I recently read this book and it was so horrible that I felt compelled to blog about it. I read a LOT and so every once in awhile I read a book that sucks and it's no big deal, but the reason that this book was so bad was that it attacked the Christian faith and being a believer I felt I needed to talk about this book. Based on the title and a review I read I thought this book would be an interesting look at "modern faith" - WRONG. Here is the synopsis from Amazon:
In Putting Away Childish Things, Marcus Borg weaves his insightful teachings on Christianity into a new form—fiction. In this compelling tale, we meet Kate—a popular religion professor at a liberal arts college in a small midwestern town who thinks her life is right on track. She loves her job, is happy with her personal and spiritual life, and her guilty pleasure consists of passing her afternoons at the local pub with a pint of Guinness and a cigarette. Life is good.
Kate is up for tenure when it all starts to go wrong. A colleague warns her that her books are too Christian and too popular. She is offered a visiting professor job at a prestigious seminary, which sounds like the perfect solution except for one complication—it is the same seminary that employs the professor she had an affair with years ago. Kate now has to face her past and watch as the ramifications unfold in ways she never imagined. In the classroom, students ask for her views on Jesus, the Bible, and homosexuality, controversial topics that Kate candidly addresses until outraged parents start campaigning for the school to get rid of her. Through it all, Kate faces the toughest challenge yet—a crisis of faith that leaves her questioning what she believed so strongly before.
Putting Away Childish Things is an engaging way for readers to learn about the important issues dividing Christians today. Along the way, we join with the characters to ask the hard questions such as what does the Bible really teach? Who is Jesus? What is the nature of faith today?
This is a story that promises to leave us different in the end than when we started, as we learn how even in the twenty-first century, God works in mysterious ways.
Sounds interesting right? Well, the author's view of "modern faith" is that you can call yourself at Christian and basically not believe the Bible. Throughout the book multiple characters make the case of the Bible being "wrong" about issues, that important events in the Bible are merely "myths" that were fabricated to make a point about God, etc. The main tenants of Christianity are that there is one God, the Bible is His inspired Word, Jesus was God in human form, Jesus died and rose from the dead, and salvation comes from faith in Jesus. I don't know why you would claim to be a Christian and deny almost all of these tenants, but that is what this book was pushing. The author does note at the beginning of the book that this is his first fiction book and it is intended to be didactic, but it is VERY heavy-handing with its message. Also, on a more minor point the writing is TERRIBLE. Like I said before, I read a lot and this was very hard to slog through even if I had agreed with the message.
The main reason that I felt so compelled to blog about this book is that as a Christian I feel that people like this author diminish the Christian faith by watering it down to nothing. In our society today it is socially acceptable to not be a Christian or practice any kind of faith or whatever faith you choose, so I don't understand why you would want to call yourself a Christian when you don't believe any of the main tenants of that faith. And as someone who does believe in the tenants of Christianity it insults me that someone who doesn't believe the Bible is true wants to call themselves a Christian.
I was also insulted because I think the author was trying to make a jab with the title as well. 1 Corinthians 13:11 says "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." To me the author is trying to say with the title of the book that if you believe the Bible is absolute truth then you're an immature child - not an adult.
I finished reading this book on a Saturday night and I was so irritated by it! Then ironically at church the next morning it was like the whole service was an answer back to this book. At the time our church was doing a series on the Bible book of John and the message focused on the miracle Jesus performed when he raised Lazarus from the dead. Below are some words from one of the songs in the services that I felt were especially relevant to this book's message:
"What If" by Nichole Nordeman
What if you're right? / And he was just another nice guy / What if you're right?
What if it's true? / They say the cross will only make a fool of you / And what if it's true?
But what if you're wrong? / What if there's more? / What if there's hope you never dreamed of hoping for?
What if you jump? / And just close your eyes? / What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise?
What if He's more than enough? / What if it's love?
You've been running as fast as you can / You've been looking for a place you can land for so long
But what if you’re wrong?
So, anyway my main response to Marcus Borg with this book is that as a Christian I don't appreciate the message he's promoting at all. And maybe if he would open his mind and heart a little more when reading the Bible he would find that there is a LOT more offered by God that what he's proposing.
