Liberation of Humanity, Spiritual Anarchism and the Gospel

Jan Börger, born in Rotterdam, child of a Dutch count and a devout farmersdaughter, became a theologian at Utrecht University. After his study in 1914 he was called to be a clergyman in Vierpolders. Three years later he moved his activities to the city of Gouda. In St. Johns' Church he surprised his audience with his astonishing philosophical sermons, which got more and more 'atheistic' tendencies.

In 1925 he preached that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross. Soon hereafter he was accused and nearly been sent away. But Jan Börger was not impressed so easily. "I 'll leave only when it fits me", he said. Three years later he accepted to be dismissed honourably. He was free and able to start a philosophical school, called 'Logos-Verband' (Logos-Alliance). There he could teach his real insights. Specially in Rotterdam his ideas met a big support. Particular in circles of free-thinkers and anarchists.

Börger was influenced strongly by the Hegelian dialectics, teached by professor Bolland in Leiden. In this period much attention was paid to the critical explanations of the Holy Scripture by the 'Hollandsche Radicale School'. Besides this he focussed his studies on the Greek and Roman Classics and ancient Churchfathers, with their polemics against heresy.

His anarchistic angle is interesting. He felt closer, like he once said, to the Russian anarchist Leo Tolstoi than to the German philosopher Georg Hegel. However his critisism on society, he descripted 'anarchism' as the process of awakening consciousness.

Freedom, he said, posits itself and one can obtain freedom by comprehension.
Man who understands reality, understands his inner self and is free.
First when individuals come to inner harmony, society can be in harmony.

In the view of Jan Börger, Anarchism is a stage in cultural development of mankind. Speaking about the Gospel of the New Testament which, in his view, has nothing to do with tribal or popular religion, he stressed on the gnostic components in it, using the slogan: Salvation by insight. After Börger the 'Christos' of the Gospel is a metaphor for the state of the human mind which has come to complete self-consciousness. It means coming to obtain the real and Holy truth, like represented by the figure of Christ. In this vision Christ is not a living person but the symbol for the stage of philosophical consciousness: Unio Mystica. The Gospel is a sediment of the ancient way of thinking, Börger says. It is primarily the announcement of the intuitive truth which has been laid down in imagery and storytelling. This is performed in literature, theatre and mysteryplays.

The famous Dutch writer and anarchist Anton Constandse once compared Börger to a gnostic from Asia Minor. Börger and Tolstoi as well appealed to the Gospel, by exeption to the Sermon of the Mount by Lucas (17:21) "The Divine Kingdom is within YOU all." For humanity seeking the Divine Truth outside and above them can never reach spiritual freedom.

Jan Börger propagated the Gospel as philosophical Anarchism.He stressed on the awakening of human consciousness. Using only pure logical thinking in speaking and writing he reached thousands of serious human minds. After his death he left a vast number of texts.

In this time of human culture mankind is looking for liberty, as ever. Reason enough to stress on the message in the Gospel by asking special attention for the philosophy in the works of Jan Börger.