Marcus Borg is the most important Christian theologian

I’m taking a class: Comparative Religion. It is mostly a survey class. We are currently studying Christianity. I recently received the study guide for the test, in which this list of terms is found:

• Gospels
• Epistles
• Translation process
• Incarnation, crucifixion, ressurection
• Pentacost
• Trinity
• Atonement
• Roman domination
• Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots
• Canonization of new Testament
• Issues of authority of scripture
• Ecumenical Councils: Nicea, Ephesus, Chalcedon
• Roman, Eastern, Protestant
• Eucharist
• Baptism (believers versus infant)
• Suffering Servant
• Eschatology
• Gender Issues in Christianity and Feminist theology
• Jesus Seminar
• Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity.

One of the first things that stood out to me in this list is that Marcus Borg is the only person referred to directly. Luther, Calvin, Aquinas, Anselm, and Augustine are all missing. And you can certainly forget about Zwingli, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Athanasius, Irenaeus, Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, the Apostle Paul, C.S. Lewis, Karl Barth, Philip Melanchthon, B.B. Warfield, Charles Hodge, John Knox, Cornelius Van Til, R.C. Sproul, J.I. Packer, Tertullian, St. Francis, John the Baptist, Pelagius, the Apostle Peter,  Laelius Socinus, Arius, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Alvin Plantinga. None of these made the cut… but Marcus Borg did.

It is John Calvin’s 500th birthday this year, and he happens to have been one of the theologians in an insignificant event know as the Protestant Reformation; he hasn’t been mentioned once in class. Yet we talked quite a bit about the Jesus Seminar. This is an imbalance at best!  Unfortunately, it is no surprise that an extremely liberal “Christian” was the only one to make the list. Awful.