Showcasing some of his most enduring and insightful writings, including many previously unpublished works, a concise and illuminating introduction to Marcus J. Borg, the late spokesman for progressive Christianity and one of the most revered and influential theologians of our time.In his acclaimed books, including classics such as Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, Speaking Christian, and Convictions, Marcus J. Borg helped shape an enlightened modernist view of Christianity. A leading scholar of the historical Jesus acclaimed for his ability to speak about Christianity in the context of contemporary society, Borg offered profound wisdom and inspiration—a new way of seeing and living the Christian life—for believers, students, and lay readers. Ultimately, he taught us that by developing a deeper understanding of Jesus and the New Testament, we can discover a more authentic way of being. Yet Borg himself was always conscious of a...

“Who could argue with the message the authors draw from the Bible’s Christmas stories? Light in the darkest time of the year, hope in a period of creeping despair—these are powerful and universal themes that can give everyone a stake in Christmas.”—USA TodayIn The First Christmas Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan—top Jesus scholars and authors of The Last Week—help us see the real Christmas story buried in the familiar Bible accounts. Basing their interpretations on the two nativity narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Borg and Crossan focus on the literal story—the inner truth rather than the historical facts—to offer a clear and uplifting message of hope and peace. With The First Christmas readers get a fresh, deep, and new understanding of the nativity story, enabling us to better appreciate the powerful message of the Gospels.Review“With meticulous scholarship and accessible language, “The first Christmas”... uncover(s) the genuine meaning of...the Birth of Jesus.” From the Back CoverIn The First Christmas, two of today's top Jesus scholars, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, join forces to show how history has biased our reading of the nativity story as it appears in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. As they did for Easter in their previous book, The Last Week, here they explore the beginning of the life of Christ, peeling away the sentimentalism that has built up over the last two thousand years around this most well known of all stories to reveal the truth of what the gospels actually say. Borg and Crossan help us to see this well-known narrative afresh by answering the question, "What do these stories mean?" in the context of both the first century and the twenty-first century. They successfully show that the Christmas story, read in its original context, is far richer and more challenging than people imagine.

Review"Borg pours a lifetime of scholarship into this provocative overview of Jesus’s life." -- Detriot Free Press "_Jesus: A New Vision_ not only helps us recover how Jesus appeared to his contemporariesas a God-intoxicated manbut also helps us gain a fresh perspective on understanding Jesus' significance for our times." -- _Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University, author of _Against the Nations "A scholar who is alive in wonder and belief, Borg accomplishes the hardest task of all: he looks at the obvious and helps us to see it as if for the first time. " -- _Eugene H. Peterson, author of _A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Working the Angles, and Reversed Thunder "Borg's new book distills a wealth of scholarship into a readily accessible form, and demonstrates that the study of the historical Jesus is still highly relevant to the contemporary church and world. He makes the bold attempt to integrate serious study of the historical Jesus with the study of religion in general. The result is an exciting treatment that continually jolts the reader into seeing well-known themes in fresh, sometimes startling light. Borg has issued an important challenge both to mainline scholarship and popular piety." -- N. Thomas Wright, Worcester College, Oxford University "Is it possible in our secular age to restore Jesus to the decisive place that Christians for 2,000 years have accorded him? In Jesus: A New Vision, Marcus Borg does it. Without bypassing New Testament scholarship at any point, this breakthrough book restores to Jesus the Spiritin the full-blooded, ontological sense of that wordthat scholarship has so largely drained him of. Point by point Borg shows how Jesus' empowering relation with God issued in a social program that is as relevant to today's world as to the one in which he lived. This is the book about Jesus I have been waiting for my entire career." -- _Huston Smith, Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus, Syracuse University, author of _The Religions of Man and Forgotten TruthProduct DescriptionFrom top Jesus expert Marcus Borg, a completely updated and revised version of his vision of Jesus -- as charismatic healer, sage, and prophet, a man living in the power of the spirit and dedicated to radical social change. Fully revised and updated, this is Borg's major book on the historial Jesus. He shows how the Gospel portraits of Jesus, historically seen, make sense. Borg takes into account all the recent developments in historical Jesus scholarship, as well as new theories on who Jesus was and how the Gospels reflect that. The original version of this book was published well before popular fascination with the historical Jesus. Now this new version takes advantage of all the research that has gone on since the 80s. The revisions establish it as Borg's big but popular book on Jesus.

Amazon.com ReviewReading the Bible Again for the First Time is Marcus Borg's follow-up to __. Like his earlier book, this one is written for lay people whose faith has been frustrated by their misapprehension that fundamentalism's claim to be the one true faith is valid. Borg, a professor of religion at Oregon State University, describes an alternative to fundamentalists' so-called "literal" readings of scripture. (He believes that such "literal-factual" readings do not live up to that description, and that the limitations of such readings have alienated many people who would otherwise remain part of the church.) Borg calls his alternative "historical-metaphorical" reading, a way of "taking the Bible seriously without taking it literally." Reading the Bible begins with a history of recent conflicts regarding biblical interpretation. Borg navigates the minefields of his subject with sensitivity and precision, explaining, for example, the important distinction between evangelical and fundamentalist readings of the Bible. He then offers historical-metaphorical readings of some key texts from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Throughout, Borg writes with calm assurance and respect for those who would disagree with him. Reading the Bible is a credible guide to the project it names. It is a faithful exercise of reason, undertaken to help Christians hear more clearly the many voices recorded in the Bible. --Michael Joseph GrossFrom Publishers WeeklyThe title of this book comes from the author's experience of "unlearning" his literal reading of the Bible from childhood in favor of a "historical-metaphorical" reading derived from his 35 years of studying the Bible as an academic. Borg, an Episcopalian who teaches at Oregon State University, is a member of the Jesus Seminar, author of The God We Never Knew and the counterpoint to evangelical N.T. Wright in The Meaning of Jesus: Two Views. Borg offers a highly readable and succinct introduction to biblical criticism, outlining the kinds of cultural, theological and historical lenses through which people read the Bible and explaining how those readings affect their relation to God. The historical-metaphorical reading that Borg presents includes both the "historical illumination of a text in its ancient context" and a metaphorical approach that "enables us to see and affirm meanings that go beyond the particularity of what the texts meant in their ancient setting." He applies this approach to the Bible in sections, wending his way from the creation stories to Revelation even as he advocates a journey from "precritical naivete" (the acceptance that the Bible is literally true) through "critical thinking" to "postcritical naivete" (accepting again that the Bible is true even if that truth does not depend upon factuality). The book is copiously footnoted without being in the least stodgy, and is open about Borg's own spiritual journey without being didactic or disrespectful of the tradition he has left. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.