Living the Heart of Christianity: A Guide to Putting Your Faith into Action [Paperback]

Marcus J. Borg (Author), Tim Scorer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

Marcus Borg's The Heart of Christianity struck a chord for countless Christians across this country. Church groups and small groups have been reading this influential book, hoping to put into practice Borg's helpful suggestions for how we can be passionate believers today. For the millions of people who have turned away from many traditional beliefs about God, Jesus, and the Bible, but still long for a relevant, nourishing faith, The Heart of Christianity presents a new outlook on Christianity that is both refreshing and compelling. This companion to The Heart of Christianity is an invaluable resource that provides the tools to talk about Borg's new vision for a life of Christian faith and how it can change our spiritual lives and Christian communities today. For groups as well as individuals hoping to go deeper in The Heart of Christianity, this guide includes personal reflection questions, discussion topics, exercises, and selections from the bestselling book. Organized into twelve chapters, or sessions, Living the Heart of Christianity includes both an individual or participant's guide as well as a guide for group leaders, allowing the reader to engage with the issues that lie at the heart of Christianity today.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marcus J. Borg is Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. He was Hundere Chair of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University until his retirement in 2007. Borg is the author of nineteen books, including the bestselling The Heart of Christianity, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, and the novel Putting Away Childish Things. He was an active member of the Jesus Seminar when it focused on the historical Jesus, and he has been chair of the Historical Jesus section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061118427
• ISBN-13: 978-0061118425
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marcus J. Borg is professor emeritus in the philosophy department at Oregon State University, where he held the Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture, and author of the New York Times bestselling Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, The Last Week, and Jesus. He was an active member of the Jesus Seminar when it focused on the historical Jesus and he has been chair of the historical Jesus section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Heart of Christianity: Strong and Vibrant, January 3, 2007

By 

Sandy Carlson "SandyCarlson" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Living the Heart of Christianity: A Guide to Putting Your Faith into Action (Paperback)

Jesus scholar Marcus Borg's The Heart of Christianity throws open the windows of the Christian church and blows out the cobwebs that have clouded the view of the living post-Easter Jesus and his vital place in our lives. Published by HarperCollins in 2003, the book proposes to bridge the yawning, deepening, darkening gap between belief-centered dogmatic Christianity (what Borg calls the "earlier paradigm") and the "emerging paradigm."

The Emerging Paradigm
Borg identifies the latter as a worldview that embraces Christianity as a means to God rather than the means, that sees the Bible as a sacrament--a means of experiencing God--rather than God's literal word, that understands the living Christ as the wisdom of God at the heart of our faith. Coincidentally, this wisdom bears a striking resemblance to the wisdom of all the world's great and enduring religions.

Jesus
Jesus,according to Borg, is a mystic, healer, wisdom teacher, and political rebel--a charismatic leader whose single-minded commitment to God's justice through systemic change to the domination system that oppressed the majority of people in his world cost him his life while giving the faithful a new lease on this life. For 2000 years, Christians' devotional contemplation of Jesus pre- and post-Easter has been an endeavor to understand and emulate his generosity, compassion, and love.

This new paradigm is about loving God and loving what God loves rather than rigidly adhering to a specific set of beliefs about a punitive God.
Borg identifies Christianity itself as a sacrament of--a means to--God. Borg argues that one must be transformed in his or her own lifetime; thus, salvation means being healed and becoming one with God, Thus, faith as sacrament. Living in faith is about the quality of life here and now for the self and for the community--a central concern of Jesus--rather than salvation in an afterlife.

Borg suggests we read the Bible again for the first time, to see it in historical context, and to embrace language and story as a product of its time, place, and people. Borg's interest in language--like so many preachers, he traces the words to their roots and follows their meanings to the present in a way that reveals the very holiness of language and all communication--and its role in our understanding of God is part of the adventure of this exciting, intelligent, incisive, challenging book.

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very pleasing, May 25, 2007

By 

Joseph T. Skogmo (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living the Heart of Christianity: A Guide to Putting Your Faith into Action (Paperback)

I really liked it. It was fair. People view this man as radical or too liberal and therefore unfair or threatening. In his book he doesn't do any demeaning he just speaks logic as he understands it. He makes his case and he does it very admirably.
It was a bit text booky and a little slow in the early middle-middle of the book. However, he ends it beautifully. He describes that being Christian and thinking like a Christian involves no doctrines but a way of life and that it involves no sacrifice of intellect while making a case for Christianity in our pluralistic world. It was very well done. For someone struggling with an exodus from religion, esspecially Christianity or views themselves as a closet atheist or agnostic, Borg brings back the essentiality of Christianity. I recommend it to a person who is patient. It isn't a quick read, but it isn't scholarly jargon either. Also, no matter the energy it takes to read, the ending and the nourishment of the book are absolutely worth it.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Study Guide, July 18, 2011

By 

Peggy Cook (Cockeysville, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living the Heart of Christianity: A Guide to Putting Your Faith into Action (Paperback)

I lead a book study on Borg's The Heart of Christianity and actually stumbled upon this wonderful study guide. While we tend to go off in many directions, this book helps to keep us in focus as I aim at specific ideas that are contained in each chapter. There are short, written exercises they can do and there are several topics for those who are keeping spiritual journals. It has great value for those who are doing personal study of the book as well. It is a very well-done guide.