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hrmjustin

(71,265 posts) Thu Jan 22, 2015, 01:41 PM Jan 2015

Marcus Borg, leading liberal theologian and historical Jesus expert, dies at 72

David Gibson

(RNS) Marcus J. Borg, a prominent liberal theologian and Bible scholar who for a generation helped popularize the intense debates about the historical Jesus and the veracity and meaning of the New Testament, died on Wednesday (Jan. 21). He was 72 and had been suffering from a prolonged illness, friends said.

Borg emerged in the 1980s just as academics and theologians were bringing new energy to the so-called “quest for the historical Jesus,” the centuries-old effort to disentangle fact from myth in the Gospels.

Alongside scholars such as John Dominic Crossan, Borg was a leader in the Jesus Seminar, which brought a skeptical eye to the Scriptures and in particular to supernatural claims about Jesus’ miracles and his resurrection from the dead.

http://www.religionnews.com/2015/01/22/marcus-borg-leading-liberal-theologian-historical-jesus-expert-dies-72/

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Marcus Borg, leading liberal theologian and historical Jesus expert, dies at 72 (Original Post) hrmjustin Jan 2015 OP

Did not see this coming. Htom Sirveaux Jan 2015 #1

Such sad news. TM99 Jan 2015 #2

Htom Sirveaux

(1,242 posts)

1. Did not see this coming.

Reply to hrmjustin (Original post)

Thu Jan 22, 2015, 04:39 PM

Jan 2015

Marcus Borg was the first person to explain Christianity for me in a way that was credible and made sense. Liberal Christianity has lost a giant.

RIP, Professor Borg.

TM99

(8,352 posts)

2. Such sad news.

Reply to hrmjustin (Original post)

Mon Jan 26, 2015, 08:44 PM

Jan 2015

Three men now that were very formative to me in who I became as an adult have died or are dying this week. First Borg, then Froese, and now my own father.

I had the pleasure of attending several seminars with Marcus Borg during my stint in graduate studies of religion in divinity school in the late 80's. He was a consummate scholar and a very pleasant man to discuss such topics with.

I wish more Christians and atheists alike would read his works as well as Sponge's though I don't see that happening with younger generations coming along.

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