About 50 participants discussed questions like these at Bible studies sponsored by English Lutheran Church, LaCrosse, Wis., over the past 18 months. The classes began after Bill Kisken, a participant in the church's Monday morning study group, approached James Barsch, one of the pastors, with a copy of Marcus Borg's book, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time .
Participants say they have been challenged, disturbed and liberated.
Ironically, perhaps, this has done more to engender than endanger participants' faith. For Kisken, a surgeon, faith doesn't come easily. Re-encountering Jesus through frank discussion of recent historical scholarship hasn't answered all his questions, but it has helped. God is not hateful or vindictive but a friend to whom I can turn. So the blackballed stuff may be just as true as stories scholars are more sure that Jesus actually said.