The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authenthic Contemporary Faith

The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authenthic Contemporary Faith
by Marcus J. Borg

The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authenthic Contemporary Faith
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Book Summary Information

Author: Marcus J. Borg
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1998-06-01
ISBN: 0060610352
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: HarperOne

Book Reviews of The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authenthic Contemporary Faith

Book Review: A Theological Cop-out of Biblical Proportion
Summary: 2 Stars

Borg expands the literal understanding of biblical verse into what he calls Panentheism. He concludes the personal experience of epiphany as evidence of divine transcendence. A profound error!

But in this fashion, he seeks to leap over the apparent contradictions of biblical verse by offering a new way of reinterpreting "what it says" vs. "what it means."

Though how he got to the transcendent interpretation was a poorly conceived metaphor, (a Jewish theologian that defined glory), if I nevertheless take it at face value and simply "start" with his conclusion, I still cannot reconcile how the bible, even if taken as transcendent, can support the conclusion.

We can think about God as transcendent, but not the content or meaning of the literal text. We cannot, in other words, reconcile a literal falsehood, (i.e., the earth was made on Day 1, while the stars were made on Day 4), as a transcendent truth.

Unless one cherry picks with the fine comb of discrimination, the bible consistently contradicts Borg's conclusion of transcendence. For example, how does Jesus "the image of the invisible God" epitomize kindness on the one hand while as "God the Spirit" order wholesale killing and brutality on the other?

Is the god in the Old Testament a different god than in the New?

We become forced to subordinate our own honesty to a "transcendent" dilemma.

Do we ignore what we feel is morally wrong or factually false, to embrace a metaphor that upholds our want to believe? Or do we maintain our personal integrity and interpret the words of the Bible according to what it actually says?

"The God We Never Knew" is an apology for the first choice. And that's why I consider it a cop-out.

Summary of The God We Never Knew: Beyond Dogmatic Religion To A More Authenthic Contemporary Faith

Answering the many "spiritual" questions left unaddressed by such popular historical bestsellers as A History of God and God: A Biography, renowned author Marcus Borg reveals how to embrace an authentic contemporary faith that reconciles God with science, critical thinking and religious pluralism.

How to have faith--how to even think about God--without having to stifle modern rationality is one of the most vital challenges facing contemporary religion. In providing a much-needed solution to the problem of how to have a fully authentic yet fully contemporary understanding of God, Borg--author of the bestselling Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time--traces his personal journey. He leads readers from the all-powerful and authoritarian God of his (and their) childhood and traditional faith to an equally powerful but dynamic image of God that is relevant to contemporary seekers and more biblical and spiritually authentic. Borg shows how the modern crisis of faith is itself rooted in delusion--misinterpretation of biblical texts and of God's true nature--and challenges readers to a new way of thinking about God. He opens a practical discussion about how to base a relationship with the divine both immanent and transcendant, here and now, always and everywhere.

Arguing that the authentic Judeo-Christian tradition is that God's being includes the whole world, Borg persuasively shows how this understanding accounts for the whole variety of human religious experience. Ultimately, he introduces readers to a way of thinking about God who is "right here" all around them, rather than distant and remote. This understanding is more intellectually and spiritually satisfying and allows readers to reclaim a stronger sense of God's presence.

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