A memorial celebrating the life and influence of Marcus Borg will be held on Sunday, March 22nd, 2015. This public service of remembrance will be at 2pm at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. As a modest tribute to Borg’s contribution to “Living the Questions,” we offer this clip of Marcus demonstrating a body prayer for your own devotional and memorial use in concert with those celebrating in Oregon this weekend (excerpted from “Living the Questions: An Introduction to Progressive Christianity”).
Ever feel like Jesus has been kidnapped by the Christian Right and discarded by the Secular Left? Saving Jesus Redux is total revision of Living the Questions’ popular 12-session DVD-based small group exploration of a credible Jesus for the third millennium. New contributors including Brian McLaren, Diana Butler Bass, and Robin Meyers join Marcus Borg, Walter Brueggemann, John Dominic Crossan, Matthew Fox, Amy-Jill Levine, and a host of others for a conversation around the relevance of Jesus for today.
The 12-session curriculum edition program includes a printable participant reader/study guide with background readings and discussion questions. The basic format for each 1 – 1½ hour session includes conversation around the readings, a 30-minute video segment and guided discussion.
Saving Jesus Redux Curriculum Edition is licensed for small group use and includes a two-disc DVD set and one year renewable subscription to the downloadable study materials. List Price = $250.00 plus s/h.
Use coupon code SJR5CC before March 24th to receive 50% off the list price.
Please Note: You must be logged in to your member account when placing your order/entering the coupon code for the coupon code to be recognized and the discount to be deducted. If you do not have a member account set up, please do so at Create an Account prior to placing your order. You are welcome to share this offer with others.
Join preeminent New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan in exploring the worlds of Jesus and Paul in two thought-provoking and informative studies from Living the Questions!
50% OFF THE CURRICULUM EDITION OF BOTH
FIRST LIGHT & ECLIPSING EMPIRE
NOW THROUGH MARCH 9th
Filmed in High-Definition on location throughout the Galilee and Jerusalem, First Light is a 12-session DVD and web-based study of the historical Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
The downloadable Participant Guide written by John Dominic Crossan:
“It is all I have to say about Jesus after half a century of study–in succinct summary.“
Eclipsing Empire is a 12-session DVD and web-based study that follows Marcus Borg and Dom Crossan through Turkey as they trace the Apostle Paul’s footsteps throughout the Roman Empire. Explore fresh insights into Paul’s message of the Kingdom of God, its challenge to Roman imperial theology, and the apostle’s radical relevance for today.
Participant Guide written by John Dominic Crossan. Filmed in High-Definition across Turkey, Greece, and Italy.
50% OFF THE CURRICULUM EDITION OF
FIRST LIGHT & ECLIPSING EMPIRE
NOW THROUGH MARCH 9th
Order the Curriculum Edition of First Light and/or Eclipsing Empire now through March 9th via the Living the Questions webstore and receive 50% off each program’s $250.00 USD list price!
HOW TO ORDER: To place an order for First Light please click here and place your order using coupon code: FL5CE or to place and order for Eclipsing Empire please click here and place your order with coupon code EE5CE. Only one coupon may be entered per transaction. If you would like to order both at the discounted price, please email us prior to placing your order.
Small Print: Offer not valid on previous orders and cannot be applied to bundled curriculum pricing. You must be logged in to your member account when placing your order/entering the coupon code for the coupon code to be recognized and the discount to be deducted. If you do not have a member account set up, please do so at Create an Account prior to placing your order. You are welcome to share this offer with others by using the “Forward email” link below.
This kind of thing doesn’t happen every day (or even every YEAR!), so don’t miss your chance to snag that LtQ program you’ve been meaning to roll out in your church or study group! ONE DAY ONLY: Wednesday, Sept. 4th, 2013
“I’ve lead most of the LTQ courses. Each time people are energized by learning that they don’t have to believe in impossible things, just live a life rooted in the love, compassion and justice embodied in Jesus.” — R.H. in Austin (via Facebook)
“Living the Questions is a breath of fresh air in the crazy world of contemporary religious thought. It will refresh, renew, challenge, inspire and sometimes drive you to a fine glass of red wine. LTQ literally changed my life!” — S.S. in Ohio (via Facebook)
“LtQ2 both broadened and deepened our Christian Formation studies at my church in Atlanta. We could watch the confining bonds of literalism fall from the consciousnesses around us as we could once again view the numinous through our liturgies. Awesome materials.” — M.D. in Atlanta (via Facebook)
NOTE: Offer applies only to DVD curriculum purchased from the livingthequestions.com website and is not valid on previous orders or combined with any other promotional offers. Offer valid through 11:59 pm, Central, September 4th, 2013. To receive the discount, you must create a member account or be logged in to your member account and enter the code: 1YRLTQ
Ever feel like Jesus has been kidnapped by the Christian Right and discarded by the Secular Left? Then you need Saving Jesus, a 12-session DVD-based exploration of a credible Jesus for the third millennium — now available for home use! This remarkable series features nearly 30 thought leaders at the forefront of Progressive Christianity, including Marcus Borg, Diana Butler Bass, John Dominic Crossan, Yvette Flunder, Matthew Fox, Amy-Jill Levine, Brian McLaren, Stephen Patterson, Helen Prejean, John Shelby Spong, & more!
“You can believe all the right things and still be a jerk. You can believe all the right things and still be miserable, still be in bondage, or still be untransformed. So, the emphasis upon belief is, I think, modern and mistaken. It’s also very divisive – once people start thinking that being a Christian is about believing the right things, then anybody’s list of what the ‘right things’ are becomes a kind of litmus test as to who’s really a good Christian and who’s not. Being a Christian is really about one’s relationship with God. And that relationship with God can go along with many different belief systems.”
