Book Review/Jesus
Jesus
Uncovering the life, teaching and relevance of a religous revolutionary
By Marcus J. Borg
HarperCollins Publishers
Paperback $14.95
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
When I studied for my techer’s certification in Los Angeles in the 1950s, one of my professors said every teacher should study under the master teacher — Jesus. The professor was Fulton J. Sheen. Yes, I mean Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. Therefore his reference shouldn’t surprise readers of this book review.
It is no surprise to me to read the same advice in Marcus J. Borg’s "Jesus," although his learned volume is not particularly aimed at teachers, is the recounting the story of a religious revolutionary. He says "may it be the last comprehensive book about Jesus that I will write." The book is to be released in March.
Borg, who holds the Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture at Oregon State University, describes the book as a new attempt to treat the whole story of Jesus as a figure who became "Christianty’s Lord."
He began the book about four years ago as a revised edition of his first book, "Jesus: A New Vision," written 20 years ago. A year after he got into the research and writing he discovered it was far more than a revision of his earlier book and indeed it was a new book with "only a few paragraphs here and there that are the same as what I wrote 20 years ago."
Borg said that more than one hundred million people in America believe in Jesus yet American Christians are deeply divided about what it means to follow Jesus. Borg, an internationally known biblical and Jesus scholar, who after 40 years of study reveals a Jesus far more than a charismatic healer and a prophet, hopes his book will provide a new perspective that can overcome differences between the literalist and the progressive Christian by focusing on a path that emphasizes following "the way" of Jesus in the world today.
That way, he believes gives all peoples the path to world peace in just one commandment: "Love one another." Jesus gave this commandment many times and in many ways, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus taught in a distinctive way, primarily storytelling in parables and short memorable one-liners to get his message across. Borg describes these parables as made up stories, fictional narratives and aphorisms. These, Borg said, were "deliberate as well as characteristic" in the life of Jesus.
That was in contrast to the strict, by-the-book teaching of laws and rules of the Torah with its "you shall," and "you shall not" demands upon the people. Seldom do you find this form in Jesus’ teaching.
"Parables are an interactive form of teaching," Borg said, but in a unique way of making people think. The longest parable in the gospels is the Prodigal Son, which is just over 500 words in English and can be read aloud in under four minutes. Yet, as Borg explains, "it is easy to imagine the story being expanded into greater lengths" by the listener.
Even today, this particular parable is debated by scholars and lay persons alike as Jesus left us with a "what do you think?" message.
"To say Jesus was a teacher does not say much," Borg wrote, "for there are varieties of teachers and teaching." He describes this Jewish peasant as a teacher of wisdom. "Wisdom is not about knowledge or information," Borg said. It is a way of life.
Borg ends this amazingly book with a final line: "…for the followers of Jesus, the unending converation about Jesus is the conversation that matters most."
Borg’s book is like having a conversation with a scholar who has the ability to scale his vast knowledge to a level of understanding, much the same way Jesus, the master teacher, taught.
(Bill Duncan is the editor of The Senior Times. He also writes a weekly column on the Opinion Page of The News-Review every Thursday.)