Marcus Borg, Tony Jones and the body of Jesus

The angel Michael and Satan argued over the body of Moses (Jude 9). The church continues to debate over the body of Jesus. As I think it should.

1. Last week Tony Jones wrote his opinion of Marcus Borg’s theology of the resurrection.
2. Marcus Borg says that Jones misrepresented what he said and believes.
3. Jones came back with his own clarification and defense.
4. Borg responded, concluding that they simply do not agree on the physical material resurrection of the body of Jesus.

It’s an interesting exchange.

Which is why I drew this cartoon. Perhaps the theology of the physical material resurrection of the body of Jesus and the concept of Hell belong in the same category.

Jones believes in the physical material resurrection of the actual body of Jesus. His reasons are that the church always has; the gospels say so; Paul says so; no other explanation sticks.

Borg doesn’t believe in the physical material resurrection of the actual body of Jesus. If a news team was there they would have had nothing about a physical resurrection to report. He believes the resurrection was real in that believers experienced Jesus after his death. The resurrection serves as a parable for this reality.

Then you have others who believe the whole Jesus story is an elaborate conspiracy theory concocted by the Roman Empire to pacify the Jewish population.

I suggest that the whole biblical narrative, the gospel stories and the Pauline corpus all serve as an extended metaphor attempting to explain as best as humanly possible a present reality.

I’ve written about this a great deal in my z-theory.