But before he talked too much about the end, he went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("gr_author", "false"); var cookie = cookies[i]; 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. The biblical texts that we Christians have used for centuries to justify our hostility toward the Jews need to be banished forever from the sacred writings of the Christian church. There are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrow-minded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. 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); } The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. What Im trying to do is develop a language that will enable us to talk about God beyond the, what I think, are sterile categories of theism and atheism. Christ must be served in every person, he said. The Christ path is the path I've walked all my life, so it's normal and natural. a[a9] = { a[a9]._Q.push([c, r]) What the mind cannot believe the heart can finally never adore. 1. After love, he shared his beliefs about experiencing God. I just go beyond them. "Events.Namespace": "csa", Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. I believe God is real, but I believe God calls me beyond myself to take responsibility for my life and to try top work to allow other people to be themselves and to take responsibility for their lives. This page was last edited on 13 September 2021, at 21:11. }); 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. It doesn't. As the smell of incense filled the air, I knelt before three images of the Buddha, feeling that the smoke could carry my prayers heavenward. You cant have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability. That's the thing we've got to get out from under. He has had honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees conferred on him by Virginia Theological Seminary and Saint Paul's College, Virginia, as well as an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters conferred by Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. Weve murdered them; weve burned them at the stake; weve run them out of town for something over which they have no control. } catch (err) { John Shelby Spong Buddhist, Prayer, Believe Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. As I look at the history of religion, I observe that new religious insights always and only emerge from the old traditions as they begin to die. That is not what most Christians have been taught to think, but it is factual. It is the book that is most often used at Christian funerals. Gate tickets and other revenue cover only a portion of the cost of your Chautauqua experience. John Shelby Spong (born November 29, 1935) is an American Episcopal priest and author. [CDATA[ I want the traditional family upheld, but I dont want it upheld to the detriment of other people. Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matt. It has nothing to do with time periods, whether three days, forty days, or fifty days. John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. I think one of the things we've got to look out for is human beings claiming that they know how God operates. The Christianity of the future cannot live inside the doctrines of the past, Spong said. John Shelby Spong passed away at his home in North Carolina according to an announcement from the Richmond, Virginia parish he once pastored. // page settings He was 90. I do not think so. It's just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish. Learn more. I believe that is what the God experience does for us. var cookiePair = cookie.split('='); For the reformation to work, Spong said creeds can no longer be used to bring Christians together. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. Papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy are the two ecclesiastical versions of this human idolatry. }("apstag", window, document, "script", "//c.amazon-adsystem.com/aax2/apstag.js"); October 13, 2011. I was baptized as an infant. In academia, I discovered that issues and insights, commonplace among the scholars, are viewed as highly controversial and even as heresy in the churches. With the need for constant evolution in mind, Spong created his personal mantra. .__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.__prevent_empty_css_file{width:0}.authorModuleDropdownMenu{width:180px;border-left:1px solid #D8D8D8;border-right:1px solid #D8D8D8;border-top:1px solid #D8D8D8}.authorModuleDropdownMenu__dropdownLink,.authorModuleDropdownMenu__dropdownLink:hover{display:block;text-align:left;padding:12px;font-family:"Lato", "Helvetica Neue", "Helvetica", sans-serif;font-size:14px;color:#000000;cursor:pointer}#authorInfo{display:-webkit-box;display:-moz-box;display:-ms-box;display:box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-moz-flex;display:-ms-flex;display:flex;padding:10px 10px 5px 10px}#authorInfo .authorInfoGroup{-webkit-box-flex:1;-moz-box-flex:1;-ms-box-flex:1;box-flex:1}#authorInfo .authorPhotoGroup{-webkit-box-flex:0;-moz-box-flex:0;-ms-box-flex:0;box-flex:0;margin-right:10px}#authorInfo .authorFollow{display:flex}#authorInfo .authorFollow .authorDropdownContainer{border-radius:3px;border:1px solid #D6D0C4;font-family:"Lato", "Helvetica Neue", "Helvetica", sans-serif;font-size:14px;-moz-appearance:none;-o-appearance:none;-webkit-appearance:none;appearance:none;cursor:pointer;display:inline-block;text-decoration:none;color:#333333;background-color:#F4F1EA;line-height:1;padding:8px 12px;font-size:16px;padding:12px 24px;box-sizing:border-box;text-align:center;margin-left:0px;padding:0px;min-width:38px;height:32px;background-image:url(/assets/down-caret.png);background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;float:right}#authorInfo .authorFollow .authorDropdownContainer:disabled{border-color:#DDDDDD}#authorInfo .authorFollow .authorDropdownContainer:hover{color:#333333;background-color:#ede6d6;text-decoration:none}#authorInfo .authorFollow .authorDropdownContainer:active{background-color:#D6D0C4}#authorInfo .authorFollow .authorDropdownContainer:disabled{background-color:#F3F3F3;color:#cccccc}@media (max-width: 540px){#authorInfo .authorFollow .authorDropdownContainer{min-width:20px;width:27px}}#authorBooks{*zoom:1}#authorBooks:after{content:"";display:table;clear:both}#authorBooks .sectionTitle{border-top:1px solid #CCCCCC;padding:10px 10px 0 10px;margin:0}.accordionContent{padding:0 10px}.authorBio{padding:0 10px;margin-bottom:10px}.authorBooksMeta{color:#999999;font-family:"Lato", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;padding:0 10px}.authorBooksMeta a{color:#00635D}.authorBooksTotalReviewCount:before,.authorBooksTotalRatingCount:before{content:"\00b7"}.authorDetailsList dt,.authorDetailsList dd{display:inline;margin:0}.authorDetailsList dd:after{content:'\A';white-space:pre}.authorDetailsList dt{font-weight:bold}.authorDetailsList dd{color:#999999;font-family:"Lato", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;margin-bottom:15px}.authorDetailsList dd a{color:#00635D}.authorSimilarAuthorsLink{padding:0 