Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power - And How They Can Be Restored [Hardcover]

Marcus J. Borg (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 12, 2011

"This book could start a revolution. Borg cracks open the encrusted words of faith and pops them into fresh language that people can understand and trust. The last time this happened, we got the Reformation." —Anne Sutherland Howard, executive director of The Beatitudes Society

In a revolutionary argument vital to every person of faith in the English-speaking world, acclaimed Bible scholar Marcus Borg—author of Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time—argues that the very language Christians use has become dangerously distilled, distorted, and disconnected from the beliefs which once underpinned it. Stating a case that will resonate with readers of N. T. Wright’s Simply Christian, Borg calls for a radical change to the language we use to invoke our beliefs—the only remedy that will allow the Church's words to once again ring with truth, power, and hope.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This book could start a revolution. Borg cracks open the encrusted words of faith and pops them into fresh language that people can understand and trust. The last time this happened, we got the Reformation.” (Anne Sutherland Howard, Executive Director of The Beatitudes Society )

Speaking Christian correctly may seem like it’s just a fuss over semantics, but it’s ultimately about something bigger: defining Christianity… When Christians forget what their words mean, they forget what their faith means. (CNN )

“Ranks with his earlier volumes as efforts to renew and rebuild Christianity by healing long-standing wounds and welcoming millions of alienated men and women.” (Read the Spirit )

“A primer to help correct misunderstandings and help those unfamiliar with Christian language become fluent. . . . An important figure on topics from the historical Jesus to religion and culture, he challenges Christians to live for God’s justice in the world and not just focus on the next world.” (Englewood Review of Books )

From the Back Cover

Modern Christians are steeped in a language so distorted that it has become a stumbling block to the religion, says internationally renowned Bible scholar Marcus J. Borg. Borg argues that Christianity’s important words, and the sacred texts and stories in which those words are embedded, have been narrowed by a modern framework for the faith that emphasizes sin, forgiveness, Jesus dying for our sins, and the afterlife. Here, Borg employs the “historical-metaphorical” method for understanding Christian language that can restore for us these words of power and transformation. For example,

• Redemption: now narrowly understood as Jesus saving us from sins so we can go to heaven, but in the Bible it refers to being set free from slavery.
• Savior: now refers to Jesus as the one who saves us from our sins, but in the Bible it has a rich and wonderful variety of meanings having nothing to do with the afterlife.
• Sacrifice: now refers to Jesus’s death on the cross as payment for our sins, but in the Bible it is never about substitutionary payment for sin.

In Speaking Christian, Borg delivers a language for twenty-first-century Christians that grounds the faith in its deep and rich original roots and allows it once again to transform our lives.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (April 12, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061976555
• ISBN-13: 978-0061976551
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,992 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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

106 of 110 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A book to be read with open mind and a mustard seed faith April 22, 2011

By John Philoponus

Format:Hardcover

"This book could start a revolution. Borg cracks open the encrusted words of faith and pops them into fresh language that people can understand... " Anne S. Howard

There is no doubt that the revolution was already started in 1963, by former Anglican bishop of Woolwich, John Robinson, who was a major force in shaping Borg's liberal and progressive Christianity. His controversial million-copy bestseller, "Honest to God" was not so much an attempt to reshape Christianity, but a trial of concepts and modern language that conformed Christianity to a modern pro-scientific world view. There can be little question that Robinson wished to reduce Christianity's dependence on belief in legendary accounts and on the supernatural. Some conservative Christians were, and others are still terrified by the same 'Jesus Seminar' attitude. They see in this approach an appeal for a secularized Christianity or even worse, an appeal for secular humanism.

Acclaimed Bible scholar Marcus Borg, revisits same issues again after a half century. He argues that contemporary Christian language has become non inclusive, disconnected from and not representing the beliefs which once substantiated it. Defending his case with allusion to N. T. Wright's "Simply Christian," Borg calls for a radical change to the language Christians use to express their beliefs. For Borg, as was for Robinson, it is the primary remedy that will permit the Church's words to once again communicate Biblical truth, faith, and hope. Borg is addressing what he wrote earlier in, "Reading the Bible Again for the First Time." By taking the Bible Seriously, But Not Literally he shares Robinson's main perspective. He does not believe in miracles in a conventional sense, yet professes his belief in the paranormal, and offers a definition that accords well with Robinson's views.

