Marcus Borg began this book as planning only a revision of his first book, "Jesus, a new vision" which he had written twenty years before but more was necessary to show what scholarship has discovered during the last twenty years and a new book was born. Marcus Borg has written extensively on Jesus and Biblical scholarship and has participated in the Jesus Seminar when it focused on the historical Jesus. He was Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University and he is the author of six other books on Jesus and Christianity. Another was written with N.T. Wright.
Borg begins this book by pointing out that most Americans claim to be Christians (about 80 percent) and in another poll 84 percent claim that Jesus is the son of God.
A summary is given of ways of telling the story of Jesus. 1) The Dying Savior: Jesus Died for Our Sins; 2)Jesus as God in Human Form; 3)The Apocalyptic Jesus; 4)and Jesus as Teacher: Guidance for the Moral Life. A careful explanation is given of these various manners of telling the story of Jesus.
An explanation is given for two paradigms of Belief in Jesus. The first paradigm emphasized the literal acceptance of the gospel stories as factual but the enlightenment beginning in the late 1600s began to see the gospels in a new light.
This second paradigm emphasizes the gospels resulting from a historical process. These were written in the last third of the first century and tell the story about what Jesus had become to the various Christian communities of the time. Borg shows how the gospels combine memory and testimony. Some of what they report appears to be memory and some is the understanding which had developed during the time after the death of Jesus. For this reason this second paradigm must take account of the pre-Easter Jesus and the post-Easter Jesus in order to present a true picture of Jesus Historically. The remainder of the book seeks to present this picture of Jesus .
Another thing that is emphasized in this book is the cultural context in which Jesus lives. This was an imperial domination system and the ways in which his culture influenced Jesus are explored in the course of the book.
Marcus Borg carefully explains the Gospels and the shaping of Jesus through the Jewish Tradition and an imperial world. Especially emphasized is that God's Passion and that of Jesus also is for justice and how much of the mission of Jesus was for the peasant class which existed at the time. It appears that this passion for justice and creation of the Kingdom of God on earth was the root cause of the crucifixion. As Borg states in the last chapter of the book "Executed by Rome, Vindicated by God."
This book presents a fascinating view of the historical Jesus and also a very believable reconstruction of history based upon what we know as most probable statements made by Jesus and the most scholarly interpretation of the Gospels.
The book is written for the general reader and is easily read in spite of the scholarship of the author. I found it difficult to put the book down when I was reading it as it is the best book I have read on this subject.
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This book is the most comprehensive book on Jesus I’ve ever read, bar none.
Borg takes everything he put forth in Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time and expands upon it to such a degree that it’ll completely reevaluate the way one sees, understands, and follows Jesus. Containing Borgs brilliant sketch of the historical Jesus (where he grew up, the culture he grew up in, the native and imperial domination systems of his time and how his ministry responded to it, his very Jewish upbringing and how that influenced his very Jewish mission, his experience and relationship to God, his movement, why he died, how this frames the resurrection accounts, etc) and then with a fascinating mix of scholarship and theology, shows us what Jesus’ ministry and movement was about then and what it should be about now and beyond using his aforementioned sketch, all the while leaving enough space for those who can’t follow him to some of his conclusions fully to agree with his overall portrait and understanding of who Jesus was and who he is for us today. Absolutely brilliant.
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- Anne GReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2025
Interesting perspective on Jesus' life and time
