He was 90 years old. George Stroumboulopoulos. I do not live in a world where people can walk on water, or still a storm, or take five loaves of bread and feed 5000 men plus women and children. That is a paradigm shift of the first order. init: function() { John Shelby Spong Quotes - BrainyQuote American - Clergyman Born: June 16, 1931 Mother Nature is not sweet. If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. True religion is not about possessing the truth. I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years. Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. Learn more. His views on the future of Christianity were "that we have to start where we are. //, Eternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy: A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew's Gospel, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers In Exile, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World. There is no mention of him in any source before the 8th decade. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. " Spong said this means human division must disappear. var cookie = cookies[i]; When the Gospel of Luke was being written, the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples of Jesus and all the world. John Shelby Spong 27. var ue_sn = "www.goodreads.com"; We must move beyond the now irrelevant dualistic patterns and discover the holy at the heart of the human. 51. God is a presence that I can never define but I could never deny. In a 2013 interview with Religion News Service, Spong spoke about his own spirituality and beliefs, which he said had grown deeper as he aged. Was Judas Iscariot a figure of history? var gptAdSlots = gptAdSlots || []; apstag.init({ He believed in a more nuanced approach to scripture, informed by scholarship and compassion, which can be consistent with both Christian tradition and contemporary understandings of the universe. He stated that he was a Christian because he believes that Jesus Christ fully expressed the presence of a God of compassion and selfless love and that this is the meaning of the early Christian proclamation, "Jesus is Lord" (Spong, 1994 and Spong, 1991). My experience is my ability to perceive God, but the nature of God is beyond my ability to describe., The same thing is true of Christianitys fundamental doctrine, known as the Incarnation., That doctrine makes Jesus not unlike the comic strip character Clark Kent who turned out to be Superman in the skies, he said. return null; That's not Christianity. There was new openness to the supernatural. What the mind cannot believe the heart can finally never adore. Plenty of people out there think of me as the Antichrist or the devil incarnate because I do not affirm the literal patterns of the Bible. According to Spong, when Matthew said to go and make disciples of all nations, he placed words in the mouth of the risen Jesus. Jesus becomes the captive of the hysterically religious, the chronically fearful, the insecure and even the neurotic among us, or he becomes little more than a fading memory, the symbol of an age that is no more and a nostalgic reminder of our believing past. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. Jamie Landers is entering her third season as a reporter for The Chautauquan Daily, covering all things music-related within the online platform. Elaborating on this last idea, he affirmed that Jesus was adopted by God as his son (Born of a Woman 1992), and he says that this would be the way God was fully incarnated in Jesus Christ. //]]> I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was baptized as an infant. I call this God by different words. Eugene Taylor Sutton to give closing sermon of 22, Sacred Song, Three Taps close season by reflecting, rejoicing, Josh Stafford, on Massey, to present comedic Keaton classic, Playwrights Hnath, Hamill take stage to talk writing, theater with Kahn, A true people person: friends and family reflect on the life of vic gelb, Robinson to close with message of Chautauquas unique role in the world, Stafford, Robinson reflect on 2021 season, look ahead to final Sacred Song Service, 2022, Alumni Association of CLSC raises record-breaking amount at auction, Eberhardt reflects on social psychology of American racial biases, African American Heritage House strives for diversity at Chautauqua. if (sourcesToHideBuyFeatures[i] == source) And I have no reason to abandon it because it leads to where I want to go. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world. John Shelby Spong has long been known as the "nightmare" of the more conservative element of the Anglican Church in America. [22] Following Spong's death, Tooley told The Washington Times that "he [Spong] claimed that he was making religion relevant for a new generation who could not believe in the supernatural, often citing his daughters. It opens up all sorts of things that I've never thought about. In 1991's Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture, Spong argued that St. Paul was homosexual, a theme that was satirized in Gore Vidal's novel Live from Golgotha. How tasteless and ill-bred it is! I do not think so. Spong's calendar had him lecturing around the world. //]]> Forcing the evolution is the dialog between yesterday's words and today's knowledge. John Shelby Spong 2 I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. Matthew was not alone in his understanding of Jesus message. John Shelby Spong > Quotes (?) , He is also Bishop of Newark in New Jersey [Ed. He claims he is a Christian yet he champions causes that historic Christianity has often . Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. And that's immoral. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. Spong claimed that his writings evoked both great support and great condemnation from differing segments of the Christian church. stylesheet.rel = "stylesheet"; I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. True religion is not about possessing the truth. I want the traditional family upheld, but I don't want it upheld to the detriment of other people. [10], Spong was a strong proponent of the church reflecting the changes in society at large. We've collected the best John Shelby Spong Quotes. 1. Chapter seven begins with quotations from the Pauline Epistles, including Gal 5:12, "I wish those who unsettle you would mutilate themselves", Col 3:22, "Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthy masters, not with eye service, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart", and from 1 Cor 14:35, "It is shameful for a woman to speak in His great-great-grandfather had emigrated to America from Kent, though the family name may . }, For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity, which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus' resurrection, also is not believable. } 23:17). 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