Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

I recieved my book in a decent amount of time and it was like NEW! I'm happy!

If you are even remotely considering this book, DO NOT HESITATE to get your hands on a copy and READ IT!!! Furthermore, read everything you can by Marcus Borg. And John Shelby Spong. I am a life-long Christian (Disciples of Christ), a "preacher's kid". Thankfully, my parents were both very progressive in their faith and theology. For that reason, I have always been comfortable asking questions and not feeling terribly guilty in my "doubting". Marcus Borg's books have helped me immeasurably to find new life and meaning and hope in my faith.

As I read this book, it felt like Borg wrote it especially for me. I am a lover of Christ who is completely disenchanted with, and at times, disgusted by how Americans claim to practice Christianity. It seems to me that Christ's essential message - love God and love others - has been lost in favor of exclusivity and judgmentalism. Borg's explanations of the meanings of the cross, sin, salvation, and other central tenets of Christianity make so much sense in the context of how I understand the Message and who I understand Christ to be. Thank you, Dr. Borg, for speaking to my heart and helping me deepen my relationship with Christ.

I wish this book could be sent to every member of Congress and the Senate, and they would read it.

To be Christian is not to be judgemental, but to be compassionate.

Read this and re-think whether you, or our leaders, are really living a Christian life.

In my opinion, a new paradigm calls for a fresh teaching structure.
This one is a cookie cutter plodding along -let it float and sing!
Borg deserves better.

wcdiii