HarperOne Mourns the Passing of Beloved Bestselling Author Marcus Borg

January 22, 2015 By Guest Contributor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 22, 2015 SAN FRANCISCO – Marcus J. Borg, beloved husband and father, renowned teacher, author and leading scholar of the historical Jesus, New Testament and contemporary Christianity, died on January 21, 2015, following a battle with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. He was 72 years of age. Marcus Borg was an internationally revered speaker and scholar who authored or co‐authored 21 books, some which were New York Times and national bestsellers. His books have won multiple awards and... Read more

Has Christmas Been Swallowed by the Miraculous?

December 11, 2014 By Marcus Borg

Like a preacher who has pastored a congregation for more than a year, I am faced with the task of saying something about Advent again without simply saying what I said last year in my Advent blogs. And I commend those to you. Of course, some repetition is unavoidable. Hard to talk about Advent and Christmas without seeking to emphasize what matters most. What is Advent with its climax in Christmas about? To say the obvious, Christmas has rich cultural... Read more

Remembering Our Death: What May Be at Stake

October 14, 2014 By Marcus Borg

A great change has occurred in the rituals, formal and informal, surrounding dying and death in North America. Here and in other contemporary western cultures, our customary practices around dying and death, have changed dramatically. For millennia, both were part of the familiar fabric of human experience. But no longer. There is more than one reason. Life expectancy was much lower. As recently as 1900 in the United States, it was 45 years. Infant and children mortality rates were high.... Read more

What Would It Have Been Like to Be A Companion of Jesus?

October 3, 2014 By Marcus Borg

I began keeping a journal in my early 30s, now forty years ago. I wish I had begun earlier. I would value having a written record of thoughts and experiences from my 20s and even earlier. I mention my journal because browsing in a volume from twenty years ago is the trigger for this blog. Namely, I was reminded of preparing a short summary of what Jesus was like for a live appearance on a major network television morning news... Read more

Responding to a Critic: Misunderstanding or Misrepresentation?

September 22, 2014 By Marcus Borg

To write about religion is to court controversy, conflict, and criticism. It confirms the counsel of conventional etiquette that it is best in polite conversation to avoid two subjects: religion and politics. So I know that conflict and criticism are part of writing blogs for Patheos. Indeed, that’s what makes it worthwhile doing. If my blogs got no responses, generated no conversation, why would I want to spend time writing them? Life is too short. But it is not as... Read more

Top Religious Trends 2014: A Christianity Co-Opted by Individualistic, Exclusivist Faith

September 2, 2014 By Marcus Borg

Editors’ Note: This article is part of the Public Square 2014 Summer Series: Conversations on Religious Trends. Read other perspectives from the Patheos community here. Patheos has invited a number of us to write an end-of-summer post about what we find “most critical within our tradition” today (italics added), “the issue of greatest import.” My tradition is Christianity – especially in its American form. I have been both all of my life. The most critical issue within American Christianity today as I see it? The... Read more

Postscript to A Letter About Jesus

July 30, 2014 By Marcus Borg

This is my third installment about a letter about Jesus and the issue, “Was Jesus God?” If you have not read the first two installments, this may not make much sense to you. To emphasize: as a Christian, I affirm that Jesus is “the Word of God” and “the Word become flesh,” that is, the Word incarnate, the Word embodied in a human life. In Jesus, we see what can be seen of God in a human life. This affirmation... Read more

Further Thoughts on a Letter about Jesus

July 17, 2014 By Marcus Borg

My previous blog – “A Letter about Jesus” – drew a much larger response than I expected. In this blog, I continue that conversation with a clarification and some additional comments. Clarification – even as I think this was pretty clear in my previous blog. One of my major claims was that the New Testament does not simply identify and equate Jesus and God. It never says, “Jesus is God” or “God is Jesus.” Of course, it does affirm, in... Read more

A Letter About Jesus

June 30, 2014 By Marcus Borg

A very few days ago, I received by e-mail a letter about Jesus from a person who is reading one of my books. His thoughts and questions struck me as being of interest to many people. I quote the letter at length and then share my response. The Letter Your book has persuaded me that much of the language of the Bible and theology is metaphorical and should not be taken literally. Granted that, at what point do you think... Read more

Does the Bible Matter? Progressive Christians and Scripture

June 18, 2014 By Marcus Borg

To neglect the Bible because of the negative associations generated by the common Christianity of the recent past and present would be to abandon our heritage and to deprive ourselves of its riches and power as one of the world’s great wisdom traditions. Read more