Speaking Christian
Redeeming Christian Language
Marcus Borg

Religions are like languages. Each has its own words, sacred texts, stories, images of how to live, and language enacted in ritual and ceremony. To be Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist means “to speak Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist.” So also to be Christian means to know, use, and be shaped by Christian language. Yet, in our time, much of Christian language is poorly understood. For some, it is an unfamiliar language. Others who are familiar with Christian language misunderstand it. Marcus Borg will explore important Christian words like salvation, savior, redemption, redeemer, righteousness, mercy, sacrifice, and more, and seek to reclaim their richer biblical meanings. What is at stake is understanding Christianity itself.

Marcus J. Borg is Canon Theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. He is the author of eighteen books, including Conversations with Scripture: Mark (2009) and bestsellers The Heart of Christianity (2003), Reading the Bible Again for the First Time (2001), and Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time (1994).

Wednesday, March 17, 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Weaving a New Fabric
from the Sermon on the Mount
Margaret E. Lee

We typically read the New Testament silently and hear it only in English translation. Thus we miss its natural cadences. In contrast, early audiences knew the gospels from public performances, spoken aloud. They thought of literature as a woven fabric that interlaces written marks with the sounds of speech. While we cannot hear New Testament compositions as they were originally performed, through a process called sound mapping we can retrieve spoken signals that are otherwise lost in translation. Margaret Lee will demonstrate the ancient arts of spinning and weaving, and will explore the ways in which sound mapping can help us discern the beginning, middle, end, and main points of ancient compositions, thus enabling us to hear them afresh.

Margaret E. Lee is Dean of Student Services and Adjunct Instructor of Biblical Greek and New Testament at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma. Named Regional Scholar by the Society of Biblical Literature in 1996, she is the author, with Bernard Brandon Scott, of Sound Mapping the New Testament, newly released by Polebridge Press.

Thursday, March 18, 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Jesus and Apocalyptic Eschatology
Dale C. Allison, Jr.

Since Albert Schweitzer, much critical New Testament scholarship has urged that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, that he expected the end in the near future, and that this was central to what he was all about. The Jesus Seminar, however, has consistently rejected this interpretation. Allison will take the other side, explaining why he finds it more plausible to continue in the direction Schweitzer set out on. He will address three important issues: (1) What happens when we subtract all the apocalyptic material from the primary sources? (2) Do the sources contain materials that discourage reconstructing an apocalyptic Jesus? (3) What should we make of the sayings that seem to proclaim the presence of the kingdom of God?

Dale C. Allison Jr. is Errett M. Grable Professor of New Testament exegesis and early Christianity at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books, including The Historical Christ and The Theological Jesus (2009) and Resurrecting Jesus: The Earliest Christian Tradition and Its Interpreters (2005).

Friday, March 19, 7:30–9 p.m.

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