When I read Borg, there is always a few things I don't agree with him. One is his discounting of the story of Jesus walking on the water, changing water to wine, and multiplying the fishes and loaves. Borg agrees that Jesus probably healed the sick and performed exorcisms. He believes that because healing and exorcisms are things others have done before and since Jesus. But Borg says the other miracles are just too fantastic to believe. They sound made up. Borg hedges a little by putting these Biblical accounts and others into a "suspense account," meaning, he suspends judgement because the account cannot be proven or disproven. I think Borg is, at times, just a little to skeptical of the Bible for my taste.
I'm a little less than half way through the book so I'll comment more later. It takes me a while to finish a book!
2 comments:
I think the point is ...we can believe he did those things or not...and we can discuss it if we want to... but together we can seek the deepest meanings of the stories for our lives and for furthering the kingdom.
I understand that Borg is trying to show that literalism is not the only way to read the Bible. In my view, if a Biblical account can't be proven or disproven, I lean towards the veracity of the account rather than be skeptical.
Craig, you should read the book Borg wrote with N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus. Wright looks at Scripture in the same historical-metaphorical light as Borg, but diverges somewhat from Borg on some of these finer points. It's interesting to read Wrights's intelligent, well-thought, and respectful viewpoint.
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