Marcus J. Borg's Blog

Our June 14, 2025 Second Saturday Conversation was the final session of this program year. We will begin a new program year September 13, 2025.

In this session I reflected on the topics we explored from September 2024-June 2025. All under the canopy of the title for our program year: Through A Glass Darkly: Numerous of Windows, Superior for Doors. (We know in part. But the unknown and non-knowing can loosen our imagination rather than silence it.)  I offered a recap of our move from theology to Theopoetics  We had three guests this year. On October 13, Brandon Scott, Christian Nationalism. March 8, Robin Meyers, Excuse Me? Interrupting on Behalf of Justice. April 12, Mark Oakley, Reclaiming a Poetic Faith. I encourage you to return to these three sessions in particular. Each guest in their own way talked about the importance of language and how language shapes and influences us.  Words matter.

Thank you all for your participation and reflections that make Second Saturday Conversation the kind and curious, passionate and persistent community of hope that it is. I look forward to seeing you again on September 13, 2025 when we begin a new program year.

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In the May 10, 2025 Second Saturday Conversation I reviewed a view comments made by our guest in April, Mark Oakley,  who insists that poetry is the person of faith’s native language.  I reminded us of the meaning of poiesis, which is a verb: making,creating, emerging. What is suggested here is that faith (sometimes translated as trust) has more to do with experience than with propositions. 

I also offered some thoughts on our signature poem for this program year: I Dwell in Possibility, by Emily Dickinson. I also made some comments about Rilke’s poem, Archaic Torso of Apollo. A line from that poem, “suffused with brilliance from inside” was the title for this session.  

We had conversation about poetry being more than rhyme or ornamentation. Rather a way of giving word to what we see and sense knowing that words can only attempt to mirror our experience.  In their own way poetry creates, makes, brings into being the very experience we are trying to convey.  Group response to this session was particularly helpful!  

Our final Second Saturday Conversation for this program year is June 14, 2025.

We will look at the year’s offerings and review where we have been and where we are.

Our new program year begins September 13, 2025.

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At our April 12, 2025 Second Saturday Conversation we were privileged to have The Very Reverend Mark Oakley as our guest. Mark is Dean of Southwark Cathedral, London, public lecturer, author of numerous books.  All Mark’s books are thoughtful and illuminating. Let me recommend The Splash of Words: Believing in Poetry.   

I encourage you to spend time with this session. Mark invites us to reflect on language that seeks to express our deepest longings and apprehensions, our intuitions and imagining, what is palpable and yet unknown.  In short, the language of our faith.  Not language of beliefs per se, rather language of hope and possibility and wonder. Such “language of our soul” is arguably best expressed in poetry; language that  can even become deed.  Mark opens and quickens our hearts and addresses our puzzlements about poetry and ourselves. He does so with clarity, depth, humility. And kindness. This session opens for us a door some of us have passed by.  Here is an invitation to enter. Come sit.  And taste and see.

Our next Second Saturday Conversation is May 10.  Our final Third  Saturday small group Reflection, May 17.  Our final session for this program year June 14.

Enjoy Mark Oakley! A gift to us. 

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On Second Saturday Conversation March 8, 2025, we had a special guest Robin Meyers. The title of his conversation with us: Excuse Me? Interrupting on Behalf of Justice. Robin addressed us and our situation in these disturbing times with a thoughtful and engaging blend of pastoral, prophetic and scholarly insight and wisdom. This session is timely and poignant. I urge you to watch it. And share it. We could not have a better and clearer strong, kind and  compassionate voice to issue a call to us to “interrupt on behalf of the unconditionality of justice.” I share a description of Robin’s talk below. But that is no substitute for experiencing him as we did on Second Saturday Conversation March 8,  2025.

I also urge you to read Robin’s books. Marcus did. Robin’s books provide an in-depth and accessible primer for understanding progressive Christianity. They are must reads. And certainly for those of us who find resonance with titles such as Saving Jesus from the Church and Saving God from Religion. Robin is not a cultured despiser. He is “a friend and lover of God” as were the prophets.

Enjoy this session. Share it. We were privileged to have Robin with us. And it was my honor and privilege to share our Second Saturday community with him.

(And in this season of Lent in the Christian year I suggest rather than giving something up we take something on.) 

Excuse me? Interrupting on Behalf of Justice

 One of the principal roles of prophetic rhetoric is to interrupt on behalf of the unconditionality of justice. There are times when we can wait out what is happening around us and times when – because we are running out of time – we must interrupt. Jesus was a cosmic interruption. Prophets interrupt with their impatient urgency. Ordinary people can also interrupt, with their bodies, as well as with their words, by refusing to be in compliance with what the Bible calls “the principalities and the powers.” We are living in a moment when the good, the true, and the just are being disassembled right before our eyes. Can I get an “excuse me?” 

Robin Meyers is a UCC pastor, Distinguished Professor of Social Justice, best selling author, and a fellow of the Westar Institute (home of the Jesus Seminar).

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In our February 8, 2025 Second Saturday Conversation we talked about the language of our faith. I suggest the language of faith is human language about human experience and possibility. The language of faith requires sympathy, empathy and imagination. Without those qualities, as I quoted Walt Whitman, we “walk to our own funeral.”

I noted the vision of the gospel of Luke (4:16) and the vision from Emma Lazarus’s poem The New Colossus. A world of oppression and inhumanity can be otherwise. Both visions share the same spirit of generosity, kindness and care. The operations of our current administration is the antithesis of such visions. 

