I came across this video recently where theologian Marcus Borg and Episcopal minister Charles Holt discuss the question “Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?” I thought it was a fascinating discussion contrasting the liberal views of Borg versus the traditional Christian opinions of Holt in considering the Resurrection of Jesus:
Marcus Borg is a Christian mystic. He writes on his website that he “had no intellectual understanding of mysticism. Indeed, whenever I tried to read mystical writings, they seemed like gobbledy-gook. I had no idea what they were about – they were completely opaque. But after (his mystical experiences), mystical texts became luminous.” Marcus Borg and other mystics emphasize a direct experience of God’s love in this life. They are not much into doctrine – believing the right things. Speculation on the after life and Bible prophesy are not of much interest to them – experiencing Divine Love now is.
The evangelical Christian church doesn’t know what to do with these mystics. In the above dialog Charles Holt, representing the conservative view, implies “how can you call yourself a Christian and not believe that Jesus rose from the dead?” In Borg’s brand of mysticism, he doesn’t believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus, yet he sees Easter as essential to the Christian faith in a nontraditional manner.
I feel both Holt and Borg have a deep relationship to God – they just interpret their divine connections in different ways. Nowadays I lean more to the mystical Christian orientation, which Marcus Borg explains so well in his book The Heart of Christianity.
