John Shelby Spong 25. [CDATA[ " John Shelby Spong 2. For the reformation to work, Spong said creeds can no longer be used to bring Christians together. All you can do is define the human experience of God, and that might be delusional. 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. 51. Rev. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. 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. Spong claimed that his writings evoked both great support and great condemnation from differing segments of the Christian church. 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. I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies. The Christians tried to separate themselves from the Jewish crowd so they wouldn't be the recipients of the persecution of the Romans. var isRetina = window.devicePixelRatio >= 2; // retina display "Walking into the Mystery of God" by John Shelby Spong, www.uua.org. His views on the future of Christianity were "that we have to start where we are. And so Christians began to define themselves over against the orthodox party of the Jews as a way of surviving against the Roman onslaught. With the need for constant evolution in mind, Spong created his personal mantra. 30 Quotes By "John Shelby Spong" For People Who Know Exactly How It Feels To Be Cheated On.The best 30 Quotes Of "John Shelby Spong" That Will Help Through Your Entire Damn Life. Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence. Both papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy require widespread and unchallenged ignorance to sustain their claims to power. John Shelby Spong I Am 21st Century Child Am "I believe that God is very real. Our English language really says if youre not a theist, the only alternative is to be an atheist. That's not Christianity. That identification means . It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. A liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator, and author, he called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines.[1]. Steve is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. throw new Error("could not load device-specific stylesheet : " + err.message); _Q: [] // page settings I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. John Shelby Spong is an American retired bishop of the Episcopal Church. Rev. 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. I know rather that the sun, around which my planet Earth revolves, is a middle sized star in a galaxy called the Milky Way that has over a hundred billion other suns or stars within it. This self-denigration stuff - Jesus died for my sins - is nothing but a guilt message. return null; Theism is dead, I joyfully proclaim, but God is real. 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. 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. 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. I want the traditional family upheld, but I dont want it upheld to the detriment of other people. I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. 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. Every day we present the best quotes! g.parentNode.insertBefore(A, g) In the way Jesus, whether being praised with flattery or diminished by the threat of death, remained unchanged, Spong was moved to affirm his faith. Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way. It was for me a holy moment for I was certain that I was kneeling on holy ground.I will not make any further attempt to convert the Buddhist, the Jew, the Hindu or the Moslem. His great-great-grandfather had emigrated to America from Kent, though the family name may . About us. John Shelby Spong I cannot say my yes to legends that have been clearly and fancifully created. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake. Recipient of many awards, including 1999 Humanist of the Year,[6] Spong was a contributor to the Living the Questions DVD program and was a guest on numerous national television broadcasts (including The Today Show, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, Dateline, 60 Minutes, and Larry King Live). I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("resource", "author_45659"); I cannot say my yes to legends that have been clearly and fancifully created. True religion is not about possessing the truth. We've collected the best John Shelby Spong Quotes. He was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. function isShowingBuyableFeatures() { Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world. At its very core the story of Easter has nothing to do with angelic announcements or empty tombs. 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. John Shelby Spong Life, Want, Reason, Normal Generate image if (isRetina) { The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years. In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. Contents 1 Quotes 1.1 Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991) 1.2 Resurrection: Myth or Reality? I am trying to understand what it means to be a Christian without being religious. var cookiePair = cookie.split('='); George Stroumboulopoulos. He has also lectured at universities, conference centers, and churches in North . Spong, Resurrection Myth or Reality, p. 287. Even in the widest variety of our humanity, in our deepest set of beliefs, there is no outcast in this community, he said. Doctrines are never a description or definitionof our God experience. 52. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. var gptAdSlots = gptAdSlots || []; Kelly assists on a wide variety . V. Gene Robinson was able to publicly thank the man he said are the shoulders on which (Robinson) stands.. I was confirmed as an adolescent; I was active in my church's youth group and in my university student group. The church is like a swimming pool. [21], Mark Tooley, a Methodist who is president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a think tank noted for its critique of liberal religious groups, criticized Spong in 2010 as "brandishing the stale theologies and ideologies of a half-century ago". Top John Shelby Spong Quotes. "ObfuscatedMarketplaceId": "A1PQBFHBHS6YH1" Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Jamie Landers is entering her third season as a reporter for The Chautauquan Daily, covering all things music-related within the online platform. Rev. Introducing John Shelby Spong the Rt. John Shelby Spong When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. As a leading spokesperson for an open, scholarly, and progressive Christianity, Bishop Spong has taught at Harvard and at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. gads.src = (useSSL ? And the way they did it was to say, the Jews killed our hero too. From 1979 to 2000 he was Bishop of Newark (based in Newark, New Jersey). I can only give away the love that I have received. No religion does that. Hollingworth said that it was not an appropriate moment for Spong to "engage congregations in matters that could prove theologically controversial". [7] Spong was the cousin of the United States Senator from Virginia William B. Spong Jr. John Shelby Spong died this past summer at the age of 90. John Shelby Spong Quotes "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. "[17], Spong's ideas have been criticized by some other theologians, notably in 1998 by Rowan Williams, the Bishop of Monmouth, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury. 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. But the irony was that as he was making his case, modernity was ending and postmodernity starting, and his rationalist perspective became pass. (function() { a[a9]._Q.push([c, r]) John Shelby Spong People, History, Real, Understood Generate image The Christ path is the path I've walked all my life, so it's normal and natural. 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. Are they people who God just didn't like? fetchBids: function() { 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. googletag.enableServices(); John Shelby Spong has long been known as the "nightmare" of the more conservative element of the Anglican Church in America. It was never, even in the New Testament, a finished story. The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. The final address of this week, the final address in Chautauqua, the final addressof my life. It is the book that is most often used at Christian funerals. I don't have any interest in doing that. 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 He was also a professor of Divinity at the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1980 until his retirement . googletag.pubads().setTargeting("gr_author", "false"); All we can ever say is how we believe we have experienced God, doing our best to dispel our human delusions. John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 - September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. I do not think so. "[23], Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, described Spong's teaching as constituting the historic definition of heresy, having "denied virtually every major Christian doctrine. If God is a source of love, then the only way I can worship God is by loving, loving wastefully, he said. setDisplayBids: function() {}, 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 . I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. I believe that God is very real. return cookiePair[1]; John Shelby Spong (born November 29, 1935) is an American Episcopal priest and author. Spong was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and educated in public schools there. My sense is if the Episcopal Church can't stand challenge within its own ranks, then it is not a church I would want to be a member of anyway. Therefore, no external description of one's being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination. If you look at history, every nation that has operated as if it spoke for God has become violently destructive. A.src = t; As far as we know, a creaturewho can: define life, contemplates its beginning, anticipates its termination and raise the question of its meaning, is a rare thing, he said. window.Mobvious = {}; The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed. 12 Vaganova Ballet Famous Sayings, Quotes and Quotation. 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. Spong said this means human division must disappear. } John Shelby Spong Quotes - BrainyQuote American - Clergyman Born: June 16, 1931 Mother Nature is not sweet. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. 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