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The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon QUOTES

The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon QUOTES

1 " When we read Paul, we are reading somebody else’s mail—and unless we know the situation being addressed, his letters can be quite opaque...It is wise to remember that when we are reading letters never intended for us, any problems of understanding are ours and not theirs. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

2 " To see Paul positively does not mean endorsing everything he ever wrote. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

3 " Humanity’s universal sin is far, far worse than those traditional vice lists cited for Greeks and Jews by Paul in Romans 1–3. It is this: we have accepted violence as civilization’s drug of choice, and our addiction now threatens creation itself. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

4 " In its Lutheran form, despite the emphasis upon God’s grace, “justification by grace through faith” was heard as “justification by faith” and thus as involving a fearful form of works righteousness: the “work” was “to believe.” Faith meant believing in a correct set of doctrines (which happened to be Lutheran), and this was the gateway to salvation. What "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

5 " A third reason was mentioned at the beginning of this chapter; namely, passages from letters attributed to Paul endorse slavery, subordinate women, and condemn homosexual behavior. They have been used for much of Christian history to justify systems of oppression. As "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

6 " Thus Paul has been used to support systems of cultural conventions oppressive to more than half of the human race. No wonder slaves, women, gays and lesbians, and those who care about them have often found Paul appalling. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

7 " What was going on at the time? What were the circumstances that the author addressed? What did the author’s words and allusions mean in their ancient historical and literary setting? Without context, one can imagine that a text means almost anything. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

8 " Even more striking and revealing is how he interweaves “sons of God” twice in Romans 8:14, 19 with “children of God” twice in Romans 8:16, 21—and again in Romans 9:8. It is, for Paul, all about family values—but divine family values, and that is what makes him very, very radical. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

9 " Finally, then, I conclude with an iconic image of that foundational reconciliation from the later fourth century. It is a bronze hanging lamp from the villa of the aristocratic Valerii on the Celian Hill in Rome, now preserved in the National Archaeological Museum in Florence. The lamp is shaped like a boat. Peter is seated in the stern at the tiller. Paul is standing in the prow looking forward. Peter steers. Paul guides. And the boat sails full before the wind. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

10 " Rather, the language of divine agency here emphasizes the theme of God’s grace: God provided the sacrifice. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

11 " When one of the Jewish Sibylline Oracles imagines what God’s perfect world will look like on its arrival, it claims: “The earth will belong equally to all, undivided by walls or fences…. Lives will be in common and wealth will have no division. For there will be no poor man there, no rich, and no tyrant, no slave. Further, no one will be either great or small anymore. No kings, no leaders. All will be on a par together” (2:313–38). So we moderns should not think we invented everything. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon

12 " But “redemption” in the Bible and in Paul is not about the forgiveness of sins. Rather, it is a metaphor of liberation from bondage—from life in Egypt, from a life of slavery. “The redemption that is in Christ Jesus” would be better translated “the liberation that is in Christ Jesus.” We are liberated through him. "

― Marcus J. Borg , The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon