Trying to find books about the emergent view of Christianity on a book store shelf in Utah can be a tricky proposition. There isn't much there. You can find plenty of Mark Driscoll or Duck Dynasty and their take on the faith, but don't bother looking for Brian McLaren or Marcus Borg. That's why I was a little surprised to find this title and my local store a few weeks ago. I gave it a shot and wasn't disappointed.
It's a challenging book, to be sure. Some of Borg's propositions are very challenging to someone like me who was raised in a very orthodox American Christian home. If you read my blog regularly, you'll know that I'm hardly a stickler for traditional doctrine or dogma, but Borg ends up more leftist than myself in some respect. Of course, that's a bit of an injustice to Borg to label him that way, but that's really the best way I can think to describe him. It might be more accurate to say that he's even more comfortable with things which sit outside of the realm of current Christian orthodoxy than I am. That's not a bad thing either. In this book Borg is out to challenge what we think is traditional Christianity, and even though I didn't always agree with him, his points were always well thought out and gave me a lot to chew on.
He cuts right to the heart of the matter early in the book. Borg asks "what does faith mean?" "Does God exist?" "How should we view the Bible?" Also: "How should we view Jesus?" These issues around faith, God, the Bible, and Christ are the foundational beliefs of Christianity. I could spend multiple blog entries talking about his views on all of these things, but we'll suffice it to say that in his mind, a lot of what we think is traditional, orthodox Christianity is really fairly new, coming about in the last 200-300 years as a response to the Enlightenment. Borg often advocates for what he sees as more accepting, and maybe a bit more of a mystical, pre-enlightenment view of these issues, and for the most part, I like that. I enjoy exploring the more mystical side of life and faith.
The second half of the book talks about how now, after reconsidering these basic aspects of Christianity, we should live our lives as Christians. He sees it as a two sided coin. The first is love God with all your heart and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. This can entail disciplined practice both within the church and as an individual, but it also involves a greater sense of social justice, advocating the view that Christians need to do more to stand for the poor and marginalized and also to stand against the systems of power and government in the world. He sees these systems as rigged in favor of the already powerful and wealthy, and it's hard to argue with him.
I highly suggest this book, especially for two groups of people. First, for people who aren't Christians that think that Christianity today only exists on the far right of the political spectrum. This book shows that it's just not the case. I would also recommend it for Christians who are interested in reading more in depth about their faith, and perhaps exploring different disciplines to help them deepen their faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment