Marcus Borg's first novel, probably won't be the book he's best known for, but heck, it's a nice one. He thinks of it as a didactic novel, and that's what it is. The story is interesting, and it's all about professors, students and academia, but he seems to use more ink recording the classroom lectures and discussions, than the story itself. No problem, it's all good. All very interesting. And cheaper than going to college.
Quotes:
“Well, as a country, we are the empire of our time, the Rome of our time—and we go around pretending that we’re Jesus.”
[...] distracted, she sat down on the table in the front of the room and said, “I heard on public radio today that the number two cause of death among people under thirty-five in our country is narcotic painkillers. Prescription drugs, not illegal drugs. I think that’s an interesting and sobering comment about our time—what is it that leads young people to overdose on painkillers?” I don’t know, thought Erin. I could think of a few reasons [...]
The heaven unexpected came, To lives that thought their worshipping A too presumptuous psalm.
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measles-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.
Mary Oliver - When Death Comes
stories can be important, meaningful, truth-filled, and truthful without being factual
Thomas Mann: a myth is a story about the way things never were, but always are.
Suppose we knew that Paul was really, and strongly, against homosexuality—that he was convinced that it’s sinful, and that it really mattered to him. Just suppose that for a moment. Now, a question: Would it be okay to say Paul was wrong about that? Would it be hard for you to do that?
there are some unnecessary intellectual stumbling blocks to being Christian—like needing to believe that the Bible is inerrant and that we are to interpret it literally and factually, or that really big miracles happened in biblical times, or that the earth is only ten thousand years old. The way I see things means that those obstacles are gone, and then the real meaning of Christianity emerges.
Virtually all mainstream scholars of the gospels agree on two matters that are important to many people.
First, “exalted” language about who Jesus was does not go back to Jesus himself. Familiar words and phrases like “Son of God,” “Messiah,” “Lord,” “Light of the World,” “Bread of Life,” and so forth are the testimony and witness of early Christians—this is who Jesus was for them. But this language does not go back to Jesus; he didn’t talk about himself this way.
Second, the saving significance of Jesus's death is a post-Easter development.
Fredrika added, “And one more thing. You know that biblical phrase, ‘Fear not,’ ‘Do not be afraid’? Somebody told me that it occurs 365 times in the Bible—one for each day of the year.
“The opposite of faith as trust,” Niebuhr says, “is anxiety. Think about that for a moment—the opposite of faith as trust is not doubt or skepticism or unbelief, but anxiety, worry, and fear.
As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them;
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace. (Denise Levertov - The Avowal)
Listen to your life. Listen to what happens to you because it is through that happens to you that God speaks... It's in language that is not always easy to decipher, but it's there, powerfully, memorably, unforgettably. (Frederick Buechner)
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