Customer Reviews

Conversations With Scripture: The Gospel of Mark (Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I admit a bias in favor of Marcus Borg. That said, "Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of Mark" Puts together the range of Borg's scholarship on the Gospels in a format that lures you further and further into what he has to say. You'll want the Gospel of Mark handy just because you'll want to read it with fresh eyes. The study questions in the back are especially useful if you're mentoring adult study groups.

With 133 pages of text, Scripture popularizer Marcus Borg makes the earliest and shortest gospel come alive for the lay reader. He encourages the reader to read "Mark" through in one two-hour sitting before doing anything else, a great suggestion. The Gospel is a structured narrative in three parts: Jesus in Galilee at the start of his ministry; Jesus enroute to Jerusalem to symbolize his "way"; Jesus in Jerusalem to suffer, die and be reborn.

Marcus clearly loves "Mark" and sees the Gospel as the closest text we have to the historical Jesus and his central message: God's reign is upon us; here is the way to it.

If you are familiar with Borg and his recent collaborator on popular books like "The Last Week," the more serious Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan, you know his familiar themes and controversies.

There are also what I call the "Borgian Code Words." Take the word "rich," as in "rich in meanings," or "rich in symbolic import." When it refers to a passage, it means "never really happened." Take the Baptism of Jesus by John when the heavens opened and a voice from above claimed Jesus was the voice's son. Borg does his tap dance around the fact that believers have traditionally believed it actually happened by reinterpreting the event as wholly symbolic. In this case, the event is some kind of internal vision and "audition" experienced only by Jesus.

Matthew and Luke in their Gospels make it an actual visitation by God, but, says Borg, they are just embellishing Mark who knows it was not a publicly witnessed divine appearance. Typically, and not at all compellingly, Borg goes on to claim that the event as a private experience inside Jesus' head "does not in any way diminish its significance." Of course it does! On the one hand you have a direct divine intervention with God speaking and loudly affirming Jesus sonship in the presence of crowds of awed witnesses. On the other hand, you have a trance or vision experienced only by Jesus. Excuse me: BIG difference.

A much more important tap dance occurs at the end of the book, when Borg recounts Mark's account of Jesus burial and resurrection. Borg clearly believes that Jesus did not physically rise from the dead, though he does not admit that in this book designed for Anglican believers. He merely makes the stupefying claim that arguing about whether the resurrection really happened or not is no more than a "distraction." Distraction from what? From the symbolism, which is the really important matter. I'm sorry, Marcus; tap dance all you want. There is a huge difference between Jesus rising bodily from the dead and Jesus not rising bodily from the dead.

So why do I give this 4 stars? Because even with the tap dance around miracles and cures that Borg simply believes never happened, this is an excellent brief, lay exegesis of Mark. If you do believe that Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead, the book is still a great guide.

Tap dance or not, Marcus does a terrific tango with Mark!

I have been a fan of Marcus Borg for some time now. He is one of a handful of biblical scholars who have as a mission of bringing the fruits of critical biblical scholarship into the pew. Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of Mark is not a verse by verse commentary on Mark. Rather it is an overview that breaks the gospel into five segments for discussion: Overture and Beginning (Mk. 1-3); Parables and Miracles (Mk. 4-5); Rejection, Miracles and Conflict (Mk. 6-8); From Galilee to Jerusalem (Mk. 8-10) and Jerusalem, Execution and Ressurection (Mk. 11-16). Borg writes ffrom both a Christian perpective and a mainstream scholarly perspective. Each chapter explores different themes found in the related chapters of Mark, what they meant to the hearers of Mark's gospel in the 1st century and what they might mean to us today. The book includes an extensive Study Guide (not written by Borg) with excellent questions for group or individual study. While Borg is a world-recognized bilical scholar he is gentle with those who are unfamiliar with this work and whose understanding may be more traditional. For me, it is high time that the church embrace this kind of work and include its findings in its own messaging. Co-incidentally, I am starting a Bible Study tomorrow based on this book and am quite excited about it.

This is one of the best curricula I seen in many years of Bible study classes. It stimulates thinking and conversation. Well organized and thought provoking.

Not very impressed with Borg's analysis of the Gospel of Mark, he writes off far too many teachings and miracles as mere metaphors which betrays the text itself. On the other hand, there are some hidden gems in this book, and for the price, I am happy with my purchase.

This book is a perfect approach aiming to support modern liberal Christianity. Author Marcus Borg is known to cast shades on all miracles considered mere metaphors. His liberal theology addresses the many open-minded Christians who are becoming unreceptive to irrational beliefs even if they still feel a bit touchy when it comes to reject the Resurrection. How to remain Christian without backing the full range of textual faith is one of the society challenges of our days. Split between Church and secularity, a half-way-along-the-road solution is to focus on the messages conveyed by Jesus, whatever this man stood for. Following His teachings identifies the smallest common denominator needed to live as a Christian today.

This is Borg's platform and he excels in animating it. The targeted segment of progressive Christianity (as opposed to textually faithful Christians) is bound to expand and Borg is a master in new religious cuisine more palatable to his admirers, seasoned nevertheless with very traditional questions for Sunday-school groups to share as gourmets. Fundamentalist Christians will probably look for a different menu and disbelievers will shrug their shoulders and prefer to walk by this cuisine nouvelle that offers nothing basically different because obtained mostly with the same previously used ingredients.

The book has a strong purpose and a widening public that will feel approved by validations emanating from a brilliant scholar who mirrors their feelings. For such readers, the book will have five stars. To fundamentalists as well as to skeptics, the constellation will rapidly fade into a few glitters.

Without being aware of it, liberal Christians are reverting back to positions held by the second century Ebionites who considered that Jesus was a great man, a prophet who taught like no other. They rejected the miracles and the resurrection and considered that salvation was in the exclusive hands of God. Abandon the Ebionite's Judean background, swap it for a Hellenistic culture, and you can practically equate the ancient beliefs resisting against many positions held by the evangelists and the modern liberal Christian trend that is also clearing up between the lines.

As a final remark, I very much doubt that evangelist Mark and the community groups Borg is monitoring would give the same answers to the study quiz.

The biggest mysteries of the Bible are the ones of the men behind the pens. "Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of Mark" investigates the gospel of Mark, one of the most crucial books of the Bible and how it came to be. With much historical sources, "Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of Mark" seeks to understand Mark, and through that, gain a greater understanding of the Bible.