The Meaning Of Jesus Christ: Summary

In today’s world, religion is often a subject where one is encouraged to tread lightly, where constructive criticism has seemingly lost its place to passionate claims of heresy. Thus, it is only fitting that a book co-written by a self-proclaimed modernist, in Marcus Borg, and an undeniable traditionalist, in N.T. Wright, takes the form that we see in The Meaning of Jesus Christ: Two Visions. Each section of the book is broken down into two separate chapters; one written through the viewpoint of Marcus Borg and one as seen by N.T. Wright. What results is a seemingly flawless representation of what the discussions about Christianity should look like when taken from the various independent sects of the larger religion. This book showed its readers …show more content…
Through this form of academic debate, a deeper and fuller understanding of Christianity can be achieved. In order to comprehend the desired outcomes each author wishes upon their readers, it is quintessential to read the introduction to the book. Wright and Borg write together to explain their perpetual friendship and admiration of one another, regardless of the differences in viewpoints. They also go on to explain the goal of the following text, which was to show “how different visions of Jesus relate to different visions of the Christian life” (v). In addition to the introduction, the first two chapters continue to build the foundation for how the book is to be read. Each author takes turns explaining their procedures in how they identify the historical Jesus. Borg is the first to do so and highlights his modern interpretation of the historical Jesus in …show more content…
These sections were their varying views of Jesus’ birth and death. Borg and Wright did not limit themselves to just these two aspects of Christianity; in fact, the two authors debated Jesus’ divinity, his resurrection, his second coming, and ultimately his role within the Christian faith. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that both authors presented their strongest arguments when they debated the birth and death of Jesus of Nazareth. The first to explain their view of the birth of Jesus is N.T. Wright. Following his form throughout the book, he takes a very traditional stance on the idea of Jesus being born to a virgin mother and Jesus having been born in Bethlehem. His basis for taking this position is by addressing the similarities found between the gospels of Matthew and Luke, explaining that the parallels between the two accounts are only achievable through an underlying historical truth. In other words, both Matthew and Luke wouldn’t have told such similar stories if they weren’t founded upon the truth of Jesus’ birth. In response to Wright’s view, Borg comes in and immediately denounces the stories of Jesus’ birth as exactly that, stories. For Borg, Jesus’ birth stories are not historically accurate and were one of the history-metaphorized occurrences that he mentioned in his opening chapter. Borg comes to this conclusion from the lack