Days of Awe and Wonder: How to Be a Christian in the Twenty-first Century

by Marcus J. Borg

If we take this seriously, it also has an effect upon what we think being religious means. Within the Christian tradition over the last three hundred years, especially for Protestants, but also for Catholics, because of the effect of the Enlightenment on Western Christianity, there’s been an enormous emphasis on believing. Being a Christian means believing in the Bible, in Jesus, in God, or in Christianity. If you see religion as a sacrament, the point is not to believe in the sacrament; the point is to live within the tradition and let the sacrament do its work within you, let the sacrament mediate the reality of the sacred to you.

By the way, back in 1999 when lists were being compiled of the most important books of the twentieth century, William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience appeared at number two on the list of the one hundred most important nonfiction books, which is very impressive, and it’s still marvelous to read.