10px}.authorDistinctWorksLink{padding:0 10px;display:block;margin-bottom:10px}.authorFansLink{font-weight:bold}.authorInterviewsList{list-style-type:none;margin:0;padding:0}.authorInterviewsList .authorInterview{margin-bottom:15px}.authorInterviewsList .authorInterviewAt{color:#999999;font-family:"Lato", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif}.authorInterviewsList .authorInterviewAt a{color:#00635D}.authorInterviewsList .authorInterviewTitle{display:block}.authorName{margin-bottom:10px}.authorShortBio{color:#999999;font-family:"Lato", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif}.authorShortBio a{color:#00635D}.authorQuotesLink{margin-bottom:15px}.quotesList{border-top:1px solid #CCCCCC;margin-top:15px}.quotesPage{margin-left:10px}.noQuotes{margin-top:15px} The way you become divine is to become wholly human. The primary reason the old idea of rescuing the fallen is no good is that there never was a time when we fell from perfection into sin. Both are doomed as viable alternatives for the long- range future of anyone. . I call this God by different words. All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. He was also a professor of Divinity at the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1980 until his retirement . I describe God as the source of life and the source of love and the ground of being." John Shelby Spong Life Love God Day "Mother Nature is not sweet." Williams described Spong's Twelve Points for Reform as embodying "confusion and misinterpretation". In the way that God brought oneness out of diversity, wholeness out of brokenness and eternity out of time, Spong realized the version of faith he wanted to spread. God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. There is a mistake in the text of this quote. Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. }); Give us today tomorrow's bread. If God is a source of love, then the only way I can worship God is by loving, loving wastefully, he said. var cookies = document.cookie.split('; '); Perhaps the most telling witness against the claim of accurate history for the Bible comes when we read the earliest narrative of the crucifixion found in Mark's gospel and discover that it is not based on eyewitness testimony at all. He believed that theism had lost credibility as a valid conception of God's nature. Spong was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and educated in public schools there. [3], Spong was one of the first American bishops to ordain a woman into the clergy, in 1977, and he was the first to ordain an openly gay man, Robert Williams, in 1989. 1. If you look at history, every nation that has operated as if it spoke for God has become violently destructive. The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. for(var i=0; i You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you dont have any freedom left, or youre going to build a world that doesnt create terrorists and that means a whole different way of getting along.. " True religion is not about possessing the truth. Behind the supernatural framework of the first century, behind the language of myth, magic, and superstition, I discovered a life I wanted to know; a life that possessed a power I wanted to possess; a freedom, a wholeness for which I had yearned for years. That's sort of fourth-century Christianity that got turned into doctrines and dogmas that we've never been able to escape. The Christian story did not drop from heaven fully written. Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. The question must also be raised as to whether we have the actual words of Jesus in any Gospel. In addition, she is a rising senior at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix, Arizona, where she most recently served as a breaking news reporter for The Arizona Republic, as well as a documentary producer for Arizona PBS. If I could not move my search beyond angelic messengers, empty tombs, and ghostlike apparitions, I could not say yes to Easter. Introducing John Shelby Spong the Rt. He is also Bishop of Newark in New Jersey [Ed. John Shelby Spong You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability. It opens up all sorts of things that I've never thought about. John Shelby Spong Quotes. There was new openness to the supernatural. John Shelby Spong 27. 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). We've murdered them; we've burned them at the stake; we've run them out of town for something over which they have no control. It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. I do assert that one prepares for eternity not by being religious and keeping the rules, but by living fully, loving wastefully, and daring to be all that each of us has the capacity to be. I hope I am not ungracious if in return I remark that I do not think that a single NT author would recognize Spong's Jesus as the figure being proclaimed or written about. googletag.cmd.push(function() { He sees himself against nature. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. Although he has been a Christian his entire life, he does not believe it makes him superior to anyone. try { It was this Easter experience that invested Jesus with a sense of ultimacy. We were told in the Second Commandment we could make no images of this God, and I don't think that means just building idols, I think that means also trying to believe you've captured God in your words, in the Creeds, in the Scriptures. The primary reason the old idea of rescuing the fallen is no good is that there never was a time when we fell from perfection into sin. [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. Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. He was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. Spong proffers a third way, one that involves being "fully human." We are not really separated from God, he asserts. url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_images-9e9093f0cfddba8c2b1e815375d976a3.css"; You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability. All Things Quotes Page 253. I describe God as the source of life and the source of love and the ground of being. 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. I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies. In 2000, Spong was a critic of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Catholic Church's declaration Dominus Iesus, because it reaffirmed the Catholic doctrine that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true Church and that Jesus Christ is the one and only savior for humanity. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("grsession", "osid.a1fff312af8a1d2b3b241fa9193829a2"); - John Shelby Spong. (wikipedia) Born On June 16, 1931. }); session: { id: "242-2972433-4130551" }, "[24], Spong died in sleep at his home in Richmond, Virginia, on September 12, 2021, at the age of 90. The Bible was quoted to keep women silent, and the Bible lost. Incarnation will never give us that.. Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. //