{"id":3025,"date":"2011-04-21T08:06:23","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T13:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=3025"},"modified":"2011-04-21T08:06:23","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T13:06:23","slug":"no-marcus-borg-the-resurrection-does-not-make-sense-thats-what-i-love-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/04\/21\/no-marcus-borg-the-resurrection-does-not-make-sense-thats-what-i-love-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"No, Marcus Borg, the Resurrection Does Not "Make Sense" – That's What I Love about It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

At Patheos, Marcus Borg recapitulates<\/a> what he\u2019s been saying for years: that the resurrection of Jesus was not bodily, it was mystical\/spiritual (to be fair, he demurs on these terms, too; not because he doesn\u2019t like them, but because people don\u2019t rightly understand them).\u00a0 Money quote:<\/p>\n

Moreover, what would it mean to say that the risen Jesus is a physical\/bodily reality? That he continues to be a molecular, protoplasmic, corpuscular being existing somewhere? Does that make any sense?<\/strong> How can the risen and living Jesus be all around us and with us, present everywhere, if he is bodily and physical?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have written before that I think Borg and others in his camp are beholden to a paradigm of modern rationality: if the resurrection of Jesus doesn\u2019t jibe with modern understandings of science, then it doesn\u2019t wash.<\/p>\n

In 2009, I battled this notion with a series of posts.\u00a0 In Why Jesus Died<\/a>, I wrote,<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 death offers life because in Christianity, and in Christianity alone, the God and Creator of the universe deigned to become human, to be tempted, to reach out to those who had been de-humanized and restore their humanity, and ultimately to die in solidarity with every one of us. Yes, he was a sacrifice. Yes, he was \u201csinless.\u201d But thank God, Jesus was also human.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then, in Why Jesus Rose<\/a>, I wrote,<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m saying is that Jesus (God) really, materially healed people \u2014 if he hadn\u2019t, then the miracle stories are without worth.<\/p>\n

Jesus (God) really, materially died.<\/p>\n

And Jesus (God) really, materially rose from death.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only in his resurrection, his victory, that his death has any meaning at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, finally, in Why It Matters that Jesus REALLY Rose<\/a>, I explicitly took on Borg\u2019s influence on progressive Christianity:<\/p>\n

Thus, since the resurrection of Jesus is his defeat of death, evil, and grief, it\u2019s important to me that it really<\/em> happened. Without a resurrected Jesus, Christianity is impotent.<\/strong> (Exhibit A: liberal Christianity) And I don\u2019t mean a Jesus who was \u201cresurrected\u201d in the Disciples\u2019 hearts, and in my heart. I mean a real resurrection in the space-time continuum by a physical being known as Jesus of Nazareth<\/strong>, as 99.99% of Christians for the last two milennia have believed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, as then, I\u2019m sure that liberal readers will rush to Borg\u2019s defense in the comments.\u00a0 In the past, I\u2019ve been chastised by my friend, Diana Butler Bass, regarding my criticism of Borg, and I\u2019ve been chastened by Phyllis Tickle who\u2019s reminded me how many liberals are Christians today because of Borg.<\/p>\n

But I need to ask, again, what kind of Christianity it is that denudes the Savior of a real, historical, bodily resurrection?<\/strong> It might not \u201cmake sense\u201d that Jesus would be bodily resurrected two millennia ago, and yet still cosmically reign today.\u00a0 But, for me, I can live with that unrelieved paradox.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Patheos, Marcus Borg recapitulates what he\u2019s been saying for years: that the resurrection of Jesus was not bodily, it was mystical\/spiritual (to be fair, he demurs on these terms, too; not because he doesn\u2019t like them, but because people don\u2019t rightly understand them).\u00a0 Money quote: Moreover, what would it mean to say that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[205,330,411,539],"class_list":["post-3025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology","tag-easter","tag-jesus","tag-marcus-borg","tag-resurrection"],"yoast_head":"\nNo, Marcus Borg, the Resurrection Does Not "Make Sense" - That's What I Love about It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At Patheos, Marcus Borg recapitulates what he's been saying for years: that the resurrection of Jesus was not bodily, it was mystical\/spiritual (to be\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2011\/04\/21\/no-marcus-borg-the-resurrection-does-not-make-sense-thats-what-i-love-about-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No, Marcus Borg, the Resurrection Does Not "Make Sense" - 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