| Section |
Marcus J. Borg |
W. Tom Wright |
| 1. What do we know of Jesus? |
How we see Jesus is to a large extent the product of the lenses through
which we see him. |
We know about Jesus in two ways: history and faith. People regularly try
to eliminate one on the basis of the other, dismissing combinations as
compromise. |
| 2. What did Jesus do and teach? |
Jesus was a Jewish mystic and a Christian Messiah, a healer and exorcist,
a wisdom teacher, a social prophet, a movement initiator |
Jesus was a first-century Jewish prophet announcing and inaugurating the
kingdom of God, summoning others to join him, warning of the consequences
if they did not. |
| 3. The death of Jesus. |
Jesus died as a martyr, not as a victim. A martyr is killed because he
or she stands for something. Jesus was killed because he stood against
the kingdoms of this world and for an alternative social vision grounded
in the kingdom of God. ... Good Friday has more than a political meaning.
But it does not have less than a political meaning. |
The cross of Jesus is thus the Christian symbol par excellence, forming
the focal point of Christian spirituality, Christian praying, Christian
believing, and Christian action. And the manifold ways in which it is and
does allthis can trace their roots legitimately to the mind and intention,
to the action and passion, of Jesus himself.
|
| 4. God raised Jesus from the Dead. |
For me, the historical ground of Easter is very simple: the followers of
Jesus, both then and now, continued to experience Jesus as a living reality
after his death. ... a figure of the present, not simply a memory from
the past. |
Once you allow that something remarkable happened to his body that morning,
all the other data fall into place with astonishing ease. Once you insist
that nothing so outlandish happened, you are driven to ever more complex
and fantastic hypotheses to explain the data. |
| 5. Was Jesus God? |
I find the christological language of the New Testament much more compelling
when I hear it as the testimony of the community rather than as the self-proclamation
of a Galilean Jewish peasant. ... To be Christian is to affirm, "Here in Jesus, I see more clearly than
anywhere else what God is like." |
I believe in the god I see revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. ... I do not
think Jesus "knew he was God" ... he believed he had to do and
be, for Israel and the world, that which according to scripture only YHWH
himself could do and be. |
| 6. The birth of Jesus. |
...not a factual claim dependent upon a biological miracle, but a way of
seeing Jesus that immediately involves seeing him as the decisive disclosure
of God. ... With beauty and power, these symbolic narratives express central
early Christian convictions about the significance of Jesus. |
The problem is that miracle, as used in these controversies, is not a biblical
category. The God of the Bible is not a normally absent God who sometimes
intervenes. This God is always present and active, often surprisingly so.
... I hold open my historical judgement and say: if that's what God deemed
appropriate, who am I to object? |
| 7. He will come again in glory. |
Christ comes again and again and again, and in many ways. In a symbolic
and spiritual sense, the second coming of Christ is about the coming of
the Christ who is already here. |
It is time that the old scholars' myth of "the delay of the parousia"
was given a decent burial. Metaphorically, of course. |
| 8. Jesus and the Christian life. |
... being Christian is not about believing, but about a relationship with
the God who is sacramentally mediated to us through the Christian tradition
in a comprehensive sense of the word: the Bible, the gospels, Jesus himself,
and the worship and practices of our life together in Christian community. |
Glad, rich worship of the God revealed in Jesus invites outsiders to come
in, welcomes them, noursihes them, and challenges them. ... Books about
Jesus can be an aid toward worship, a guide in mission. But if it really
is Jesus we are talking about, worship and mission are more important even
than books. |
Using the model of mutual respect demonstrated by authors Borg and Wright
in presenting their views, come expecting to discover and clarify what
you believe; in an environment where faithful expression, listening and
honouring others' views will be emphasised. We will deal with fundamental
issues relating to the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith by probing
the meaning of his birth, life, death and resurrection. We will investigate
his teachings and ask: Is Jesus God? Will He come again to save us? We
will attempt an honest and creative learning dialogue in a climate of tolerance.
