March 02, 2002 - 10:06 a.m.
Saturday already. Days are gone before I even know I have them.
It's been one of those weeks - sniffles and sneezes and a touch of sore throats. I hope it's over now. It looks like Zachary's last set of baby molars are cutting through, too - at last. He's actually fetching the teethers from the refrigerator.
Update on my Lenten reading: I settled on a book - or a couple of them. Dropping a few things by the library last week, I took the time to browse the stacks (Zachary was home with Daddy) and found a book by Marcus Borg - a theologian I've been interested in reading for a while. I've since requested another of his books from the library and should get it about the time I'm finished with this one.
Borg writes for an audience of Christians (or lapsed Christians) who have interests in Biblical and theological scholarship but also have problems reconciling what they know with what they were taught to believe. He's also a member of the Jesus Seminar, a group often criticized for not taking the Gospel as gospel - but I've met few astute Christians who didn't admit that the varying presentation of Jesus in each of them doesn't raise a few questions. And it's widely accepted that Paul didn't write all the letters attributed to him - including Titus, which is often quoted for the "proof" that women should not be ordained.
But that's another subject.
Borg also covers the social aspects and conventional wisdom of 1st century Palestine - vital information to really understand Jesus' parables and aphorisms that just isn't covered in Sunday School.
And that's a large part of the problem with religious education - unless you go to a church affiliated college or a seminary, this contemporary scholarship just isn't shared. As children we're taught about the "friendly Jesus" who loves little animals and little children and a kind God who is everywhere (but also "up in Heaven") and when we begin to think critically about our faith, we are left with only two choices - a sort of narrow fundamentalism or a lapse into atheism. And a relationship with God should be richer than that.
Well, that about hits the theme of Borg. The title, for anyone who's stuck through this and is still interested, is Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical Jesus & the Heart of Contemporary Faith