Marcus Borg in “Living the Questions”
– Marcus Borg in “Living the Questions 2.0”
Marcus Borg is a world-renowned Jesus scholar, speaker, and author of numerous books, including “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” & “The Heart of Christianity.” He is also a contributor to a number of Living the Questions DVD programs, including “Eclipsing Empire” and “First Light.”
Marcus Borg contends that Jesus has something to say about the way we organize ourselves in community — that when a society is structured to serve the self-interests of the wealthy and powerful it is not a just society. “If you have a society in which 1% of the population own 43% of the wealth, it is pretty clear that the 1% has structured that society so it kind of worked out that way — and they have a tremendous amount of power to sustain it.”
— Marcus Borg in Living the Questions 2.0
Internationally known in both academic and church circles as a biblical and Jesus scholar, Marcus Borg was Hundere Chair of Religion and Culture in the Philosophy Department at Oregon State University until his retirement in 2007. Borg has been described by The New York Times as “a leading figure in his generation of Jesus scholars” and is the author of over twenty books, including the popular “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time” & “The Heart of Christianity.”
“LtQ Clips” offer thought-provoking observations and comments on spirituality and religion from prominent authors, scholars, and thinkers. These excerpts from“Living the Questions” curriculum are designed to spark conversation in questioning the dominant pop theology of American Christianity.
“A welcome book that is bold (without being contentious) and courageous (without needing to be triumphant), Felten and Procter-Murphy give voice to a faith that provides a profound alternative to the dominant ideology of ‘American Christianity.’ Attention should be paid!”
— Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary
Felten and Procter-Murphy aim to re-evaluate the organizing myths of Christianity in their new book, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity (HarperOne; August 2012; Paperback; $17.99). Calling on some of the most provocative and authoritative voices in Christian scholarship today—Marcus Borg, Diana Butler Bass, John Dominic Crossan, A.J. Levine, John Shelby Spong, Brian McLaren, and many others—Living the Questions presents a lively and stimulating primer on what it means to be a progressive Christian.
Based on the popular DVD series by the same name, Living the Questions covers twenty-one topics many churches are afraid to discuss—as well as reimagining traditional topics of the faith in an all-new light.
Rather than watch the church pass into the irrelevance of so many religions of the past, Felten and Procter-Murphy aim to fulfill people’s longing for meaning by encouraging them to “live the questions” instead of “forcing the answers.”
It’s that time of year again. Shoppers are rushing home with their treasures — all to honor the birth of a 1st century Jewish peasant. If most folks even think about anything beyond the gifts and carols, the conventional wisdom is that we’re celebrating the occurrence of actual historical events some 2000 years ago — wisdom based on an assumption that the gospels are history.
But even a cursory reading of Matthew and Luke reveal conflicting story lines, characters, and theological agendas that show that they couldn’t possibly BOTH be historically accurate. But that’s OK. Neither one was ever intended to be history, but symbolism. The problem comes when well-meaning believers try to make them into something they were never intended to be.
In Living the Questions 2.0, Marcus Borg makes a case for moving from the magical thinking of pre-critical naiveté through critical thinking to a post-critical naiveté that can still appreciate the Christmas stories for their deeper theological meanings, not their supposed historical accuracy.
“I don’t think the truth of the Christmas stories is dependant upon whether Jesus was born in Nazareth or Bethlehem, whether there were wise men, whether there really was a star. I think the truth of the stories is in their ancient archetypal religious symbolism, those affirmations that Jesus is the light and the darkness, and so forth.
“To hear these stories is using some of the most ancient archetypal language with one of their central affirmations being, Jesus is the light of the world, the true light that enlightens every person, with even them coming into the world. That’s the star, the radiant glory of God, and the angels in the night sky. It is the ability to hear the birth stories as true stories even though you know the star is not an astronomical object of history but probably the exegetical creation of Matthew as he interprets the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah as a literary creation. Even as you know that Jesus was probably born in Nazareth and not in Bethlehem. And even as you know that Herod the Great never ordered the slaying of all male babies in Bethlehem under age two, but rather that is the use of the story of the birth of Moses in the time of Pharaoh when Pharaoh issued a similar order and the author of Matthew is saying the story of Jesus is about the story of the true king coming into the world who the evil kings seeks to swallow up. This is the story of the exodus all over again. This is the story of the conflict between the Lordship of God known in Christ and the Lordship of Pharaoh and the rulers of this world and the rulers of this world always try to swallow up the one who is of God. Is that true? Post-critical naiveté is the ability to hear that as a true story.”
The birth narratives in Matthew and Luke are unlikely to portray much of anything that is “true” historically, but remain beautiful examples of engaging stories that conveyed the gospel writers’ claims of who Jesus was for their communities. Once we get over the need for the stories to be “true” factually, we can re-engage with them and appreciate the richness of their symbolism.
Pastors David Felten and Jeff Procter-Murphy, along with the voices of top Bible scholars and church leaders—including Marcus Borg, Diana Butler Bass, John Dominic Crossan, Helen Prejean, and John Shelby Spong—provide a primer to a church movement that encourages every Christian to “live the questions” instead of “forcing the answers.”
Based on the bestselling DVD course, "Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity" tackles issues of faith, dogma, and controversial subjects that many churches are afraid to address. "Living the Questions" is the most comprehensive survey of progressive Christianity in existence today.
Available at www.livingthequestions.com, through online booksellers, and as a Kindle download!
“A welcome book that is bold (without being contentious) and courageous (without needing to be triumphant), Felten and Procter-Murphy give voice to a faith that provides a profound alternative to the dominant ideology of ‘American Christianity.’ Attention should be paid!”
— WALTER BRUEGGEMANN, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Living the Questions 
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