Historical Jesus project

by Susan Polege

BOOK REVIEW [site map] [contact me]

Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time
by Marcus J. Borg

This book was interesting, but way too many endnotes for each chapter. The introduction was really neat for me, because Borg explains his faith journey and it seems so identical to my own. Borg writes about the pre-Easter Jesus and post-Easter Jesus, which was the first time I've ever heard about such a distinct split between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith.

Borg seems to depend on interpreting metaphor very very much in his faith. Perhaps it's just difficult to write clearly about interpretations of faith, but I remember being confused on what or how Borg really did believe while reading his book.

The best thing that I got out of Borg's book was a bit of knowledge about story theology. Borg says that the stories in the Bible were oral stories before they were written, and that is where some of the value lied. He identifies 3 macro-stories that can be metaphors for our relationship with God (the exodus pattern, the exile and return pattern, and the priestly/sacrifice pattern). I found these stories very interesting and agreed with Borg that the emphasis with church's images of Jesus today is overwhelmingly on the priestly pattern.

I understood a lot about religion being about metaphor by reading this book. A pretty good source. Three stars :-)***