Convictions

How I Learned What Matters Most

De: Marcus J. Borg

Narrado por: John Pruden

On the occasion of his seventieth birthday, the renowned scholar Marcus J. Borg shares how he formed his bedrock religious beliefs, contending that Christians in America are at their best when they focus on hope and transformation and so shows how we can return to what really matters most. The result is a manifesto for all progressive Christians who seek the best path for following Jesus today.

With each chapter embodying a distinct conviction, Borg writes provocatively and compellingly on the beliefs that can deeply ground us and guide us, such as: God is real and a mystery; salvation is more about this life than an afterlife; the Bible can be true without being literally true; Jesus's death on the cross matters—but not because he paid for our sins; God is passionate about justice and the poor; and to love God is to love like God.

Borg calls all American Christians to reject divisiveness and exclusivity and create communities that celebrate joy, possibility, and renewal. Throughout, he reflects on what matters most, bringing to earth the kingdom of God Jesus talked about and transforming our relationships with one another. Rich in wisdom and insight, Convictions is sure to become a classic of contemporary Christianity.

Thought provoking

I was not familiar with the Author until taking on this reading with a Sunday School class. I found the opening and closing of the book the more interesting of the content. The controversial suggestions in between were an exercise in contemplation.

The original and eternal Christian now

working from the text of the Bible, original languages, the context and a deep understanding of God as reflected in the person of Jesus, the norm for interpreting the Bible, Borg offers a lifetime of reflection conversions and convictions on faith. This is an incredible book for anyone who is a person of faith or seeker. it is easy to understand and offers wonderful suggestions and opportunities for life. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED​!

Perhaps Dr Borg’s best ...

This is perhaps the best book he is authored, it especially hits home for Christians who are trying to make sense of biblical applications in our lives today.

What really matters in life.

I am grateful for this book. After seventy years, Marcus Borg has come to very similar convictions in his life that I have reached after seventy years of my very different life. The huge value of this book for me is that Borg distills and articulates these convictions adding substance to my unarticulated, sometimes vaguely formed, much less thought out conclusions. As I listen to this audiobook, I also hear a voice deep within me saying, “Yes, That’s exactly right!”

As a young man, I loved God. I didn’t question the fundamentalist Evangelical teachings of my church until the second year in a conservative Evangelical Seminary. Somewhere deep inside told me, “There is something fundamentally wrong here. It doesn’t feel right.” It suddenly became obvious to me that Biblical inerrancy was a falsehood as was the whole theological system built on it. Voicing this realization got me in trouble. I was thrown out of that seminary. I still loved God but at age 27, but I was ostracized from graduate school, my church, my family, and from all life I had previously known. This started me on a lifelong spiritual quest for which I am grateful.
Now, in my seventies, I am a comfortably retired, liberal Episcopalian and Christian mystic living quietly in a villa on a Caribbean beach where I work in my garden. I listen to Audiobooks by great Christian teachers as my eyesight declines. I greatly admire Marcus Borg’s learned insights and the way he states his faith. That’s why I feel humbled and grateful that God’s spirit has led me to the same spiritual place and that “Convictions” defines that place so beautifully.

For the contemporary Christian

For the contemporary Christian who wants to follow Jesus and move onward.

If you are are a progressive Christian following the path of Jesus, this author will confirm your convictions.

But convictions are not as important as leading your life from your conscience and this conscience is formed throughout our lifetime.

I remember as a young girl that the Catholic Church declared you at the "age of reason" when you turned 7 years of age. To me that meant that I had to pay attention to my faults and my sins. One of the biggest impediments is guilt, when guilt lingers it blocks all avenues of human and God's love.

So instead of developing into the person that God intended me to become, I was developing according to the rules of the Catholic Church and not realizing that I was born in the image of God which is love.

After all I had to practice humility, a very big thing in Catholicism but never fully explained in the sense that all is grace. After all we can't think like the protestants can we? Justification by grace through faith.

This belief system was pretty much what I lived until in my early 30's I had a very spiritual experience that turned my life around. Turned it around in the right direction but 30 years of the Catholic Church's teachings on morality etc didn't change me overnight. I had to work at examining my life all over again and even to this day I have not completed this task, it is eternal.

Marcus Borg shares with us his 70 years of following the Lutheran Church, his parents convictions, his mentors etc. Coming full circle back to himself and his relationship with Jesus.

Marcus Borg delivers his message simply and with conviction. He has found his place in the order of things and gives the reader or in my case the listener a push to keep on going, to keep looking inward and not outward.

To finally come home to oneself and move forward with hope, conviction and above all else love.