While twenty five chapters may echo 'too many notes' to the average reader, it is not so. This book, is Borg's confession of faith "On Being a Christian", making an effort to interpret what it means to be a liberal and progressive Christian. In his Confession book, he discusses various Christian themes, exposing each in a chapter, such as Salvation and The only way, God and Jesus, Believing and Faith, Mercy and Righteousness, Sin, forgiveness and Repentance, To be Born Again, Ascension and Pentecost, Rapture and Second Coming, Heaven (without Hell), Creeds and Trinity, Lords Supper and Lords Prayer. Meanwhile he tries to weave personal anecdotes and vignettes along the way.

Dr. Marcus Borg is a professor of philosophy, and a respected Historical Jesus Scholar, who has enjoyed an illustrious career explains how can we benefit from a spiritual, metaphorical understanding of the gospels, without taking them literally. He also proposes to reconcile the results of New Testament and Historical Jesus scholarship with a modern, even redefined Christian faith. Borg clearly holds to the Metaphorical Gospel, but seems to be open to dialogue and change. It may be unfair just to cite his earlier books, or take this last one to describe his dynamic position on all issues. Speaking Christian is a serious book that has to be read critically, with an open mind and a mustard seed faith.

Honest to God

89 of 97 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Borg's historical approach makes Christian language relative, not absolute! April 14, 2011

By Didaskalex TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

*****
"A historical approach is greatly illuminating. Language comes alive in its context. ... Thus a historical approach makes Christian language relative and not absolute." Marcus Borg, Speaking Christian

The early Church Fathers followed primarily one of two methods of interpretation: Allegorical (spiritual) or literal. Going beyond literalism, Origen advanced allegorical Bible exegesis, early in the third century, claiming that it hides the truth from those blinded by sin and pride, while revealing it to the renewed eyes of believers. Up to the Reformation, the Bible was not usually interpreted in a strictly literal way.
Marcus Borg, who pursued the search for the real historical Jesus, with the Jesus Seminar for the first decade of its work, now exposits an alternative understanding by restoring authentic biblical meanings. Dr. Borg believes Christian language needs to be set free from its contemporary literalism. He wrote some of the most thought provoking books of which Speaking Christian is the most recent. His vision, as he stated, "I think we're living in a time of transition within Christianity that's been going on for half a century... where what I call the common Christianity that most Christians ...took for granted is no longer persuasive and compelling."

Some Biblical historians believe that Biblical literalism came about with Sola Scriptura, at the rise of Protestantism. So, Dr. Borg coaches the reader, with the book conclusion, asking if literal interpretation was part of the foundation he would like to shake, in the words of Paul Tillich, one of the century's most influential Christian thinkers. The author now persuades you into a discussion, helping you recover true belief. While the questions are his, some answers are expected from you, in the early Christian Catechetical school tradition. How important has the promise of heaven, or the threat of hell been influential to your Christian experience. How was your interpretation of the Bible, driven by the 'Framework of Heaven / Hell' concept within Christianity. How central were sin and forgiveness to adulthood faith, and how central are they for some forms of Christianity?

In a recent interview the Bible scholar revealed that the turning point of his search for God, confessing that was his most formative religious insight, came in a series of mystical experiences. "They changed my understanding of the meaning of the word 'God'-of what that word points to-and gave me an unshakable conviction that God (or the sacred) is real and can be experienced. These experiences also convinced me that mystical forms of Christianity are true, and that the mystical forms of all the enduring religions of the world are true."
Borg's liberation using a historical approach, which promotes a relative Christian language in understanding the creation, the flood, and the ten plagues goes beyond refuting literalism, to reconsider gender equality, same sex relations, and at its core to review the Christian doctrine of salvation as its only venue.

53 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Speaking Christian May 25, 2011

By Rivermanmiss

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a brilliant book and will be much appreciated by Christians who are serious about their faith but have misgivings about the literalism of many evangelical Christians. The author digs back to the original meaning of many key concepts in Christianity such as "salvation" and he points out how the meaning of that term has changed in the relatively recent past to mean "being saved is having our sins forgiven because of Jesus' death and we are now saved from hell and assured of eternal life in heaven." Originally it did not mean this at all. Salvation was initially being saved from slavery such as the Israelites in bondage in Egypt. Then it referred to being freed from bondage of the exile in Babylon. And now it refers to believers being released from the bondage to whatever is trapping them in this life - anger, alienation, guilt, or a suffocating relationship. Borg explains very clearly how more than a dozen key notions like this have been corrupted over time...much of this corruption due to the recent trend toward literalism which is a sad and recent phenomenon.
Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power - And How They Can Be Restored