For those who follow the seasons of the church year we are in the season of Lent. I want to recommend two books for this season.
Progressive Christianity Book Recommendations
The first is The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem co-authored by Marc and Dom Crossan. (There are ongoing wagers guessing who wrote which chapters!) The last week of Jesus’s life is referred to as “the passion.” Perhaps capturing the idea of his suffering and of his passion for the message of the Kingdom of God here and now. Marc and Dom focus on the narrative in Mark’s Gospel since it is the earliest Gospel account in our New Testament. I highly recommend this as a Lenten study book. Or for anytime.
A second book is Arthur Dewey’s Inventing the Passion: How the Death of Jesus Was Remembered (Polebridge Press, 2018). This book is a fascinating window into how the passion story of Jesus developed. I want to highlight a couple of points from this important and revelatory work. As people interested in raising our biblical and religious literacy, give this book your attention.
Constructing Ancient Narratives
Many of us assume that the Gospel narratives are historical accounts, including the tradition of the death of Jesus, describing “what actually happened.” But ancient narratives were a construction or fabrication of memory and imagination. They were designed and altered to meet the needs and concerns of developing communities. They were not intended to record factual events. They were woven together for meaning making.
Our Scripture stories are such narratives. They are nuanced interplays of “history metaphorized” or “prophecy historicized” (a great phrase by Dom Crossan). An essential question to ask of any Scripture story is: Why is the story told this way? To have this question in the forefront shifts our perspective.
Arthur identifies a narrative, a tale, that long preceded the time of Jesus, which is referenced in a non-canonical “gospel” of Peter. The story is about the suffering and persecution of an innocent one, a heroic figure and the impact of his catastrophic death on the life of the continuing community. The tale emphasizes that the unjustly slain hero lived for a cause, for “Truth.” This emphasis gave the wrongful death meaning. The tale itself is fiction. But the issue it addresses is sadly timeless. The function of the tale was to provide a narrative for discovering meaning. It was not intended to establish facts.
Creating a Hero Story
Art leads us through a process of discovering how the tale of the suffering and persecution of the innocent one provided a template for the narrative of the early Christian community as it came to terms with its catastrophic loss of Jesus. In doing so, Arthur opens our eyes to an important and almost shape shifting understanding of how the death of Jesus was remembered and how the passion narrative was indeed invented.
Most of us were taught through an arguably uncritical reading of the gospel narratives that Jesus’s death was not only necessary but salvific. His death, the glorious “hinge of fate,” that redeemed us. Hence, the day of his execution a “Good Friday.” But this telling is decidedly a post mortem narrative that sets Jesus up as a martyr or sacrifice. As our Gospel traditions developed, more emphasis was placed on Jesus’s death that overshadowed the content of his life. An irony. It was the light of his life and not the shadow of his death that the early communities sought to “keep alive.”
Life Giving Lessons from Jesus Narratives
The narratives about Jesus are ingenious and life giving. They reflect our profound need for meaning amidst events of loss and catastrophe that might otherwise fell us and our hope for the future. The Gospel narratives are efforts to keep a vision alive in continuing communities. And they continue to succeed. With this caveat: we must be discerning about how an uncritical reading of Jesus and his death can be wielded in the hands of the “winners”:
Once these narratives were read as literal descriptions, they became warrants of prejudice and even murder. The incitement of anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic acts on the grounds the ‘Jews’ killed Jesus and that they are ‘cursed’ has sadly determined the tragic relationship between Jews and Christians. Readers have missed the dramatic irony intended by Mark, Matthew, and John. Reconciling cues have been stripped from the texts. Sadly, a story format designed to give meaning to the suffering of innocent ones became the tale for further suffering and death. (Pg. 160)
Being a Responsible Christian
The narratives of the Christian tradition are nuanced. And layered. And constructed. As is our search for meaning. As 21st century seekers and students we are not only custodians of our tradition but must be responsible and mature interpreters of it as well. For me, Arthur’s book is helping me grow up. In my thinking and what it means to be a responsible Christian.
It is Lent in the season of the Church year. I suggest it is morning for Christianity in the 21st century. Don’t go back to sleep. We have a full day ahead of us.
I am enlightened by the words and reading this made me realize that as we live in this world, there are lots of Lessons from Jesus Narratives that will guide us to live in a life with full of hopes and gratitude. As we go deep into it we will be guided to the path of understanding the true teachings of God and the last week of Jesus.
Diana. I continue to learn more about the historical Jesus and the early communities. And yes scholars continue to discover new information and ways of seeing. When I am willing to see from a slightly different angle I see afresh. I take heart from our experiences that the Christian narrative continues to be generative and challenges me to gain new understanding. We continue to turn to the Jesus narratives and learn from them. Because they continue to speak to us. Thanks for your comments.
