“We all know that Marcus Borg is a gifted teacher, biblical scholar, and writer of nonfiction, but it turns out that he’s a master storyteller, too.” — Brian D. McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christianity Bestselling author, Bible scholar, and theologian Marcus Borg (Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, The Last Week) uses his core teachings on faith and the Bible to demonstrate their transformative power and potential in Putting Away Childish Things: the moving, inspirational story of a college professor, her students, and a crisis of faith.
From the bestselling author of Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven--the powerful new book that seeks to rid the Christian faith of the inauthentic and sexist cultural baggage that hinders rather than helps to foster a true encounter with the revolutionary message of Jesus.
Gracie is a teenage girl growing up in the late 30s prior to the 2nd World War. She is getting ready to graduate from high school and begin living her life her way. She resents being the older sister because much of the responsibility for household chores and minding her brothers has been placed on her. She wants to graduate, get a job and start having some fun. Drawn into all of the family’s responsibilities, Gracie must assume the role of full-time mother and housekeeper when tragedy strikes. Gracie learns through the challenges that she endures to develop a strong faith. She learns not to resent God but to recognize that her struggles are what drove her to Him.
The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.
David Seamands' thesis is that we all have childish behavior patterns that hold us back from reaching spiritual and emotional maturity, but that God can help us put away childish things and move toward the maturity He desires for us.
Of the many recent books on the historical Jesus, none has explored what the latest biblical scholarship means for personal faith. Now, in Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg addresses the yearnings of those who want a fully contemporary faith that welcomes rather than oppresses our critical intelligence and openness to the best of historical scholarship. Borg shows how a rigorous examination of historical findings can lead to a new faith in Christ, one that is critical and, at the same time, sustaining. "Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him," Borg writes. "Rather, it means to give one's heart, one's self at its deepest level, to . . . the living Lord." Drawing on his own journey from a naive, unquestioning belief in Christ through collegiate skepticism to a mature and contemporary Christian faith, Borg illustrates how an understanding of the historical Jesus can actually lead to a more authentic Christian life—one not rooted in creeds or dogma, but in a life of spiritual challenge, compassion, and community. In straightforward, accessible prose, Borg looks at the major findings of modern Jesus scholarship from the perspective of faith, bringing alive the many levels of Jesus' character: spirit person, teacher of alternative wisdom, social prophet, and movement founder. He also reexamines the major stories of the Old Testament vital to an authentic understanding of Jesus, showing how an enriched understanding of these stories can uncover new truths and new pathways to faith. For questioning believers, doubters, and reluctant unbelievers alike, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time frees our understanding of Jesus' life and message from popular misconceptions and outlines the way to a sound and contemporary faith: "For ultimately, Jesus is not simply a figure of the past, but a figure of the present. Meeting that Jesus—the living one who comes to us even now—will be like meeting Jesus again for the first time."
In Speaking Christian, acclaimed Bible scholar Marcus Borg, author of Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, argues that the very language Christians use has become dangerously distilled, distorted, and disconnected from the beliefs which once underpinned it. Stating a case that will resonate with readers of N. T. Wright’s Simply Christian, Borg calls for a radical change to the language we use to invoke our beliefs—the only remedy that will allow the Church's words to once again ring with truth, power, and hope.
The Jesus movement of the 70s was a heady time. It was a time of Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. It was a time of the Doobie Brothers telling us that "Jesus is Just Alright With Me", and Norman Greenbaum singing about a "Spirit in the Sky". It was a time when Jesus was going to return any day, according to the bestselling book "The Late Great Planet Earth". It was a time of the Rapture, Armageddon, and the Antichrist. Dave Warnock's faith took root during this intoxicating era, and soon he was speaking in tongues, casting out demons, and praying for legs to grow. That raw, emotional faith grew into a mature Christian lifestyle over the next three and a half decades, including pastoral roles on three different church staffs, where the innocence of Dave's early faith evolved into staff meetings, budgets, and carefully planned worship services. Dave's spiritual journey included the sudden loss of friends and loved ones, job losses, and marital struggles. And an increasingly frustrating search for God's involvement. But what if it's not true? What if there's not an active God doing things for His people? What does a man do when he pauses and reflects on a life lived in this kind of faith, and finds, upon examination, that the God he dedicated his life to has never been there?
