One of the most urgent needs for congregations in mainline churches in North America today is adult reeducation. The reason: the vision of Christianity that most of us over forty years old (and many under forty) learned as we were growing up in the church has ceased to be persuasive and compelling. Most of us learned a form of what Borg calls "an earlier Christianity," a vision of the Christian life and of what it means to be Christian that was shaped by "an earlier Christian paradigm."
This vision has been the most common form of faith and practice in Western Christianity for the past three centuries. This earlier vision of Christianity emphasized the divine origin of the Bible as the unique revelation of God, and a literal and factual interpretation of the Bible as the story of God's acts in the past and God's requirements of belief and behavior. Its understanding of salvation emphasized the afterlife: salvation was about "going to heaven." And it affirmed that Christianity is the only true religion and thus the only way of salvation.
This is the understanding of Christianity that our parents and ancestors learned and believed. For many of them it worked, in that it mediated a sense of the reality of God and how to live. But for millions of Christians today, its central affirmations have become difficult, even incredible.
We live in an exciting time in the life of the church. In the past few decades, an emerging vision of Christianity has begun to take root. It is a vision that takes the Bible, God, and Jesus just as seriously as did the earlier vision of Christianity. But the emerging vision seeks to remove the unnecessary intellectual stumbling blocks generated by the earlier vision.
Join us as we explore this emerging vision as we explore the "heart" of Christianity--what is most central to Christianity and the Christian life as we seek to become passionate believers today.
(Adapted from Marcus J. Borg's introduction to "Living the Heart of Christianity.")
This vision has been the most common form of faith and practice in Western Christianity for the past three centuries. This earlier vision of Christianity emphasized the divine origin of the Bible as the unique revelation of God, and a literal and factual interpretation of the Bible as the story of God's acts in the past and God's requirements of belief and behavior. Its understanding of salvation emphasized the afterlife: salvation was about "going to heaven." And it affirmed that Christianity is the only true religion and thus the only way of salvation.
This is the understanding of Christianity that our parents and ancestors learned and believed. For many of them it worked, in that it mediated a sense of the reality of God and how to live. But for millions of Christians today, its central affirmations have become difficult, even incredible.
We live in an exciting time in the life of the church. In the past few decades, an emerging vision of Christianity has begun to take root. It is a vision that takes the Bible, God, and Jesus just as seriously as did the earlier vision of Christianity. But the emerging vision seeks to remove the unnecessary intellectual stumbling blocks generated by the earlier vision.
Join us as we explore this emerging vision as we explore the "heart" of Christianity--what is most central to Christianity and the Christian life as we seek to become passionate believers today.
(Adapted from Marcus J. Borg's introduction to "Living the Heart of Christianity.")
I'm looking forward to being with the Oglesby Class this Sunday to introduce "The Heart of Christianity." In this book Marcus Borg has distilled the best insights of recent theology in a clear and accessible style. His passion is communicate the Christian faith in a way that is compelling. He writes: "Christian life is about a relationship with God that transforms life in the present." Amen. See you Sunday. John
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