The title of this session: In this desert of language we find ourselves in a match struck in darkness. The vision from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament and the vision of our America is a light in darkness. A flame. That will not be extinguished because we will not let it.

There is encouragement in this session. The Second Saturday Conversation community shared deeply and offered practical steps we can take as citizens to demonstrate our concerns and our hopes for our country and its humanitarian efforts for our world.

Watch this session. Continue the conversation in your own communities. Do not lose heart. We are committed to walking with sympathy, empathy, imagination.

Quoting again from Walt Whitman, “…Now I wash the gum from your eyes, You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life. Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore, Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again….”

Our next Second Saturday Conversation, March 8, we will have a special guest: Robin  Meyers. The title of his conversation is “Excuse Me? Interrupting on Behalf of Justice.”

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On Second Saturday January 11, 2025 I referred to the season of the church year Epiphany.  An epiphany is a manifestation or striking appearance.  I qualify epiphanies as something from the depths coming to the surface.  Not something coming from “on high.”  I suggested that language that tries to describe an epiphany really can’t be straightforward. We also considered that doctrinal and creedal language is at once inadequate and also presumes too much.  The title for this session was Jesus: an epiphany of darkness. Watch the video and wonder whether this conversation resonates with you or as one participant cautioned might border on the heretical. How do you hear our conversation?  And let me note that the word heretical comes from the Greek word hairesis which means choice or option.

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During our Second Saturday Conversation December 14, 2024 we spoke about the liturgical season of Advent, the beginning of a new  church year. In particular how Advent is a season that acknowledges our non-knowing. We don’t know what’s coming.  We see through a glass darkly. The tradition insists that in our acknowledgement that we know only in part we also realize a depth dimension to our lives not completely of our own making. And in the depths a shimmer, a shine. Before the light of Christmas the dark of non-knowing. As always the attendees of Second Saturday Conversation add much to our discussion.

Our next Second Saturday Conversation is January 11, 2025. We will explore Jesus as an epiphany of darkness.

Have a safe holiday season. See you in the New Year.

The post The Season of Advent: A People who Walk in Darkness appeared first on The Marcus J Borg Foundation.

Dear Friends

Our November 9 Second Saturday Conversation was post election. With our community in mind,  I suggested we focus on two concerns that are common to Second Saturday Conversation.  One, when we speak of God what are we talking about?  What do we mean we say I love my God (Augustine) ?  A big question that has stood the test of time. The other question is  what do we think of human beings?  Who do we say that we are?  How we respond to these two questions affects our sense of hopefulness or not as we move into this next year.
I think we are all concerned that  “following the wrong god home we may miss our star.”  (Thank you William Stafford, Oregonian and poet laureate.)

 For our conversation I drew on Abraham Heschel who claims that it is not doubt that suppresses our ability to understand the meaning of God but our lack of wonder and radical amazement. And as far as being human, I called on Thomas Merton’s experience on 4th and Walnut in Louisville, at a shopping center.  Do we see what he saw?   

Answers are not required for Second Saturdays. Sometimes they even get in our way.  But  asking what we think is going on in the name of God and us seemed to be a place to meet following the election results. I hope our conversation is helpful.  Carry it on in your own spheres.

Here is the link for November 9 Second Saturday Conversation.

See you December 14th for our next Second Saturday Conversation.  We will be in the season of Advent.  Which should be our season throughout the year.

Marianne

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On October 12, 2024 Second Saturday Conversation hosted Brandon Scott for an in-depth understanding of Christian Nationalism.

Brandon is an historian, biblical scholar, and educator.  He identified Christian nationalism’s historical context (and noted that nationalism is growing in places other than the United States). In a power point presentation he described characteristics of Christian nationalism and provided data describing its adherents, accommodators and skeptics.   Brandon brought a breadth of knowledge and critical thinking to our understanding of Christian nationalism and its vision of Christianity and America. 

Christian nationalism is a timely and important topic. I urge you to take time to listen to and view this Second Saturday Conversation.  Thanks to Brandon Scott for being with us. He is an important voice and guide. We are honored to have him as a guest. 

Our next Second Saturday Conversation will be November 9.
Saturday November 16 we will host a Third Saturday Conversation designed for small group reflection.  Invites to follow. 
VOTE!!!! November 5 VOTE!!!!

The post On Christian Nationalism (Featuring Bernard Brandon Scott) appeared first on The Marcus J Borg Foundation.

September 14, 2024 we began a new Second Saturday Conversation program year.  I made some brief and general comments about where our conversations over the years have brought us. And then suggested what a different kind of theological discourse — not based on doctrine or dogma —  might involve.  The call for an alternative theological discourse has been urged for decades.  In brief, a discourse less about certainty than possibility. This is still a road not taken. I will return to this topic with hopefully more clarity and as a good friend notes with more shoe leather!

There is a short portion of the session that was not taped because of an internet issue.

Also note our next Second Saturday Conversation October 12 we will host Brandon Scott who will talk about Christian Nationalism. ( A discourse the very opposite of what I am suggesting.)  Christian Nationalism is an important topic for us.  Brandon is part of the Westar Institute.  Thanks to Brandon and Westar for their important and illuminating work on Christian Nationalism.

I look forward to continuing our conversation.  Your responses and insights are what make our gatherings distinct and important.  Thank you!

Marianne

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