The Heart of Christianity

Jock's Notes

Wayne"s Notes

Questions and EndOfCourse Notes

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Peter Barnes Notes. - Synopsis

In these concluding two chapters Borg gets down to the nitty-gritty of the Christian life. He convincingly argues that it is only through practice of the Christian life that transformation is possible. This is summed up when he says "By practice, I mean all the things that Christians do together and individually as a way of paying attention to God. They include being part of a Christian community, a church, and taking part in its life together as community. n They include worship, Christian formation, collective deeds of hospitality and compassion, and being nourished by the Christian community......."

Practice is not about be slavishly tied to a set of doctrinal statements, nor being able to recite dogmatic beliefs. Practice, as in the usual meaning of the word, is about doing the transformational things which are at the center of the Christian Testament teaching. Towards the end of the chapter, as he talks about practicing compassion and justice, Borg calls us to recall the words in Micah. Micah asks "What does the Lord require of you?" and the response comes back "to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God." Christian practice is about walking with God, becoming kind, and doing justice. It is not about believing in God and being a good person; it is about how one becomes a good person through the practice of loving God.

In the final Chapter Borg talks us through one of the most confronting (for many ‘earlier paradigm’ Christians) questions which must be thought through and answered by the Church of this century. Whilst again, Borg uses figures from North America to support his argument, all that he says is subjectively true for Australia and similar western cultures. How do we answer those who want to stay with the earlier belief that Jesus is the only way into the being of God, and who claim that all the other established religions are wrong?

His arguments are lucid and relevant, and encourage the reader to explore what it is that has made the church make this claim in the past, and what, if anything is lost by not maintaining the claim today. He concludes that "Being a Christian means living the path within this tradition. At the heart of Christianity is the way of the heart - a path that transforms us at the deepest level of our being.

Larry's Opening/Closing. "An 8 Point Program" - an excerpt on Meditation in your own tradition -
from "A More Ardent Fire - From Everyday Love to Love of God" ... Eknath Easwaran, Nilgiri Press 2000
From Amazon.com only 9.71 usd. LINK . From Chapters.ca 19.50 can LINK.
Not in any of the Calgary libraries - public, MRC or UofC, though public library has a dozen of Easwaran's books.

An Eight-Point Program

W H E N I came to this country as an exchange professor in 1959, I was invited to speak to many groups of people on the sources of India's ancient civilization. At the end of every talk a few thoughtful men and women would come up and ask me, "How can we bring these changeless values into our own daily life?"

"You don't have to change your religion," I assured them, "to do what I have done. The method of meditation I learned is universal. It can be practiced within the mainstream of any religious tradition, and outside all of them as well."

I began by teaching simply what I myself had been practicing for over a decade, illustrating from the scriptures and mystics of the world's great religions. Very quickly this became systematized into eight points, the first and most important of which is meditation. The next few pages are a short introduction to this eight-point program for spiritual growth, which is discussed fully in my book Meditation.

1. Meditation

The heart of this program is meditation: half an hour every morning, as early as is convenient. Do not increase this period; if you want to meditate more, have half an hour in the evening also, preferably at the very end of the day.

Set aside a room in your home to be used only for meditation and spiritual reading. After a while that room will become associated with meditation in your mind, so that simply entering it will have a calming effect. If you cannot spare a room, have a particular corner. Whichever you choose, keep your meditation place clean, well ventilated, and reasonably austere.

Sit in a straight-backed chair or on the floor and gently close your eyes. If you sit on the floor, you may need to support your back against a wall. You should be comfortable enough to forget your body, but not so comfortable that you become drowsy.

Whatever position you choose, be sure to keep your head, neck, and spinal column erect in a straight line. As concentration deepens, the ner-vous system relaxes and you may begin to fall asleep. It is important to resist this tendency right from the beginning, by drawing yourself up and away from your back support until the wave of sleep has passed.

Once you have closed your eyes, begin to go slowly, in your mind, through one of the passages from the scriptures or the great mystics which I recommend for use in meditation. There is a rich selection in my little anthology, God Makes the Rivers to Flow. I usually suggest learning first the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.

