Meeting Jesus for the First Time it

Meeting Jesus for the First Time

It is rightly said that all religious believers tend to create a heroic figure out of their prophets, a man often of divine ancestry and one who is able to transcend the barriers of time and space. Thus to an extent religious believers are idolatrous and no other example is better than Christianity and the figure of Christ. All Christian worship is a response to a worshiper's image of Jesus. Jesus in the history has been depicted as a mythical figure, one who defies all physical and biological laws and performs extraordinary functions. Marcus J. Borg a distinguish professor of Religion at Oregon State University in this regard has written a fascinating book "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time" which explores the popular images of Jesus being created in the literature and by the people. Borg argues that these images are false depiction and that they harm the faith more than give any advantage. He says that these images connect the believers to a mythic figure and isolates them from the real Jesus.

Borg in his book attempts a historical investigation of the persona of Jesus and also writes about his own evolving ideas of who Jesus really was. He examines the scholarly and popular religious evolution of Jesus' public image and also takes into consideration the effects of historical figure of Jesus on the contemporary age and images of Jesus. Borg's central theme throughout the book is that some of the issues in Christian life is not believing in God or believing in the Bible but deals with the relationship with Christ. Thus Borg challenges the traditional image of Jesus so dear to the Christian Church and explains his own version of the historical Jesus. Borg argues contrary to traditional belief that Jesus was a more of a human being and that he did not ever proclaimed that he was a son of God or that he was divine. Borg argues with historical evidence that these stories and apocalypse account of the end of the world were put down by the people decades later in gospels and elsewhere according to their own time and experiences.