Dr. Marcus Borg, a theologian, Jesus scholar and best-selling author of 21 books, will deliver the annual Stern Lecture tomorrow and Saturday, August 24 and August 25 at St. Matthew’s Church, 1031 Bieneveneda. The public is invited. Growing up Lutheran in Minnesota and North Dakota, Borg went on to Concordia College (Lutheran, of course), where he took a required religious class in his junior year taught by a young professor who ‘made the study of religion the most intellectually exciting material I had ever encountered in my life.’ At that time, Borg decided against a career as a diplomat or lawyer and instead chose to focus on religion and becoming a professor. He considers this his ‘intellectual conversion.’ Later, he went beyond the intellectual. ’In my early 30s, I had a number of mystical experiences that made God undoubtedly real to me,’ Borg says. ‘I speak of that as my adult religious conversion because it really transformed how I think about God.’ Before retiring in 2007, Borg taught for more than four decades in colleges and universities. Over the past 15 years he has traveled over 100,000 miles a year to give talks. ‘I feel very blessed by that,’ he says. ‘I love doing it. Not everyone gets the opportunity.’ His books include ‘Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time’ and ‘The God We Never Knew.’ This weekend’s lectures include Friday night’s ‘Two Versions of Christianity Today,’ which will focus on the divide in American Christianity today. ’There is the Christian right,’ Borg says. ‘But there’s also a Christian left. The two visions of Christianity are about how the Christian right and the Christian left see things.’ He emphasizes that though he is using those terms in the political sense they are also applicable in a theological way. Despite the age-old conflict of religion vs. religion, Borg believes that today ‘the great divide is within each religion.’ ‘There’s a Christian middle as well,’ Borg says. ‘The conflict between the Christian right and the Christian left is that they’re seeking the middle,’ while some in the middle hope the battle will end. In discussing today’s different versions of Christianity, Borg says: ‘We all have our points of view. But I do think the Christian left is closer to both the Bible and Jesus than the Christian right. I would even say that’s why I’m a part of the Christian left. ’The most controversial part of what I do is when I talk about politics, because there are some Christians who are theologically liberal but politically conservative.’ Borg’s book, ‘Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings,’ came about because Borg had been a student of Buddhism for about 35 years. ‘The more I taught the more interested I became in it, the more I was struck by parallels of Jesus and the Buddha,’ he says. ‘I see both of them as mystics,’ and he relates how both taught about ‘the way’ or ‘the path.’ Saturday’s lecture, ‘Mysticism, Empowerment and Resistance,’ will focus on what mysticism actually is and why it’s important. According to Borg, mysticism is ‘union with God’ or ‘union with the sacred,’ and is the core of every religion. ’I think of mystics as people who have experienced God or the sacred,’ Borg continues. ‘It’s not just they believe strongly in God, but they have had experiences.’ This lecture will also focus on the three most central figures of the Bible for Christians: Moses, Jesus and Paul. ‘They were all mystics,’ he says. ‘They were empowered by their mystical experience to resist the systems that they were part of. It’s about resistance and liberation. ’I think it’s pretty clear in the Bible and what Jesus said, that the world should be a world of peace and justice. Justice is about fairness. That doesn’t mean that everybody gets the same. It means that everybody should have enough of the basic necessities of life.’ Pastor Howard Anderson also hails from Minnesota, both men are of Scandinavian descent and their fathers worked in creameries. Borg will also be preaching at both Sunday morning services (8 and 10 a.m.). The Friday lecture commences at 7:30 p.m., and the Saturday talk begins at 9 a.m. and concludes at 3 p.m. (lunch provided). For more information, or to RSVP, call (310) 454-1358 or visit: stmatthews.com. Admission is free.
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