In memorizing the prayer, it is important to remember that you are not addressing some extraterrestrial being outside you. The kingdom of heaven is within us, and the Lord is enshrined in the depths of our own consciousness. When we use a prayer like this, we are calling deep into ourselves, appeal-ing to the spark of the divine that is our real nature.

While you are meditating, do not follow any association of ideas or try to think about the pas-sage. If you are giving your attention to each word, the meaning cannot help sinking in. When distractions come, do not resist them, but give more attention to the words of the passage. If your mind strays from the passage entirely, bring it back gently to the beginning and start again.

When you reach the end of the passage, you may use it again as necessary to complete your period of meditation until you have memorized others. It is helpful to have a wide variety of passages for meditation, drawn from the world's major traditions. Each passage should be positive and practical, drawn from a major scripture or from a mystic of the highest stature.

The secret of meditation is simple: we become what we meditate on. When you use the Prayer of St. Francis every day in meditation, you are driving the words deep into your consciousness. Eventually they become an integral part of your personality, which means they will find constant expres-sion in what you do, what you say, and what you think.

2. The Mantram or Holy Name

A mantram, or Holy Name, is a powerful spiritual formula that has the capacity to transform con-sciousness when it is repeated silently in the mind. There is nothing magical about this. It is simply a matter of practice, as you can verify for yourself.

Every religious tradition has a mantrarn, often more than one. For Christians, the name of Jesus itself is a powerful mantram. Catholics also use Hail Mary or Ave Maria, or some form of the Jesus Prayer preserved in the Orthodox church, such as Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Jews may use Barukh attah Adonai, "Blessed art thou, O Lord," or the Hasidic formula Ribono shel olam, "Lord of the universe." Muslims repeat the name of Allah or Allahu akbar, "God is great." Probably the oldest of Buddhist mantrams is Om mani padme hum, referring to the "jewel in the lotus of the heart." In Hinduism, among many choices, I recommend Rama, Rama, Rama, the mantram used by Mahatma Gandhi.

Select a mantram that appeals to you deeply. In many traditions it is customary to take the mantram used by your spiritual teacher. Then, once you have chosen, do not change your mantram. Otherwise you will be like a person digging shallow holes in many places; you will never go deep enough to find water.

Repeat your mantram silently whenever you get the chance: while walking, while waiting, while you are doing mechanical chores like washing dishes, and especially when you are falling asleep. You will find for yourself that this is not mindless repetition. The mantram will help to keep you relaxed and alert during the day, and when you can fall asleep in it, it will go on working for you throughout the night as well.

Whenever you are angry or afraid, nervous or worried or resentful, repeat the mantram until the agitation subsides. The mantram works to steady the mind, and all these emotions are power running against you which the mantram can harness and put to work.

These and many other ways to use the man-tram are illustrated in my little book The Mantram Handbook.

3. Slowing Down

Hurry makes for tension, insecurity, inefficiency, and superficial living. I believe that it also makes for illness: among other things, "hurry sickness" is a major component of the Type A behavior pattern that research has linked to heart disease. To guard against hurrying through the day, start the day early and simplify your life so that you do not try to fill your time with more than you can do. When you find yourself beginning to speed up, repeat your mantram to help you slow down.

It is important here not to confuse slowness with sloth, which breeds carelessness, procrastination, and general inefficiency. In slowing down we should attend meticulously to details, giving our very best even to the smallest undertaking.

4. One-Pointed Attention

Doing more than one thing at a time divides attention and fragments consciousness. When we read and eat at the same time, for example, part of our mind is on what we are reading and part on what we are eating; we are not getting the most from either activity. Similarly, when talking with someone, give him or her your full attention. These are little things, but all together they help to unify consciousness and deepen concentration.

Everything we do should be worthy of our full attention. When the mind is one-pointed it will be secure, free from tension, and capable of the concentration that is the mark of genius in any field.

5. Training the Senses

In the food we eat, the books and magazines we read, the movies we see, all of us are subject to the conditioning of rigid likes and dislikes. To free ourselves from this conditioning, we need to learn to change our likes and dislikes freely when it is in the best interests of those around us or ourselves. We should choose what we eat by what our body needs, for example, rather than by what the taste buds demand. Similarly, the mind eats too, through the senses. In this age of mass media, we need to be particularly discriminating in what we read and what we choose for entertainment, for we become in part what our senses take in.

