Marcus Borg, Liberal Scholar on Historical Jesus, Dies at 72
Marcus J. Borg,
a scholar who popularized a liberal intellectual approach to
Christianity with his lectures and books about Jesus as a historical
figure, died on Wednesday at his home in Powell Butte, Ore. He was 72.
His publisher, HarperOne, said the cause was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Professor
Borg was among a group of scholars, known as the Jesus Seminar, who set
off an uproar with its very public efforts to discern collectively
which of Jesus’ acts and utterances could be confirmed as historically
true, and which were probably myths.
His
studies of the New Testament led him not toward atheism but toward a
deep belief in the spiritual life and in Jesus as a teacher, healer and
prophet. Professor Borg became, in essence, a leading evangelist of what
is often called progressive Christianity.
He
came to the fore in the late 1980s and early ’90s, just as a
conservative brand of evangelical Christianity was gaining adherents in
America and emerging as a political force. He was among those who helped
provide the theological foundation for liberals who were pushing back,
defining Jesus as a champion of justice for the poor and marginalized.
He
wrote or co-wrote 21 books and lectured at so many churches,
conferences, universities and seminaries that, friends say, he
accumulated more than 100,000 frequent flier miles almost every year.
A
friend and collaborator, John Dominic Crossan, an emeritus professor of
religious studies at DePaul University who helped found the Jesus
Seminar, said in an interview last week that Professor Borg had
delivered a radical message, but with a notably gentle demeanor.
“His
own vision was not simply derived from opposing fundamentalist or
literalist Christianity,” Mr. Crossan said. “It was a very positive
vision. He could talk about Jesus and he could talk about Paul and the
positive vision they had.”
In
his last book, the memoir “Convictions: How I Learned What Matters
Most” (2014), Professor Borg wrote: “Imagine that Christianity is about
loving God. Imagine that it’s not about the self and its concerns, about
‘what’s in it for me,’ whether that be a blessed afterlife or
prosperity in this life.”
Professor
Borg was for 28 years a professor of religion and culture at Oregon
State University, where he held a chair endowed by an alumnus who said
he had been inspired by Professor Borg’s research. His books “Jesus: A
New Vision” (1987) and “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” (1994)
were on many best-seller lists.
Professor
Borg was born on March 11, 1942, in Fergus Falls, Minn., to a
traditional Lutheran family. He attended Concordia College in Moorhead,
Minn. and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at Oxford, where he did research
on the historical Jesus.
In
1983 he became an Episcopalian. His wife, Marianne Wells Borg, is an
Episcopal priest and a former canon at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in
Portland, Ore., where Professor Borg later served as a canon theologian.
She survives him, as do a son, Dane; a daughter, Julie; and a grandson.
Professor
Borg relished public debates with more conservative scholars who
criticized both his methods and his message. One sparring partner was N.
T. Wright, a professor of the New Testament and early Christianity at
the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and an Anglican who was
formerly the bishop of Durham.
Mr.
Wright said in an interview last week that the two men had often
debated the birth of Jesus and the bodily resurrection. Professor Wright
said he had argued that “there’s very good historical reason to believe
these are things that actually happened,” while Professor Borg had
believed they were “metaphors.”
Despite
their disagreements, Professor Wright said, he and Professor Borg
shared “a deep and rich mutual affection and friendship.” They wrote a
book together, “The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions.”
When
Professor Borg went to Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ
in Fort Collins, Colo., as a visiting scholar a few years ago, the
sanctuary was full and hundreds watched his lecture on a screen in an
overflow room, said the Rev. Hal Chorpenning, the senior minister there.
He
said that on the day Professor Borg died, he received an email from a
young woman in the parish who wrote, “Without Marcus, I wouldn’t be able
to call myself a Christian.”
No comments:
Post a Comment