Thursday, July 22, 2010

Paranormal healing :: Marcus Borg

 The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (Plus)

Currently I'm reading The Meaning of Jesus. Two Visions, by Marcus Borg and Tom Wright.

It is interesting how for a scholar, Borg is usually put in the 'liberal' side of theology. Yet he does not deny the existence of the healing and exorcism. He calls it 'Paranormal healing' and steers well away from the word 'miraculous'.
He uses the word 'Paranormal' for two reasons
1) It is not superatural intervention, the 'miraculaous'. It thus avoids the issue of why God heals some and leave others to suffer.
2) He does not believe it to be 'psychosomatic', (I believe most 'miracles today inside the Church are in this category)

In common with the majority of contemporary Jesus scholars, I see the claim that Jesus performed paranormal healings and exorcisms as history remembered. Indeed, more healing stories are told about Jesus than about any other figure in the Jewish tradition. He must have been a remarkable healer.

I look forward to how Borg looks at the resurrection...

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