Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time By Marcus J. Borg

In the book Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time Marcus J. Borg discusses how the perspective people have of God and Jesus evolves throughout time. He does this by examining his own faith journey, and how his vison of Jesus and God changed as he matured and had various experiences. After his personal narrative, Borg examines the different perspectives scholars consider for Jesus. These two perspectives are the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. It is through these two perspectives that Borg examines not only his own faith but Christianity as well. In Chapter one of Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg tells the personal narrative of his own faith. He does this by examining different time frames within his life. The …show more content…
Another way of analyzing this perception is through the pre-Easter and Post-Easter Jesus. The pre-Easter Jesus focuses on the man of history, not the divine savior of the world. It analyzes the biblical text surrounding Jesus, mainly the gospels, and historical documentation of the era to learn more about who Jesus was in history. The first aspect of this pre-Easter Jesus Borg addresses is his Jewishness. Many people who try to blend the two perspectives of Jesus often overlook the fact that Jesus was Jewish, both in ethnicity and religion. Another aspect that Borg examines is the Socialization and early childhood of Jesus. In this portion, Borg draws the conclusion that Jesus was likely enrolled in a synagogue as a youth, participating in the practices of “Common Judaism”. It was then discussed how at some point in early adulthood, Jesus became a religious seeker, likely do to a conversion experience. This conversion was not to another faith but rather that fundamental values of Judaism became central to Jesus’s identity. The identity evolved as Jesus moved into his adult …show more content…
Through this historical reconstruction, a rough sketch of the pre-Easter Jesus can surface. Borg splits this sketch into two negative claims and four positive strokes. The two negative stokes are that the self-understanding and message of the pre-Easter Jesus were likely nonmessianic and he was likely noneschatological. This means the pre-Easter Jesus never proclaimed himself the savior or messiah, and he did not expect a supernatural coming of God. These two negative claims are pivotal to this idea of a pre-Easter Jesus. Borg then discusses the positive strokes of the pre-Easter Jesus. These strokes are that Jesus was a deeply spiritual man, a teacher of wisdom, a social prophet, and a movement founder. The culmination of these six claims make up the sketch of the historical Jesus. This historical assertion allows scholars to try and understand the man Jesus, not the divine savor. However, this claim has implications for the church because it challenges many of the teachings and portraits of