gatherings is to see the degree of scholarly consensus on how much of the material goes back to Jesus himself.
Borg uses four broad strokes to describe the characteristics of the pre-Easter Jesus. First, Jesus was a spirit person who had an experiential awareness of God; he was also a mediator of the spirit. Second, Jesus was a teacher of wisdom who used parables and sayings to teach alternative wisdom. Third, Jesus was a social prophet who criticized the economic, political, and religious elites of his time. Fourth, Jesus was a movement founder who challenged the social boundaries of his day.
The two keywords that describe what was most central to Jesus are “spirit” and “compassion,” according to Borg. At the core of Jesus’ life was a deep relationship to the spirit of God with compassion as God’s central quality. This is the model by which followers of God should live. Jesus was very critical of the purity system of his day, and he spoke of purity as not a matter of external boundaries but rather a matter of the heart. Jesus shattered the social boundaries of the day and presented a model of compassion that should be applied to modern politics.
Jesus was a teacher of wisdom as well as the embodiment of divine wisdom. Borg writes that Jesus’ teachings offered a transforming alternative wisdom from the conventional wisdom of the day. Conventional wisdom is the consciousness shaped and structured by culture. Jesus introduced a life of internal transformation brought by a deep centering in God. This firsthand religion leads to wisdom that is centered in compassion and grace.
In early Christianity, Jesus was known as the Son of the Father, the incarnation of Sophia (“the Wisdom Woman”), the child of Abba, and the child of Sophia. Borg says that these terms should be used metaphorically as a way to describe the significance of Jesus.
Borg states that just as people’s image of Jesus shapes their image of the Christian life, so does their image of Scripture. He states that there are three stories that shape the Bible as a whole. These stories include the story of the Exodus from Egypt, the story of exile and return from Babylon, and the priestly story. Jesus subverted the priestly story by undercutting the purity system and forgiving sins apart from the institution of priest and temple. The journey stories were affirmed, and another journey story was added—the story of discipleship. Discipleship means entering a relationship with God and allowing God to transform the person into being more like Christ.
Borg ends his book with a discussion about what it means to believe in Jesus. The word “believe” comes from the Latin and Greek roots meaning “to give one’s heart to.” It does not mean believing doctrines about Jesus, but rather it means giving one’s deepest self to the post-Easter Jesus who is the living Lord. Meeting this Jesus of the present is like meeting Jesus again for the first time.
Christian Themes
The quest for the historical Jesus is one of the major themes of this book. Borg’s perspective on this topic strongly reflects the consensus of the members of the Jesus Seminar. This controversial group of scholars and lay persons meets semiannually to evaluate the historical significance of all the documents about Jesus from antiquity (30-200 c.e.). Members of the group use color-coded beads to vote on things such as the probability that Jesus actually said or did certain things. Only about 20 percent of the sayings of Jesus received red votes, meaning Jesus undoubtedly said it or something very close to it. In this book, Borg steps out of the world of academia to offer a very personal spiritual reflection on these findings.
Another major theme of this book concerns the Christology of Jesus. Christology deals with the role or identity of Jesus, including the relationship between Jesus and God. Borg states that because of the Nicene Creed, most people see Jesus’ relationship to God as Son of the Father. According to Borg, this is not the only Christology, and he proceeds to explore a variety of Christological images from the New Testament period. While father/son imagery was used, there was also a Christology that saw Jesus as the embodiment of the wisdom of God. Borg offers an indepth discussion about the personification of wisdom as a woman (Sophia). Early Christians saw Jesus as the Son of the Father, the incarnation of Sophia, the child of Abba, and the child of Sophia. None of these images should be taken literally. They are metaphors used to describe the intimate relationship between Jesus and God.
Borg states that the foundational claim of the book is that there is a connection between how people think of Jesus and how they think of the Christian life. According to Borg, Jesus did not speak or think of himself as the Son of God, and his message was not about believing in him. Rather, he was a spirit person and a movement founder who invited people to enter into a journey of transformation. This journey involves giving one’s heart to the spirit of Christ and becoming a person of compassion.
Sources for Further Study
Fredriksen, Paula. “What You See Is What You Get: Context and Content in Current Research on the Historical Jesus.” Theology Today 52, no. 1 (April, 1995): 75-97. Provides an overview of recent research on the historical Jesus.
Funk, Robert W., Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar. The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. New York: Macmillan, 1993. This highly controversial publication is a report from the Jesus Seminar concerning what they believe Jesus actually said and did.
Keck, Leander E. “The Second Coming of the Liberal Jesus?” Christian Century 111, no. 24 (August 24, 1994): 784-788. This article compares Borg’s book with books written by John Crossan and Geza Vermes on the life of Christ.
Wildman, Wesley. “Pinning Down the Crisis in Contemporary Christology.” Dialog 37, no. 1 (Winter, 1998): 15-21. One of five articles in this issue discussing Jesus and the crisis in Christology. Offers extensive discussion regarding Borg’s Christological beliefs.