Jesus the perfect way

Back in my evangelical days I was always uncomfortable with the position that Jesus was the only way to God. Sure their are some get out clauses for people who never hear the Gospel but ultimately a narrow position.
I found this paragraph in 'The Meaning of Jesus' by Marcus Borg extremely helpful: referring to exclusive passages of scripture::

"...whatever these passages may have meant in their first century contexts, they need not be understood to mean that Jesus (or Christianity) is the only way of salvation. Instead , we might understand them (and similar Christian statements about Jesus being "The only way") as reflecting the joy of having found one's salvation through Jesus, and the intensity of Christian devotion to Jesus. They should be understood as exclamations, not doctrines, and as "the poetry of devotion and the hyperbole of the heart" So decisive need not mean "only"

But the claim does mean that for us, as Christians, Jesus is the decisive revelation of God, and of what a life full of God is like. Indeed I see this as the defining characteristic that makes us Christian rather than something else. If we found the decisive revelation of God in the Torah or Koran, then we would be Jews or Muslims..."

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• Progressive Christian, Prophetic Evangelical (beliefnet.com)

Paranormal healing :: Marcus Borg

 

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...

What Jesus didn't know

In reading "The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions" by Marcus Borg and NT Wright, I've started to get some clarity regarding the differences in "progressive Christianity" and "Evangelical".

One of the main difference is posed in the question::

Did Jesus think he was the messiah?

Borg believe NT Wrights would belive this::

Jesus thought he was the messiah, and he ws right. Based on what the New Testament itself says, this has been the common Christian position throughout the ages. A considerable body of scholarship also argues this.

While Borg believes::

Whether or not Jesus thought he was the messiah, he is the messiah. That is, his messianic status and the truth of the exalted metaphors do not depend upon whether Jesus thought of himself in those terms. Whether an of them go back to Jesus or not, they are the community's testimony to what Jesus had become in their life together.

What would Jesus do?

I'm currently reading 'The Meaning of Jesus: Two visions' by NT Wright and Marcus Borg. Much of the book explores the idea of the 'quest for the historical Jesus'. It is a hugely important question.  Borg appears to look at the historical data with more of a objective perspective; while Wright relys on 'Faith' on many of his interpretations.

One of the things which I've found helpful is the idea that Borg uses, the 'Pre and Post Easter Jesus'. What was Jesus really like pre-Easter, taking into account all of the written data was post the Easter story, most written a long time after his death.

Keeping this in mind one of the questions which entered my head was what would 'Borg's Jesus' vs 'NT Wrights' make of the crimes done in 'Christ's' name, such as, Slavery, the inquisitions in Spain, anti-semitism. Would Jesus have stopped the Crucifixion? Maybe slipped into the obscurity of history?

I suspect if Jesus had been around at any of these horrific times he would have still been crucified....