Historian and theologian Marcus Borg dies at 72

Marcus J. Borg, who for a generation helped popularize intense debates about the historical Jesus and the veracity and meaning of the New Testament, died January 21. He was 72 and had been suffering from a prolonged illness.

Borg emerged in the 1980s as academics and theologians were bringing new energy to the so-called quest for the historical Jesus.

Alongside scholars such as John Dominic Crossan, Borg was a leader in the Jesus Seminar, which brought a skeptical eye to the scriptures and in particular to supernatural claims about Jesus’ miracles and his resurrection from the dead. Borg tended to view Jesus as a Jewish prophet and teacher who was a product of the religious ferment of first-century Judaism.