Randall Goodgame writes over on The Rabbit Room…
Marcus Borg has written a book
that will make many Christ-followers very nervous, and possibly very angry. And, I expect that most families are well acquainted with those emotions, especially around the holidays. However, I know from my own family experience that the only way to truly experience community together is to pray. We plead with Jesus for abundant measures of His grace so that we may live together, teach and learn together and be the love of Christ for one another. We must agree to disagree, and hold righteousness at a value greater than rightness. As a theological primer, I would not recommend this book. But as a testimony to the breadth and depth of the family of God, I could not recommend it more.
The book is Jesus. It’s my next read. Sounds like something I could need right now.
(HT: JSLW)
Zach Nielsen said:
"We must agree to disagree, and hold righteousness at a value greater than rightness.”
As I read this statement I was like… Uh… Not sure.
I totally know what you are getting at here and I think if we are defining our terms of righteousness as Jesus’ righteousness then this has to imply rightness as well. He was totally righteous and totally right all the time.
I’m just not sure we should make hierarchies like this. We need to strive for both. 1 Cor 13. Love above all. I get it. But seems like the whole of the NT is making a case for “rightness” as well. Both/And - not one over the other.
Just thinking out loud… Could be wrong.
Shaun Groves said:
I took rightness to mean “being right” as in I’m right and you’re wrong in this fight we’re having. In some arguments you’ll never be able to prove who is or who isn’t “right”, there’s no clear “winner”, or there’s no way the other person or you are going to yield and admit fault, or (more usual in my life) there’s fault and right and wrong on all sides. So, in those situations, yes, I think it’s better that I give up trying to prove I’m right and you’re wrong and try to move on. Ideally. Not saying I can do that always yet. Which is why I might need to read this book.
Zach Nielsen said:
I hear you. Good thoughts. Letting things go is sometimes pathway to righteousness for me…
z
Jared said:
Shaun, have you read any N.T. Wright? He is a good friend of Borg’s, writes with as more poetry and more intellectual vigor, and has the added bonus of actually believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus (which Paul kinda says is the grounds of our future hope).
The book they did together, sort of friends disagreeing peaceably in alternating chapters, is The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, and it is excellent.
Zach Nielsen said:
N.T. is certainly interesting. I have been reading a bit of his, “Jesus and Victory of God”. Many people say many different things about him, but you have to admit that he is a first rate historian and very gifted writer. Very interesting to say the least.
z
Jared said:
Don’t listen to the TR’s on Wright. I don’t agree with Wright on election or the major thrust of the atonement, but he is the most important Jesus scholar writing today and an indispensable contributor to evangelical letters.
Personally speaking, Wright really opened my eyes to the depths and riches of Jesus in historical and cultural context. I’ve read all his big books, but his little books for popular audiences—“The Challenge of Jesus,” “For All God’s Worth,” “The Original Jesus,” etc.—are must-reads.