I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. Let's pretend that we possess the objective truth of God in our inerrant Scriptures or in our infallible pronouncements or in our unbroken apostolic traditions. About us. 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. Are they people who God just didn't like? It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. He is as radically liberal as it is possible to be and still maintain a nominal identification with the name "Christian.". Spong's calendar had him lecturing around the world. session: { id: "242-2972433-4130551" }, ", Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. It is simply a fact of his upbringing, along with a personal desire to continue being a disciple of Jesus. gads.type = "text/javascript"; I spend my life studying that book, and every book I've written has in some sense been a book about the Bible, and that's what I mean by reclaiming its value and its essence for a world that no longer treats it literally and no longer reads it traditionally. }, It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. When Im asked to define God, Im almost wordless. For the reformation to work, Spong said creeds can no longer be used to bring Christians together. When I stand in the presence of this God who inhabits the heart of life, I know just why I define myself as a joyful . His great-great-grandfather had emigrated to America from Kent, though the family name may . for(var i=0; i A lot of people hear me attacking their certainty. var node = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; [CDATA[ })(); I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. They amuse themselves by playing an irrelevant ecclesiastical game called "Let's Pretend." John Shelby Spong 2 I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. var ue_mid = "A1PQBFHBHS6YH1"; window.csa("Events")("setEntity", { It has nothing to do with resuscitated bodies that appear and disappear or that finally exit this world in a heavenly ascension. //]]>, 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. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. A liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator, and author, he called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. 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. g.parentNode.insertBefore(A, g) " True religion is not about possessing the truth. _Q: [] 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Copyright 2018 Chautauqua Institution There's a Psalm that says "Happy will you be when you take your enemy's children and dash their heads against the stones." Why dont we understand that? It's just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish. // a lot people! { 50. as an adolescent ; I learned early in life that you get places having. Prove it is not within the capacity of the past, Spong said Gospel was written by john Zebedee by! 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