Rating:  Summary: Meeting Jesus and Buddha Review: The struggle to create an intellectually honest Christianity goes on. For a really interesting experience, read this book alongside Thich Nhat Hanh's "Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers".
Rating:  Summary: A Must Read Review: I can't say that very many books have changed my life, but this book is one of several which have been strongly influential. Borg shares a common experience with many of us who grew up in well meaning, but misdirected churches which focus on the god of anger and judgement. A god who demands a rigid personal belief system as the only means of escape from the fires of hell. He shares his personal journey of reawakening to a god of love and acceptance. His shared experience is one which can help many others of us grow up and understand the Bible as a finger pointing to God and not the literal text of absolute doctrine. This book is a must read for anyone who has suffered through a fundamentalist childhood and yet still desires to know God in a mature, meaningful manner.
Rating:  Summary: Attention Fundamentalists. Now hear this.... Review: Borg's book, "Meeting Jesus Again For the First Time" will blow the minds of fundamentalist Christians. Just knowing that there are two different accounts of Jesus'birth (Matthew claims Jesus was born in Bethlehem but Luke says He was born in Nazareth) dubunks the myth of the Bible being infallible-always lining up-never contradicting itself. It helps literalists recover from a "faith" only basis to using reason with their beliefs.Give it a try-if you dare.
Rating:  Summary: Buy this book! The thinking person's Jesus Review: Say what you will, Borg's Meeting Jesus Again is a great book if you want to build your faith on something other than blindness. Although this book did not answer all my questions, when added to other books (i.e. Robert Funk's Honest to Jesus and several of Shebly Spong's books and John Dominic Crossan) you arrive at a complete and satisfying understanding of Jesus & of Christ and through that develop a mature and intelligent faith. Borg's message is simple - we see in Jesus a model of a relationship with the divine and eternal that we call God. Through our understanding of Jesus, we can enter into a relationship with that eternal. To understand Borg's book, you must be willing to ask real questions about not only the bible, but about God and Jesus; if you refuse to abandon the belief that the Bible is literal and inerrant truth, you will hate this book.
Rating:  Summary: Here we go again Review: What a niggling little tome! I laughed out loud when on p. 30, Borg makes the oberservation that "Jesus' verbal gifts were remarkable." How does Borg know this? Was he there? It's painfully obvious Borg depends upon the very apostolic tradition he tears apart. In the end, he does seem to support the Christ of Faith, but by then I found myself wondering why he wrote this book in the first place. One star for effort.
Rating:  Summary: A Jesus for Tomorrow's Christian Review: This is a remarkable book. It is relatively short, very approachable and mercifully short on jargon. But most of all it speaks with a refreshing directness and sincerity. Marcus Borg has walked the path of many of us, from the comfortable church beliefs of childhood, to open questioning, agnosticism, and then back again to confront the figure of Jesus once more, this time with eyes wide open. I suspect that, if Christianity is not to fade away, like the smile on the Cheshire cat, over the course of the Third Millennium, it will be because of the courage of Christians like Borg, who are not afraid to confront the inadequate theological models of the past and deal with them honestly. Fundamentalists will not enjoy this book, but it is none the less a profoundly Christian testimony.
Rating:  Summary: A confused man Review: I must admit Borg is a wonderful writer, but he has taken much of what is the "biblical truth" and distorted it to fit his convoluted belief system. I truly believe Borg means well, but he only served to disenchant someone who has had a "spiritual experience" as Borg describes in his book.
Rating:  Summary: Jesus for the Thinking Man and Woman Review: This book is excellent. It liberated me from the views of Jesus advocated by conservative Christians, which I could not accept and caused me to leave the church. Borg showed me to focus on changing my heart, rather than believing in doctrine. If you are an educated, open thinker with confused views about Christianity, or if you just want to reaffirm that there are others out there that can't accept what the fundamentalists insist is Gospel, then please read this book. It will free you and change you. Also, Borg is an excellent writer, and is easy to understand. If you buy only one book about Jesus in your life, buy this one.
Rating:  Summary: Attack against Christianity and Scholarly Wrong Review: This book was one of the texts for one of my Theological subjects. In my opinion it is not a book worth reading and I consider it trash. All he still had to do is openly deny his faith in God. He demoted Jesus from God's Holy Prophet to a mere "Social Prophet" from the founder and head of the Church to a "Movement Founder" from the Son of GOd to a "spirit person", from the Wisdom of God to "wisdom teacher". He draws the distinction between the Pre-Easter (real) Jesus and the Post-Easter (disciple manufactured) Jesus. He says that what we have in Christianity today is the Post-Easter Jesus which originated from the early church's higly developed supernatural beliefs. Most of the sayings as recorded in Scripture of Jesus is denied. To Borg Jesus is just another Buddha, Moses, Mohammed or some, as he call them "spirit person". You might even want to check up on his website and see how carefully he presents this false view so that the average person would not recognize the heresy introduced to the church.
Rating:  Summary: Borg promotes self at expense of faith Review: Like all Christians Marcus Borg is on a journey of faith, but he got off of the train too soon at the oportunistic station called "Jesus Seminar Bucks" The doubts and questions that Borg describes are not uncommon to growing Christians, but Borg seems to have come to the conclusion that if you can't prove something, then it could not have happened. While denying the physical resurrection of Christ, he proclaims himself to be a Christian. (Something that a lot of denominations find to be pretty basic in the description of a member of the religion.) While contending that Jesus' body was thrown to the dogs Borg is sure, that no one ever was able to retrieve a body after a Roman crucifixion. How can Borg be so sure of that fact when he has no more evidence of that than some of the other stories he knocks down because of lack of evidence? Could Pontius Pilate have surrendered one body? Could Pontius Pilate be moved by a bribe from a rich man such as Joseph of Arimathea who claimed Jesus' body? And what group of disciples, no matter how devoted to their fallen leader would try to convince anyone that he had risen from the dead, if his body had been eaten by dogs? Who would believe such a story if it were known that the bodies of crucifixion victims were eaten by dogs? Could it be, that this story, as fantastic as it seems, even in Borg's description, is believed and has been from almost 2000 years, because it is true? In that respect, Borg only strengthened my belief in Jesus Christ and his bodily resurrection, but then I'll never be part of the storied Jesus Seminar. All in all, this is a book that I really wish I had not paid money for or read. I am praying that Mr. Borg will realize that his research should continue. Maybe the next book could be, "Meeting Jesus for the REAL Time."
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