As a renowned Jesus scholar and best-selling author, Marcus Borg has been asked to speak around the world, but on March 16, at the end of the winter quarter at Oregon State University, he will address his favorite audience for the last time.

Borg, the Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at OSU, is retiring after 41 years of teaching religion - including 28 years in Corvallis.

"I was nervous on the first day of class," he admitted, talking about his first appointment as a 24-year-old at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. "But ever since, I've loved it.

"Teaching is a real pleasure," he continued. "It's fun to get students excited by presenting ideas that stimulate interesting conversation."

For several years, Borg has split his time between OSU and a prolific writing career based in Portland, where he has lived since 1991 with his wife, the Rev. Marianne Borg, a canon at the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and director of its Center for Spiritual Development where Borg is a frequent speaker.

Once his final class titled "The Idea of God" dismisses, however, Borg's visits to Corvallis will be infrequent. The community's last chance to hear him speak locally might be Tuesday night, when he joins OSU history professor Gary Ferngren for a congenial debate titled "The Heart of Christianity."

Their conversation, based on Borg's book of the same name published in 2003, will offer two distinct views of Christianity's core beliefs.

Borg will argue that the traditional focus on a literal-factual interpretation of Scripture and exclusive belief in Jesus as the means to salvation doesn't work for a lot of people and that an "emerging paradigm" in which the Bible "is sacred in function, but not divine in origin" provides a more convincing, metaphorical foundation for living as a Christian.

Ferngren will discuss orthodox Christianity's perspective on the human condition - a view that offers both a diagnosis of what's wrong with the world and a cure. The cure, Ferngren said, is found in Jesus who is "not merely a prophet or teacher of wisdom, but the Son of God who seeks to reconcile us to God and to our fellow man."

Though the two professors are "poles apart" in their theology, according to Ferngren, they share a mutual respect.

"I'm evangelical and he's a liberal Protestant, but he is very good at reaching out to others. I have the highest regard for him and the breadth of his outreach," Ferngren said.

The journey to OSU

Borg, 64, was raised as part of a faithful Lutheran family living in the Midwest. As a teen in the late 1950s, he said, he was what kids call a nerd today - he was a member of the debate team and the science club and he wrote for his high school newspaper, in addition to working 30 hours a week as a bellhop at a local hotel.

He enrolled at Concordia University in Moorhead, Minn., planning to become an astrophysicist, but when he tired of all the labs required of a math/physics major, he switched to a double major in philosophy and political science. Inspired and challenged by the scholarly approach to religion he found in one class in particular, Borg accepted an invitation to study for a year at Union Theological Seminary in New York after graduating in 1964.

He spent another year at Oxford University in England and earned his master of theology degree. He spent the next three years teaching at his alma mater and then returned to Oxford for a doctor of philosophy degree.

Even though he was well-credentialed, in 1979 Borg found himself in a "nontenurable" position at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. He was recently divorced and wanted to stay in Minnesota to be near his two young children, But if he had to relocate, Borg said, he was leaning toward either Maine or Oregon even though he had never been to either state.

A few months later, he saw an ad for a job at OSU and when he came to Corvallis for the interview, he was offered a position in the religious studies department. The university later combined the religion and philosophy departments due to budget cuts and, as a tenured professor, he was invited to stay.

In 1993, the Hundere Chair in Religious Studies was established, assuring Borg of the support he needed to continue his writing and research as a fellow with the Jesus Seminar, a worldwide network of about 200 New Testament scholars dedicated to an historical analysis of the life and teachings of Jesus.

He has taught courses on the Bible, Jesus, God, world religions and the relevance of religion to such topics as feminism, psychology, science and politics.

Borg believes requiring students to take a religion class as part of a comprehensive education is a good idea.

"I don't know how anybody can think knowing about religion isn't important," he said, adding that when he asks students how many of them know a Buddhist or Muslim personally, at least half of them say they do.

"The increasing diversity of our population demands that we know at least a little bit about other world religions," he said.

If there's one legacy he'd like to leave with OSU, Borg said, it's that the Hundere Chair would remain to guarantee that the study of religion and its relevance to public life will continue to be a focus of study.

Looking ahead

Unlike some who retire after decades of performing the same job, Borg said his retirement from OSU should be relatively easy. "It doesn't have any of those ominous questions attached to it like 'What am I going to do with the rest of my life?'

"As long as I still have my health and energy I can still write and lecture into my 80s," he said.

He's already started three more books and has at least another half-dozen book outlines in mind. He's also committed to speaking engagements in Pittsburgh, Toronto and Memphis once he's taught his last class in March and will travel to Russia, Turkey and Nova Scotia in May and June.

Borg does admit, however, he's beginning to wonder if he should slow down so he doesn't miss something important.

"I wrestle with that and wonder if maybe I should try a year of not being so busy. I don't mean I'd be sitting around in a Barcalounger but maybe I should cut back, not have such a busy schedule and see what develops," he said.

Borg is ultimately satisfied with the contribution he's made to the discussion of religion within and beyond the academic world. He described his work as "removing unnecessary stumbling blocks so that the richness of Christianity can be seen especially by those who've dismissed religion because it doesn't make sense to them."

Except for writing a fictional novel and taking a long drive across the mountainous regions of the West, Borg said, he's done everything he wants to in life.

"If I were to learn today that I was going to die tomorrow and I were asked if there was anything I would regret not experiencing, I think the answer would be no."

Carol Reeves covers religion for the Gazette-Times. She can be reached by e-mail at carol.reeves@lee.net or by phone at 758-9516.