Thursday, January 22, 2015

Passing of Marcus Borg

I see from James McGrath that Marcus Borg has passed. I never met Borg, and he was always an example to me of the wrong trajectory with regard to the historical Jesus. But I read Jesus: A New Vision when I was working on my doctorate. I always felt like Borg was someone whose head had undergone quite a change with his studies but who had just as warm a heart as he ever might have had. Never met him, but really respected him.

He, Tom Wright, and Lincoln Hurst were all students of G. B. Caird, all four of whom had an impact on me. I encountered Caird's Language and Imagery of the Bible in seminary. Amazingly clear and helpful, I thought. Wright inherited some of that sense that apocalyptic imagery wasn't always meant to be taken literally (e.g., the Lord coming on the clouds). Borg also brought that to his "non-apocalyptic" Jesus.

Again, he didn't convince me in the end, but I'm saddened today by his passing.


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