Russ,

I'm not sure it is fair to state that you are NOT familar with someone's work then make the statement:

 "Borg and Crossan both seem to look more for places to divide Jesus from his society and the community that claimed to follow him, rather than to see if there is a cohesiveness"

If you do bother to investigate their work further you will see that nothing could be more wrong.  Even their worst critics would not really criticize them for that.  It is 180 degrees off the target.  Their chief goal is to envelop themselves in the society, community, and the culture of those that followed Jesus in order to get the full meaning of those texts. I've never  met 2 men that are as serious about that task.  I think NT Wright makes great points and has done a great deal to move modern evangelicalism forward, but in my view, his goal is skewed by his desire to impose an artificial layer of narrative on top of the individual stories that is present only as an illusion created by our modern minds.  I prefer the Borg and Crossan approach which objectively looks at the stories themselves and the communities that created those individual stories.

Maybe the most simple place to start if you are interested is their most approachable book which is "The Last Week".   Also, if you come from a Christian backgroud you may find Borg's work more approachable than Crossan.  Crossan can be a bit more blunt.