Marcus J. Borg, professor emeritus of Oregon State University who held the Hundere Chair in Religion and Culture, wrote 4 NYT bestsellers: Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, The Last Week, and Jesus. I read these 4 and 7 (so far) other books by him. (For his books I’ve read, click on his name.)

In the Preface Borg says: “This is my first novel. My previous books have all been nonfiction – to the extent that is possible. They have been about religion, mostly about Jesus, the Bible, God, and Christianity. I candidly acknowledge that this is a ‘didactic’ novel, a teaching novel. It is the only kind of novel I can imagine writing. I have been a teacher all my life. My characters wrestle with issues of religion today, and in particular with what it means to be an American Christian in a time of major conflicts, both theological and political.” …”It is common for novelists to say that all of their characters are fictitious and that any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental. In my case, it is more truthful to say that any resemblance to people living or dead is completely unavoidable, even though no character should be identified with a particular ‘real’ person. We write about what we know.”

The book’s front flap gives a fair summary: “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 pleasures consist of passing her afternoons at a 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 that the seminary 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 believes so strongly before.

“Putting Away Childish Things is an engaging way for readers to learn about 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.”

Here are my comments, in which I ignore the academic part about getting tenure and focus instead on Kate’s teaching. She is a progressive Christian – so as I read them her teaching is identical to that of Marcus Borg. Two student groups are crucial to the teaching in this novel: a fundamentalist group called The Way and students in her classes who have their minds opened from the simplistic childlike understandings they were taught in their previous fundamentalist upbringing. Two members of her class also belong to The Way. One retains her closed mind; the other is excited to learn of the different ways – progressive ways – that one gets when one’s mind is opened to new insights and worldviews consistent with today’s state of knowledge. When I was a college undergraduate, this happened to many students and it still is happening to many students today. As a child I was fortunate enough to have a very knowledgeable minister in the Episcopal church of my youth. He very much opened my mind during my studies for confirmation at age 12. With an open mind, I have not only ‘put away childish things’ but also know that I will, with joy, always remain on a spiritual path towards greater and deeper insights about Jesus, God and the Bible. I think that Borg has done an excellent job in this teaching novel of describing the challenges open-minded Christians face today, many only when they have reached college age and are learning to put aside stagnant worldviews of biblical literalism that is the basic assumption of Christian fundamentalism. I very highly recommend this ‘didactic’ novel by one of my favorite authors, Marcus J. Borg.