I was delighted to see you use the word “fabrication” (of memory and imagination). Fabrication is so often used to suggest the invention of a “lie.” But, using the term as it is also defined, if I imagine how to “fabricate” a bracket to hang a gadget on a wall, I can get a sense of the importance of purposefully inventing something that has useful application. I can see why I fabricated the bracket the way I did. But it is more difficult for me to “see” the “why” in the fabrication of someone else’s narrative. What did the author have in mind? What was he purposefully trying to convey? Fabrication is a very appropriate word because of its definition(s). Finally (if I understood him correctly), Arthur Dewey suggests the narrative at a later time was “re-fabricated”. Trying to determine the reason certainly keeps us talking, doesn’t it?
(This is beyond the subject of Lent, but, could this line of reasoning lead to an alternate understanding of the Holy Trinity?)
Ken Greetings once again my friend and neighbor. I love how you have put this: purposefully inventing something that has useful application . And in the case of the early communities a framework for meaning. If Jesus had not been a compelling, remarkable and shall I say unforgettable figure his death may have felled him. But there was something about him….and his followers were changed by him and saw possibility….and worked diligently to assure that his vision and his memory would speak to the continuing community. The communities changed over time and so did their contexts….and so the stories morph and weave and accommodate….The Trinity is something we made up…..who can know the inner or outer workings of God? If it helps to language the stammering of our hearts ok. But if it becomes a litmus test for belief I sigh. See you in church. I preach good friday.
Marianne, in this week’s Tuesday Gang, Rick brought up what you addressed in your reply, that is, what was the “something” about Jesus that had to have been “compelling…” If we could somehow better understand what the Roman Empire really was, what the Temple’s priesthood really was, but, as characterized by something we emotionally know in our own history, we could better appreciate the extraordinary life of Jesus. I hope this conversation you have started will challenge all of us participants to pay more attention to things similar to what challenged Jesus…and respond as courageously as he did. I am looking forward to your Good Friday address.
Ken
Empire didn’t make Jesus compelling. Jesus was compelling. As early stories insist it was his sense and participation in the reality of ‘God’. His compassion. His deep acceptance of humanity and all our conditions! His love. And his nerve. His response to the seemingly overwhelming and established structures and power of empire and what Marcus might call conventional wisdom came out of his vision, his “knowing”, his love, trust and courage that there is another way. The challenge of the times called the question on his identity. Our times are doing the same…calling the question on ours.
See you soon.
Really love reading this. Am about to dive into “The Last Week,” an annual experience of meaning and inspiration.
Janis Always. Yes, the last week….something we return to. As I return to Marcus’s last week! I think my stories about Marcus are a little closer to what actually happened than the ones about Jesus. But blessed are the stories that give us meaning and keep us living in gratitude and hopefulness. Dear friend. So glad you are there. And presiding and preaching holy week and Easter. We need you and your voice. Be free and bold.
Also I wanted to let you know about a Marcus Borg citing & possible sighting in Waldport, OR last Saturday. Husband of our St. Luke’s new priest, Emeritus Professor of Religion Dr. Brian Jones lectured and led a discussion on the topic “Fundamentalist Christianity, Christian Zionism and American Politics.” He cited Marcus and the Jesus Seminar in this first presentation by the newly formed Canterbury Forum for progressive Christians. Marcus may have been among the 50+ coastal residents who crowded into the community center for this first event which was hosted by the Outreach Committee of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Waldport.
Jeanne Thank you so much for your encouragement. And for your intimations of wonder following your wife’s death. Those moments of graciousness and being known are sustaining. I am a year ahead of you in the grieving process. But it is hardly a linear process. Keep on. I hope that Marcus provides support and engagement for your head and heart in these coming days. And I love the citing and sighting in Waldport! He loved the coast — His and his doggy soul mate Henry’s favorite place for silent and intimate walks. Henry died a year ago. Perhaps Marcus had returned from a romp on the beach with his four legged friend in time for the gathering at the community center. Who knows….and why not…..I call this fanciful thinking play…..Deep peace to you. And continue the conversation.
Marianne,
I am so grateful for the way you are carrying on Marcus’ work in the world while adding your own wisdom and scholarship. I especially want to share today’s email reflection (Awe & Wonder) with our church’s FB group. I didn’t find it on either the webpage or FB page. Is there a way to link it?
Blessings and thank you for your ongoing writing and work. Your reflection on the day of Marcus’ departure was very powerful for me–my wife died about a year after Marcus and we experienced some very special and unlikely events during her leaving.
Hello Jeanne! You can view a copy of the newsletter in the Articles and Posts section of the website, here is the direct link: https://marcusjborg.org/awe-and-wonder-here-and-now-issue-6-the-crucifixion/
Thank you very much for your interest!