Note
- I was surprised to see Tom Wright co-authoring a book with Marcus Borg, given they are on opposite poles of the Christian spectrum.
- Pleased to see it's both a scholarly and mutually respectful discussion.
Amazon Book Description
- A dialogue debate between two leading theologians, one liberal and one traditionalist. In alternating chapters, the authors present their visions of who Jesus was and what he taught and did. Their disagreement provides a foundation model for the historical Jesus debate.
- N.T. WRIGHT is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of the world’s leading Bible scholars. He is now serving as the Chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews. For twenty years he taught New Testament studies at Cambridge, McGill and Oxford Universities. As being both one of the world’s leading Bible scholars and a popular author, he has been featured on ABC News, Dateline, The Colbert Report, and Fresh Air. His award-winning books include The Case for the Psalms, How God Became King, Simply Jesus, After You Believe, Surprised by Hope, Simply Christian, Scripture and the Authority of God, "Wright (N.T.) & Borg (Marcus J.) - The Meaning of Jesus", as well as being the translator for The Kingdom New Testament. He also wrote the impressive Christian Origins and the Question of God series, including "Wright (N.T.) - The New Testament and the People of God", "Wright (N.T.) - Jesus and the Victory of God", "Wright (N.T.) - The Resurrection of the Son of God" and most recently, "Wright (N.T.) - Paul and the Faithfulness of God".
Amazon Customer Review1
- A superb and scholarly 'thinking person's introduction' to the Christian faith, excellent in every respect; I would happily recommend it to anyone who likes to wrestle with questions that really matter.
- N T Wright and Marcus Borg represent very different approaches to the Gospels - one 'conservative' and one 'liberal' - but they are great friends who respect each other deeply. Both come across as brilliant scholars, lucid communicators and deeply spiritual men, each of whom has a vibrant Christian faith.
- Whilst personally I incline pretty strongly towards N T Wright’s approach to the Gospels’ historicity, I also find Borg’s reasons for disagreeing with it persuasive and well argued. Furthermore I think Borg is 100% right to say that being a Christian is about having a relationship with God as revealed in Jesus Christ; it is not about assenting intellectually to a particular set of doctrines.
- If someone is held back from developing this relationship because s/he is struggling with having to believe certain things in the Gospels literally, then there may be a lot of mileage for that person in pursuing Borg’s ‘metaphor historicised’ approach, rather than abandoning the spiritual quest altogether.
- Likewise if someone is distressed (as I was as a teenager) by the more ‘liberal’ approach and suspects that its criteria for accepting or rejecting certain events in the Gospels as ‘historical’ may be dangerously arbitrary, there is no reason why s/he need not accept as ‘history’ everything which the Gospel writers present as factual accounts.
- At the end of the day it’s not what you know that matters, but who you know.
In-Page Footnotes ("Wright (N.T.) & Borg (Marcus J.) - The Meaning of Jesus")
Footnote 1:
- I liked this review, especially the suggestion that it's 'who you know' (ie. Jesus) rather than what you know (which doctrines you believe).
Book Comment
SPCK, 27 May 1999. Paperback.
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026
- Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)