g = p.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; Gate tickets and other revenue cover only a portion of the cost of your Chautauqua experience. gads.src = (useSSL ? Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991), Remarkable Last Words (or Near-Last Words), Why Christianity Must Change or Die (1998), A New Christianity for a New World (2001), The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic (2013). In 2005, he wrote: "[I have] immerse[d] myself in contemporary Biblical scholarship at such places as Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Yale Divinity School, Harvard Divinity School and the storied universities in Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge. John Shelby Spong I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. [15], New Testament Catholic scholar Raymond E. Brown was critical of Spong's scholarship, referring to his studies as "amateur night". No religion does that. It is the book that is most often used at Christian funerals. if (window.ue && window.ue.tag) { window.ue.tag('author:quotes:signed_out', ue.main_scope);window.ue.tag('author:quotes:signed_out:mobileWeb', ue.main_scope); } He calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. In the first gospel, Mark, the risen Christ appears physically to no one, but by the time we come to the last gospel, John, Thomas is invited to feel the nail prints in Christ's hands and feet and the spear wound in his side. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. if (isRetina) { I think the worst way to go is to have somebody think they speak for God. He is also Bishop of Newark in New Jersey [Ed. // Top John Shelby Spong Quotes. If that is a requirement of my commitment to Jesus, I find it difficult to stretch my mind outside the capacities of my world view. I mean the kind of love that never stops to calculate, never stops to wonder whether the object of its love is worthy to its recipient. } _Q: [] And so Christians began to define themselves over against the orthodox party of the Jews as a way of surviving against the Roman onslaught. url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_images-9e9093f0cfddba8c2b1e815375d976a3.css"; Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence. "One day Jesus was praying, and when he had finished, one of the disciples asked, "Rabbi, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say, 'Abba God, hallowed be your Name! I just go beyond them. The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history. url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_hd_images-2b89833762f600506d44865a33582d11.css"; John Shelby Spong (16 June 1931 - 12 September 2021) Introduction. After love, he shared his beliefs about experiencing God. I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. The Bible says that women are property, that homosexuals ought to be put to death, that anybody who worships a false God ought to be executed, that a child that talks back to his parents ought to be stoned at the gates of the city. } Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. (1994) 2 External links Quotes [ edit] "CacheDetection.RequestID": "TXPX0XF032R2WV9SNJQY", Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes in the bullet points above are from Kitchen, "The Future Church and Bishop John Shelby Spong," p. 17. g.parentNode.insertBefore(A, g) Steve is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. }); There's a Psalm that says "Happy will you be when you take your enemy's children and dash their heads against the stones." ! Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. According to The Episcopal Diocese of Newark, Bishop Spong suffered a stroke before a speaking engagement in Marquette, Michigan, on Saturday, September 10, 2016. From this perspective, all human claims to possess objectivity, certainty, or infallibility are revealed as nothing but the weak and pitiable pleas of frantically insecure people who seek to live in an illusion because reality has proved to be too difficult. And I have no reason to abandon it because it leads to where I want to go. }); There is a mistake in the text of this quote. If that is a requirement of my commitment to Jesus, I . 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. Now, that job belongs to everyone in the Christian faith who wishes to carry out his vision to fruition. return cookiePair[1]; I do not think of God theistically, that is, as a being, supernatural in power, who dwells beyond the limits of my world. According to Spong, when Matthew said to go and make disciples of all nations, he placed words in the mouth of the risen Jesus. function getCookieWithoutJQuery(name) { 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. Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. From this perspective, all human claims to possess objectivity, certainty, or infallibility are revealed as nothing but the weak and pitiable pleas of frantically insecure people who seek to live in an illusion because reality has proved to be too difficult. I live on the other side of Copernicus and Galileo; I can no longer conceive of God as sort of above the sky, looking down and keeping record books. And the Bible is being quoted to deny homosexuals their equal rights, and the Bible will lose. session: { id: "242-2972433-4130551" }, All you can do is define the human experience of God, and that might be delusional. That is what Jesus meant and thats what the original Christ experience was, before we became Scripture defenders, and before the creeds became the essence of our faith.. I want to say something positively, something about the conclusion that I presently hold and bear witness to why I continue to be a member of this community.. setDisplayBids: function() {}, Both papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy require widespread and unchallenged ignorance to sustain their claims to power. Part 2 of the all things quotations list about every-one and in-its-entirety sayings citing Jay Baruchel, David Frum and David Frum captions. The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. // Top john Shelby Spong has been called a heretic and worse the. Every-One and in-its-entirety sayings citing Jay Baruchel, David Frum and David and! The only truth commentator and author source of love, opening life to transcendence Let try. Has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are different changes in society large! 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