6. Putting Others First

Dwelling on ourselves builds a wall between our-selves and others. Those who keep thinking about their needs, their wants, their plans, their ideas cannot help becoming lonely and insecure. The simple but effective technique I recommend is to learn to put other people first - beginning within the circle of your family and friends, where there is already a basis of love on which to build. When husband and wife try to put each other first, for example, they are not only moving closer to each other. They are also removing the barriers of their ego-prison, which deepens their relationships with everyone else as well.

7. Spiritual Companionship

The Sanskrit word for this is satsang: what the Buddha would call "right association," or association with those who are following the same spiritual path. When we are trying to change our life, we need the support of others with the same goal. If you have friends who are meditating along the lines suggested here, it is a great help to meditate together regularly. Share your times of entertainment too; relaxation is an important part of spiritual living.

8. Reading the Mystics

We are so surrounded today by a low concept of what the human being is that it is essential to give ourselves a higher image. For this reason I recommend devoting half an hour or so each day to reading the scriptures and the writings of the great mystics of all religions. Just before bedtime, after evening meditation, is a particularly good time, because the thoughts you fall asleep in will be with you throughout the night.

There is a helpful distinction between works of inspiration and works of spiritual instruction. Inspiration may be drawn from every tradition or religion. Instructions in meditation and other spiritual disciplines, however, can differ from and even seem to contradict each other. For this reason, it is wise to confine instructional reading to the works of one teacher or path. Choose your teacher carefully. A good teacher lives what he or she teaches, and it is the student's responsibility to exercise sound judgment. Then, once you have chosen, give your teacher your full loyalty.

Note. See also our page from the "75 Spiritual Innovators" Study on Centering Prayer by Fr. Thomas Keating. Aspects of Easwaran's good points are found in the Keating method also. LINK.

Jock's Notes. - The Heart of the Matter.

Dr. Borg distils the issue on the explorefaith.org website this way.

"For me, the heart of Christianity--Christian fundamentals for our time--would be, first, the reality of God. Without a robust affirmation of the reality of God, Christianity makes little important sense.

Secondly, the centrality of the Bible. To be Christian is to be in a continuing, ongoing conversation with our sacred scriptures.

Thirdly is the utter centrality of Jesus. Christians are people who find the decisive revelation of God in Jesus, in a person. That means when Jesus and the Bible [contradict] each other, Jesus trumps the Bible.

The fourth fundamental is that a relationship with God is known in Jesus. Christianity is not primarily about believing; a relationship involves a much deeper part of ourselves than simply the content of our minds.

The fifth fundamental is a concern for the transformation of ourselves and of society. I'm convinced that the Bible from beginning to end is both personal and political, concerned with both spiritual matters and social matters, and the life of Christian faithfulness involves both of those. *

In this chapter he says this can only make sense through practice. It's easy he says to acknowlege God's loving us, but our loving God can only be expressed in practice, and he reminds us that Christianity is "A Way". We protestants have focused much on faith and belief. But if we mean it, we should have a passion for justice.

Practice is being part of Christian community, being nourished and encouraged by community, and in community making meaningful the relationship to God. Practice he says is about 5 things.

1. First he says practice is centrally about paying attention to God - spending time at it - being intentional about it. Relationship shapes us.

2. That leads to us deepening, transforming and reforming who we are - forming our Christian identity in a process that is ongoing. The Way of Christianity he points out is "profoundly egalitarian" and frees us from "measuring up" for we are accepted by God. At the same time to be Christian means living in a "Christian cultural-linguistic world, a Christian ethos" We are formed in part with our study of the scriptures.

3. In turn our growth as Christians forms character to the degree we practice virtue - prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, faith, hope and love. "We become what we do."

4. Whatever the virtue practiced it seems the universal experience, that while slow to start, to commit, to do these things, we always discover more is given the giver than the givee. We are nourished by practice.

5. The fruits of practice are compassion and justice. Loving what God loves is moving from our transformed self to transforming community.

