Marcus Borg, Jesus, and me

Among the many fascinating courses I took as part of my master's degree in interdisciplinary studies* was one called "Jesus." The professor, Dr. Marcus Borg, was an internationally known New Testament scholar, author or co-author of 22 books about the historical Jesus and Christianity, and a fellow of the Jesus Seminar. I figured he knew his stuff.

Turns out, he knew his stuff so well that he, more than any other person, book, documentary, or personal insight I'd come across, was responsible for souring me on Christianity. And he did it simply by stating that the four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—were written at least 60 years after Jesus died (assuming, of course, that he ever actually lived), and that they differ enough in their accounts of Jesus' life and teachings that they are wide open to interpretation.

In other words: Nobody was writing about Jesus while he was alive, so all accounts of his life and teachings were based on oral accounts passed down over a period of at least six decades—making them not only unreliable and wildly inconsistent, but highly suspect. Why should anyone take them as "gospel"?

When I pointed all this out to Borg in a paper I wrote, he replied something to the effect of "Don't be hasty; there's still a lot of truth and meaning in the story." Pfft. If I want a story to believe in and center my faith on, I'd rather it be one that isn't the product of a 60-year game of "telephone."

So thank you, Dr. Borg, for disabusing me of any illusions I had held about Jesus or Christianity. Thanks, too, for serving as my major advisor, and for your helpful feedback on my...unorthodox master's paper, Contemporary Mystical Experiences.

*Religious studies, English education, and journalism