A Portrait of Jesus
Context: Two Kinds of Wisdom Teachers
Wisdom concerns a way of life, a path, a way of seeing reality.
Wisdom is a way of seeing ourselves and our lives in relation to reality.
-Marcus Borg
Wisdom comes in two forms: conventional and alternative.
Wisdom teacher as a cross-cultural religious personality
Wisdom teachers are known in every culture throughout history as either:
- Teachers of conventional wisdom
- Teachers of subversive or alternative wisdom - such as the Buddha, Socrates, and Jesus
Wisdom teachers speak of two ways or two paths:
- A wise way and a foolish way
- A narrow way and a broad way
- A righteous way and a wicked way
They encourage their hearers to follow one and avoid the other.
Wisdom teachers make observations about life and speak out of experience.
- Contrast this with a divine law-giver who says: "Thus says the Lord, you shall..." or "you shall not..."
- Contrast this with the inspired prophet who says: "Hear the word of the Lord..."
Conventional
wisdom teachers say things like: "You
reap what you sow..."
Alternative wisdom teachers say things like: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow..."
Understanding conventional wisdom
Conventional wisdom is cultural consensus.
Conventional wisdom tells us how to live - it is what we are socialized into as we grow up in any given culture.
Conventional
wisdom is based on rewards and punishments - "you
reap what you sow" is standard in every culture.
- Secular version: "work hard and you'll succeed"
- Religious version: "God will reward or condemn you depending on what you've done"
Conventional wisdom has social and psychological consequences.
- Social: creates social boundaries by giving greater value to some roles than to others
- Psychological: self-worth, identity, and self-esteem becomes based on how one measures up to social norms
Conventional wisdom is a culture's domestication or map of reality built of language, words, systems of ordering.
- Imposing words on reality means we categorize and label reality or place a grid over reality and relate to categories instead of what IS.
We cannot live without conventional wisdom, but it has some negative aspects:
- Creates a sense of self-preoccupation about measuring up to the standards of culture
- Is a world of bondage to the messages of culture
- Is a world of alienation and exile, separation and estrangement from meaning
- Generates blindness that flows from thinking reality is as we have labeled it; we miss out on the depth and wonder of reality if we limit it to the words we use to describe it
It is important not to confuse conventional wisdom with reality itself.
Questions to ponder...
What are some of the conventional wisdom ideas you know?
How do they affect your image of God?
Jesus
as an Alternative Wisdom Teacher
Jesus invites his hearers to leave conventional wisdom behind in order
to live by an alternative wisdom.
Introduction
A Portrait of Jesus Introduction
Research and Scholarship Perspective
Lenses through which Borg sees Jesus
The Pre- and Post-Easter Jesus
Compare Pre- and Post-Easter Jesus
Summaries of the Pre-Easter Jesus
Spirit Dimension
Context: Spirit Persons in Many Cultures
Wisdom Dimension
Context: Wisdom Teachers in Many Cultures
Political Dimension
Context: Social and Cultural World of Jesus
The Post-Easter Jesus
What Difference Does it Make?
Resources for Further Study
Books and Articles by Marcus Borg
FaithFutures Foundation: integrating faith and scholarship
Living the Questions, a progressive 12-week DVD and web curriculum to help participants discover the relevance of Christianity in the 21st Century and what a meaningful faith can look like in today's world. Features Marcus Borg and 14 other scholars and pastors.
New Testament Gateway, created by Dr. Mark Goodacre, University of Birmingham, UK
The Jesus Seminar, created by Dr. Mahlon Smith, Jesus Seminar Fellow and faculty at Rutgers University
Virtual Religion Index, created by Dr. Mahlon Smith, Rutgers University
Westar Institute, official Jesus Seminar site; includes churches open to the scholarship of the Jesus Seminar