These things are best done in a church community and he has a lovely way of simplifying the search for a church. The right church will make your heart glad. And in that church community, education includes both children and adults. It often means re-education. And in that church community there will be opportunities of service, for working towards justice, for showing compassion

Prayer is so essential to these matters that Borg reviews the matter rather thoroughly, listing the 5 categories as praise, thanksgiving, confession, intercession and petition. We should learn to understand prayer as other than petitions to an interventionist God though. Healing prayer would seem a greater mystery than that. In the lists and sub-lists he is wont to make, is a delight. He shares Anne Lamott's notion that the two most common prayers are "Help me, help me, help me" and Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou." Then he thoughtfully adds forms of meditation and contemplation to the list., including Thomas Keating's Centering Prayer which we have studied earlier in the Spirtual Innovators study. And as throughout, practice is the core of it all.

Borg finishes the chapter with a wrap on the practice of compassion and justice. "God," says he, "loves the world, not just you and me and us." Charity is never enough. God calls us to the transformation of society through systemic change. Note that our United Church of Canada puts these concerns together under the title of "Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations". Borg challenges us to consider giving "50% of our total giving to organizations whose purpose is to change the world in the direction of greater justice." He concludes the chapter with the words of Micah - one of our favourite verses at St. Davids.

Wayne's Notes. - Heart and Home.- Being Christian in an Age of Pluralism (Chapter Eleven)

Why be a Christian today? Borg asks in the concluding chapter. A central claim here is that we understand Christianity most clearly when we see it in the context of religious pluralism - in other words, when we look at Christianity in the context of other faiths.

Our Canadian context has shifted considerably since WWII. Not only have we moved from being a rural to an urban society. We have also been transformed into a multi-faith society. Previously, even though we were multi-cultural, we remained essentially a Christian nation. Now, multi-cultural means multi-faith as well. (Note: In anticipation of the Borg visit in May, I am putting him in touch with Reg. Bibby so that he can bring Canadian, rather than only American, statistics into his presentation).

Three Ways of Seeing Religion Today: Absolutist, Reductionist and Sacramental

We can quickly dispose of the first two categories, because most, if not all of us reject them. We do not believe that Christianity is the only true faith - a view held essentially by very conservative folk. Nor do we believe that religion is only a humanistic endeavour based on scientific, objectified principles. In other words, we reject the basic secularist view that there is no meaning or reality beyond ourselves. We honour the scientific method and the social sciences, but we do not accept that only what is measurable and empirically defined is real.

A Sacramental View of Religion (213 ff)

Religion is a mediator of the sacred. It is like an icon. We "see through" religion to more of what is really real. We are informed, nourished and become more fully human by good religion. Religion is a mediator of the absolute, but not the absolute itself (215).

A sacramental view of religion acknowledges that it is a human, not a divine creation. Humans construct religion in response to experiences of the sacred in their lives. Religions, Borg tells us - borrowing from the breakthroughs of the social sciences over the past century - are cultural linguistic traditions - they are culture specific; they need to be understood in terms of their context, and respected as valid within that ethos, but are not necessarily valid beyond their own context. Religion, as we know it, cannot be exclusively true.

As an example, we could perhaps agree with the Roman Catholic dictum: "extra ecclesia nullus salus" - outside the church there is no salvation. But then we would proceed to explain - that does not mean the Roman Church, or any other church for that matter is exclusively the church. Nor is the Christian faith the only domain wherein true believers, GodOs people, are to be found. True believers exist in all the great religions and probably among people of no official religion to speak of.

We accept, I believe with Borg, that we are part of a great human wisdom and aesthetic tradition encompasing all time, space and human history. And, religions provide us with communities of practice and of transformation.

Are All Religions the Same? Yes and No.

Borg tackles the question about all religions being essentially the same and leading people to the same place, with the statement that such a premise is too simple. He says that there are some key commonalities about all the great faiths, but there are also key differences. All affirm there is more to life and reality than what we know. All affirm a way to live, a path. All provide practical means for following their particular path and promote compassion as a prime ethical value of life. They all contain a collection of basic beliefs and teachings (216).

Yet, religions are as different as the various cultures and histories that have shaped them. Their teachings and their words differ, but their views of reality and the lives they mediate are similar. Primal or primordial traditions is a set of core understandings underlying all the enduring religions (217).

