MARCUS BORG DIED IN LATE JANUARY. He was a famous — though many would say infamous — Bible scholar and theologian. Borg was born into a conservative brand of Norwegian Lutheranism in the Upper Midwest. Over the course of his career, he moved to the left — ending up miles left of center on the theology spectrum. Borg was a member of the notorious “Jesus Seminar” back in the ’80s and ’90s, a group of liberal scholars who famously voted on whether they thought Jesus actually said this or that in the Bible, a bit of intellectual hubris they conducted by placing differently colored beads in a container.
I knew Marcus Borg a bit. He came to speak at the church I served in the ‘90s. He was an old friend of an active member of that congregation. Borg was getting scads of media attention at the moment and she encouraged the adult education committee to invite him to speak at an educational event at church. Frankly, I was a little less enthusiastic. A lot of people — and not just right-wingers — were lobbing the “h-word” at Marcus Borg: “h” for heretic.
He came to town and did a Saturday presentation to a decent crowd. That evening Borg’s friend, the church member, hosted a cookout in her backyard. I sat with Marcus all evening. We munched burgers, had a beer or two, and talked about the Bible and theology, church, our families and life in general.
A few days later, somebody asked me if I thought Marcus Borg were a heretic. I answered slowly and carefully, reluctant to use the “h” word on anybody. I first said that by even the most generous standards of traditional Christian orthodoxy, he was at least on the edge of the “h” line. But then I added, “I talked to him for hours last week, and I have to tell you, Marcus Borg is one of the gentlest, most generous, kindest, most loving Christian souls I’ve ever met.” That is to say, “I think he’s wrong about a lot of what he thinks about Jesus, but he loves and lives like Jesus taught people to love and live.”
Marcus Borg’s ideas have indeed done damage to the faith of some folks. Ideas matter. Bad ideas can have bad results because what you think shapes what you do. Yet one Borg fan quoted in the long obituary that the New York Times ran said that she wouldn’t be a Christian if it weren’t for Marcus. What I’ll always remember about the man is not his intellectual ideas, many of which I think are both wrong and potentially harmful. What I’ll remember is how obviously caring and deeply loving Borg obviously was.
No theologian cared more about the finer points of doctrine than Augustine, yet in the prayer at the beginning of Book 10 of the “Confessions,” he says that truth is what he wants to do, not just believe, but do. “You love truth,” Augustine prayed, “because anyone who ‘does truth’ comes to the light.”
Jacques Maritain was one of the most important political and ethical philosophers of the last century. French by birth and disposition, he spent much of his long career teaching in American universities, including Columbia, the University of Chicago and Princeton where he was named professor emeritus in 1956. Maritain was a faithful Christian, a curiosity in the world of academic philosophy — especially for a Frenchman. He was brilliant, a mind with few equals, yet Maritain famously said, “Christianity taught humanity that love is more important than intelligence.”
All of which is to say that being right matters, but relationships matter even more. Ideas are really important, but people are even more important. Truth matters, but love matters even more.
MICHAEL L. LINDVALL is pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City.
