A review of Putting Away Childish Things

Being the Jesus scholar that he is, Marcus Borg certainly understands the power of a story. In Putting Away Childish Things he offers up a didactic novel that explores some of the thorniest theological issues facing the Christian community. Although it's not a page-turning thriller in the mode of The Da Vinci Code, it offers Borg an alternative way to offer up his theological vision. As a first novel it should be judged not for its literary grace or dramatic sense, but according to whether Borg is able to take us deeper into his vision of progressive Christianity.

The central character in this novel is Kate Riley, a fortyish, cigarette-smoking, Guin­­ness-drinking, red-shoe-wearing Epis­copalian biblical scholar who serves as an assistant professor of religious studies at a small liberal arts college in Wis­consin. Popular with many of her students, she's also controversial, especially since gaining notoriety for publishing a book exploring the two biblical infancy narratives.

In addition to Kate, the primary characters include Martin Erickson, a pipe-smoking, Glenlivet-drinking Epis­co­palian (formerly Lutheran) senior New Testa­ment professor at Scudder Divinity School, who two decades earlier had been Kate's college professor and then postgraduation lover. The long-since-dissolved affair provides the sexual tension that drives part of the story. The other key figure is Erin Mattson, an evangelical student in Kate's religion and the Enlighten­ment class who has questions about her faith and hopes that Kate's class can help her sort them out. Although open to Kate's perspective, Erin is afraid of what might happen to the relationships she's developed with members of a campus Christian group. Other characters rounding out the story include faculty colleagues, a female Episcopal priest, other students at the college and representatives of a divinity school that seeks to hire Kate as a visiting professor.