In summary, relgions are the same in their central core, but different in their external forms (218).

Borg cautions about contrasting religion and spirituality. It is too simplistic to do so, he says. (219). Spirituality is associated with the personal, while religion is associated with institutions. Yet, it is simplistic to think you can have one without the other.

Why Be Christian?

Borg reminds us that religious pluralism negates Christian exclusivism. "Jesus is the way for Christians," he says, "though he is not the only expression of the way." Christianity, in a global community, is one of the great religious traditions, but it is only one among many.

We need Christianity because we need community; we need a path to follow and we need to be in touch with the wisdom of the past. Our challenge is to be open to the workings of the spirit beyond our Christianity, but also to be willing to dig deeply into the rich resources our faith offers us.

At the heart of Christianity is participation on the passion of God (225)

Questions for Discussion

Discussion in groups: (3 - 5 people) 35 min Please appoint a ‘spokesperson’ for each sessionLook at the first question that follows, then subsequent or other questions as time permits. If your own questions seem more relevant please raise them and seek discussion of them.

Question 1: How, as an individual Christian, and/or as a member of a Christian community can we practice compassion and justice in our own time and place?

Question 2: How might we strengthen and fortify our Christian lives within the communities of which we are a part? What might be the benefits for ourselves and for others if we were to put this into practice?

Question 3: How might we contribute to a stronger and more stable pluralistic world through actions centered on our own lives and communities? Specifically, what steps might we take to really understand the paths that others are on, while all the time feeling comfortable with, and not defensive about, what nourishes and energizes us?

Plenium Discussion (20 min) Each nominated spokes-person to have an opportunity to share their group’s discussion. The leader will facilitate the group discussion.

End of Course Notes - Summary Thoughts and Assessment

Here is simple design we originally proposed as a way of focusing our class theme - HOLY: Manners, Meanings from the Heart of Faith, Moments. It is important now, in retrospect, to consider how far and how well we have come.

A. Holy Manners Guidelines: (combining insights from Marian Pardy and others)

1. We want to keep God at the centre of all we do.
2. We wish to encourage the full and equitable involvement of all participating.
3. We hope to listen carefully to each other without interruption.
4. We like it when people venture to share what it important to them.
5. We welcome the conflict of ideas as a natural outcome of the engagement.
6. We would like participants to anticipate and expect ½ah ha. moments along the way.

B. Heart of Christianity Course Goals:

1. To become familiar with key ideas from Marcus Borg in his book The Heart of Christianity 2. To discuss, debate, learn together and support one another in a community that practices authentic hospitality, holy manners and relational learning 3. To distinguish between two responses to faith; an earlier and an emerging paradigm (idea context or gestalt) to help us discern what is helpful and a hindrance. 4. To integrate a personal spirituality with a workable faith in a church context (hoping to have important "ah ha" moments of discovery by developing "a theology that fits". 5. To combine focused content sessions and group discussion (plenary and small groups). 6. To see all this as part of a personal process of life-long learning and growth in faith.

C. Purpose of the Book (xi-xv, 17):

The Heart of Christianity seeks to describe the emerging way of seeing Christianity. It is written primarily for people for whom the earlier visiion of Christianity no longer works but who would still like to be part of the church. In a time of change and conflict within the church, what is the heart of Christianity? What is most central to an authentic Christianity and Christian life today?

This book seeks to build bridges of understanding and is committed to exploring the differences between the earlier and emerging paradigms.

The author subcribes to the theory that there is no single right way of understanding Christianity and single right way of being Christian. Each of us has a responsibility to develop a personal faith and to be able to give a worthy account of it.

D. Assessing this Course:

1. God provides teachers and mentors to help us find the way. The book focuses on an "earlier faith paradigm" and on what Marcus Borg calls an "emerging paradigm." The author seeks to build bridges of respect and understanding between people. Our task was to apply BorgOs wisdom to our own particular lives and Christian communities.

2. How do you think Borg's categories and bridging method worked for you?

3. Notes, quotes and more extensive resource links from our presentations and class input will be posted to the website so people can keep up with what is going on here. Use of the Faith Futures Material from Australia and the U of C Fall University faculty/staff course learnings.

4. How well did our website notes, resource links and email discussion list work for you?

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