The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith

by Marcus J. Borg

Book Overview

In The Heart of Christianity, world-renowned Jesus scholar and author of the bestseller Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time argues that the essential ingredients of a Christian life--faith, being... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060730684
• Release Date: July 2015
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 234 Pages
• Weight: 0.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Why be a Christian?

One unhappy reviewer asks "if we won't be resurrected, why would we want to be Christians at all?" A father had two sons. In his old age, the father became sick and lost everything, including his home. He went to the elder son and asked for a place to stay. The elder son said "I did everything you asked of me all my life and now you not only leave me with nothing, you want me to give you a place to stay? Go away." The father then went to the younger son and asked for a place to stay. The younger son simply welcomed him and and took care of him for the rest of his days. Which son truly loved his father? As Borg's book so eloquently points out, being a Christian is about having a loving relationship with God, not following a set of rules in order to obtain a reward.

Borg at his best

I've read several of Prof. Borg's books, and all of them are excellent. In his latest book, The Heart of Christianity, Borg summarizes a lifetime of reflection on the Christian faith. Borg claims that the "traditional paradigm" is losing it's power over people. Here traditional paradigm refers to a Christianity where God is a being out there with a will and who has all the power in the world and who sent Jesus into the world to die for our sins--literally. Christianity is the only true religion, and if we don't get ourselves to believe in doctrines about God and Jesus (and perhaps eschatology) then we're in big trouble when Jesus returns to earth. While the TP is still nourishing for many in the church, others find it harder and harder to accept; they just can't believe that the Bible is a biography of God, of Jesus, and of the end times. There are several reasons, the biggest one being that contemporary Biblical criticism gives us a different picture of the origin of the Bible; instead of the Bible being God's words about humans, its the words of humans about God. This doesn't mean that the Bible is false and doesn't contain anything divine; it just means that humans had a lot of say about what's in the Bible. Borg endorses the "emerging paradigm". Here there's no emphasis on giving intellectual assent to a body of doctrines or creeds in order to be saved, that is, go to heaven. For Borg, this isn't the heart of Christianity. Rather, Christian faith deals primarily with *this* life, and it's a life that emphasizes a *relationship* with God, the key elements being trust in God to provide for all our needs, as well as loving what God loves--in other words, compassion and justice. Thus, as we live a life in God, and take seriously what God takes seriously, which we see in the person of Jesus, we are transformed in this life, saved in this life, so that we bring about the Kindom of God on earth. That's what really matters, not believing in a set of propositions so that we can get to heaven. As I read Prof. Borg's book, I found myself believing in God again. It wasn't the God of the "traditional paradigm", a supernatural being out there who has all the power and knowledge and intervenes and sometimes doesn't intervene; who demands that we accept doctrines and creeds that the mind can't accept--this is just another 'requirement' or 'work'. Also, this God is not the best explanation for the world shown to us by physics and biology, world religions, biblical criticism, and theodicy. I found many of Borg's ideas compatible with process theology (Borg doesn't develop an in depth conception of God, although he says that God is not less than personal. As someone who's in exile from the church--mostly because the traditional paradigm died for me in undergraduate school and failed to re-convince me in divinity school--I found myself, after reading Borg's book, unwilling give up on God. I had a desire to pray, to go to church, and to keep on wrest

A View of Christianity that Jesus would love

Marcus Borg is opening the world of Christianity to people who have been previously unable to claim it with their whole hearts because of tremendous shortcomings as it is most commonly known. My grandmother, a devout Christian, would have loved his books and recognized in his views that he fully understands the huge difference in the 'religion about Jesus' and the 'religion of Jesus'. This is an understanding of Christianity that Jesus would recognize and I believe he would have loved. Marcus Borg writes with deep spirituality, deep conviction, deep compassion, and the knowledge of history that is needed to truly enter the Christian faith. I, for one, appreciate his writing tremendously. His books are not for 'fundamentalist Christians' unless they are willing to reconsider some of their most strongly held views, but for those who are willing to take a deeper look at this Faith, this book is wonderful.