Excerpted from God at 2000. (c) 2000 by Marcus Borg and Ross Mackenzie. Reprinted with permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, PA. All rights reserved. Buy the book from Amazon.com and help support GraceOnline.

This book is the result of "God at 2000," a nationally televised symposium that took place at Oregon State University in February 2000. The event was jointly sponsored by the Hundere Endowment for Religion and Culture at Oregon State, the Chautauqua Institution of Chautauqua, New York, and Trinity Institute of Trinity Parish, New York City.

"God at 2000" featured seven well-known religious thinkers and authors from the three major western religions. In alphabetical order, the lecturers were Karen Armstrong, Marcus Borg, Joan Chittister, Diana Eck, Lawrence Kushner, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Desmond Tutu. They are introduced more fully later in this book at the beginning of the chapters containing their lectures.

A sellout audience of almost 1,200 people attended "God at 2000" in person at Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon. Thousands more watched it live at satellite television downlink sites around the country. It was also Webcast live on the Internet, both audio and video, and thus reached many people in their homes in North America and overseas. Participants at off-site locations took part in the question-and-response sessions by telephone, fax, and e-mail. It was an exciting and highly successful event.

The chapters in this book are not an exact transcript of what was said at "God at 2000." The speakers had the opportunity to revise their talks for publication. The book also includes the question-and-response session that followed each lecture, a chapter reporting the panel discussion at the end of the event, and a concluding epilogue in which we, as the editors of this volume, share some impressions.

The content of the lectures in this book is suggested by the assignment given to the speakers. They were invited to address the personal question "How I See God," or "How I see "the sacred.'" All of them have spent most of their lives studying, thinking, writing, and talking about God, as well as wrestling with God. And so the question presented to them was "From your lifetime of study, reflection, and experience, what have you learned about God that seems most important to you?" We asked them to be personal, and in their different ways, they were.

"God at 2000" had two premises. The first is that how we think about God matters. The second is that how we think and talk about God changes over time.

"God at 2000" had two premises. The first is that how we think about God matters. Our ideas about God -- our concepts and images of the sacred -- shape our sense of the reality or unreality of God, our sense of God's character, and our perception of what life with God is about.

The second is that how we think and talk about God changes over time. We refer not simply to how our ideas about God change in the course of our individual journeys from childhood through adolescence and into the stages of adulthood, but also to cultural developments that change how God is thought of and spoken about. How people thought about God in the year 1000 was significantly different from how people think about God in the year 2000.

To speak of a shorter unit of time, how we think and talk about God at the beginning of the 21st century is different in important ways from how people did a hundred years ago because of developments in the last century. These developments include our growing awareness of religious pluralism, the feminist critique of the patriarchal character of much of traditional religion, the emergence of liberation theologies, a greater awareness of the relationship between God and the natural world, and changes in the religion and science debate generated by post-modern science.

Some people believe that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. They could be right, though what is known as "process theology" would disagree. But whether or not God changes, how we as humans think about God does change. "God at 2000" seeks to describe, among other things, the changing ways in which we think and talk about God at the beginning of the 21st century.

From Chapter 1: "Seeing God Again: What's at Stake" by Marcus Borg

As a professor here at Oregon State University and thus the "local boy" among your speakers, I want to welcome you on behalf of the university to "God at 2000." We are very pleased that you are here, and pleased to have so many people elsewhere participating in this event that comes to you from a small town in Oregon.

The title of my lecture is "Seeing God Again: What's at Stake." When I sent out letters of invitation to our speakers, I invited them to be personal as they addressed the question, "How I see God/the sacred."

I decided to follow my own directions quite literally: From the whole course of my life thus far I will talk about what I have learned about God that seems most important to me. Thus, when I turn to the body of my talk, I will organize it around six statements, each beginning with the sentence stem, "I have learned that . . ."

As I do so, I speak as a Christian. I grew up as a Lutheran, and am now an Episcopalian. Moreover, I am a nonliteralistic and nonexclusivist kind of Christian. What I mean by these words will, I trust, become clear in my lecture.

As a Christian, I will focus primarily on ways of seeing God within the Christian tradition. I do so for two reasons. On the one hand, the Christian tradition is what I know best. On the other hand, I am convinced that one of the most important issues in the church today is the question of God -- the question of "how we see God."

When I speak about seeing God, I mean in a comprehensive sense how we think about God, including both our concepts and images of God. Our concepts of God shape how we imagine God and God's relationship to the universe. Our images of God shape how we see God's character.

How we see God matters. It matters not because God wants us to get it right, as if what God is most concerned about is correct ideas and beliefs. Rather, it matters because how we see God matters to us.

How we see God matters. It matters not because God wants us to get it right, as if what God is most concerned about is correct ideas and beliefs. Rather, it matters because how we see God matters to us. Our concepts of God can make God seem real or unreal, remote or near. Our images of God shape our sense of the character of God and of what taking God seriously is about, indeed what the Christian life is about.

The title of my lecture speaks not only of seeing God, but also of seeing God again. The premise of this part of my title is the realization that ideas about God change over time. Though God may (or may not be) the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, our ideas about God do change. They have a history, as Karen Armstrong has so impressively shown in her book, A History of God.

I am convinced that we live in a time in the life of our culture and the church when an older set of ideas about God needs to change.

I am convinced that we live in a time in the life of our culture and the church when an older set of ideas about God needs to change. An older and very common way of seeing God has become problematic for millions of people in our time. These millions include many Christians, as well as many who were raised in the church but then left, becoming part of what Episcopal Bishop John Spong has called "the church alumni association."

This older conventional Christian way of seeing God was serviceable for centuries. It worked for millions of Christians for a very long time. But in our time, for many, this older way of seeing God has made the notion of God incredible or doubtful. For many others, who continue to believe in God, or at least try to, it has made the notion of God dysfunctional in their lives, causing more grief than good. Thus I am convinced that a major need in the church in North America today is "seeing God again."

Related Links

God at 2000
View the archived webcast of God at 2000, co-sponsored by GraceCom, featuring Marcus Borg and other religious leaders on how they see God. Webcast.

Redefining Jesus for the 21st Century
Hear Marcus Borg, best-selling author of "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time," discussing how understanding Jesus as a "man" can lead you to a more authentic Christian life. Forum.

Meeting God Again
In this interview, Marcus Borg examines the idea of 'God,' focusing on how images of God have become cultural role models, and how God can be understood as a transcendent force. How does one's image of God relate to the images of God presented in the Bible, or to cultural representations of God? Interview.

The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions
Dr. Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright explore the pre-resurrection Jesus -- a revolutionary who preached compassion and acceptance. Excerpt.