Thursday, June 26, 2008

Belief and Relationship

I picked up Marcus Borg's book Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time yesterday at the library. I've only read the first chapter, but I found part of it intriguing. Borg gives his spiritual autobiography and concludes that he has reached a new place:
Now I no longer see the Christian life as being primarily about believing. The experiences of my mid-thirties led me to realize that God is and that the central issue of the Christian life is not believing in God or believing in the Bible or believing in the Christian tradition. Rather, the Christian life is about entering into a relationship with that to which the Christian tradition points, which may be spoken of as God, the risen living Christ, or the Spirit. And a Christian is one who lives out his or her relationship to God within the framework of the Christian tradition.
That paragraph is full of themes to be dissected (positively and negatively). But I want to focus on Borg's notion that Christianity isn't about "belief". It reminded me of the account of Jesus and Peter in John's gospel. After Peter has denied Jesus, he is reinstituted not by his belief or knowledge, but by his love. I don't know enough Greek to understand the agape/phileo (maybe one of you can comment on it), but I suspect that John may be attempting to demonstrate that the love of Jesus transcends linguistic boundaries.

James also provides another commentary on the shortcomings of "belief". Demons believe in Jesus; they even fear Him. But they don't have relationship with Him. He doesn't intercede for them. Demons aren't in communion with God.

When God asks us to believe in Him, He isn't asking us to have knowledge of His existence. For a Christian, belief necessitates taking up a cross and following Jesus. Belief isn't a thought pattern, but a concrete action.

2 comments:

Thesauros said...

Hmm, important post. Thank you.

Papa Bear said...

Borg would agree that the emerging paradigm in Christianity is more in tune a faith based on what transforms, rather than a faith based upon something we believe.