At 82, retired and enjoying life, Bishop John Shelby Spong doesn't have to be the liberal enfant terrible whose pronouncements for gay rights and against traditional dogmas once . It meant to go beyond the boundaries of your religion, to go beyond your security system, to go beyond your fears. John Shelby Spong Quotes - BrainyQuote American - Clergyman Born: June 16, 1931 Mother Nature is not sweet. I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. 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 is what Jesus meant and that's what the original Christ experience was, before we became Scripture defenders, and before the creeds became the essence of our faith." I describe God as the source of life and the source of love and the ground of being. John Shelby Spong Quotes. , Chautauqua Institution is a non-profit organization, dependent upon your gifts to fulfill its mission. var isRetina = window.devicePixelRatio >= 2; // retina display Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. 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. 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. The Christians tried to separate themselves from the Jewish crowd so they wouldn't be the recipients of the persecution of the Romans. I'm interested in penetrating the meaning of certainty. According to The Episcopal Diocese of Newark, Bishop Spong suffered a stroke before a speaking engagement in Marquette, Michigan, on Saturday, September 10, 2016. John Shelby Spong I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. } else { A.src = t; " John Shelby Spong 83. The Rt. 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. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("signedin", "false"); var node = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; We must move beyond the now irrelevant dualistic patterns and discover the holy at the heart of the human. John Shelby Spong I cannot say my yes to legends that have been clearly and fancifully created. } . Rev. 25:30)? The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("grsession", "osid.a1fff312af8a1d2b3b241fa9193829a2"); There is no mention of him in any source before the 8th decade. Spong claimed that his writings evoked both great support and great condemnation from differing segments of the Christian church. And this came after I had written a book called "Living In Sin" on the whole gay. George Stroumboulopoulos. And I have no reason to abandon it because it leads to where I want to go. There's a Psalm that says "Happy will you be when you take your enemy's children and dash their heads against the stones." The creeds were 3rd- and 4th-century love songs that people composed to sing to their understanding of God. The Bible was written between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago, and it's filled with the knowledge that people had in that period of time, some of which you and I rejected long ago. 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. if (a[a9]) return; -- John Shelby Spong #Giving "I go where I'm invited. The trouble with Christianity was that by about 150, there were hardly any Jews left in the Christian church, and so from that time until the last part of the twentieth century, the only people reading the gospels and interpreting the gospels and writing . Spong described his own life as a journey from the literalism and conservative theology of his childhood to an expansive view of Christianity. Matthew was not alone in his understanding of Jesus message. } If I were a child of Tibet or of Arabia, I suspect the path Id walk would be the Buddhist path or the Muslim path. This is an opportune time for those who identify with liberal Christianity to take a critical look at his legacy. Later the church followed his lead. 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. apstag.init({ [25] The notice was announced by the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, where Spong had once been rector.[26][27]. var source = getCookieWithoutJQuery("source"); He was 90 years old. [8], Spong's writings rely on Biblical and non-Biblical sources and were influenced by modern critical analysis of these sources (see especially Spong, 1991). Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. 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. The church is like a swimming pool. "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions," weekly mailing, 2007-SEP-05, as reported on. Are they people who God just didn't like? The Bible tells me that every life is holy; the Bible tells me that every life is loved; the Bible tells me that every life is called to be all that it can be. Have these people simply not read the text? John Shelby Spong Quote of the day Teach him to think for himself? No one can do that, Spong said. document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(stylesheet); fetchBids: function() { I just go beyond them. googletag.cmd.push(function() { I am trying to understand what it means to be a Christian without being religious. Shelby Harris. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. I believe that God is very real. By popular demand, here are his conservations with Tapestry from 2007 and 2009. "Another [book on Matthew] is Amy-Jill Levine, who is a Jewish woman who teaches New Testament at the Vanderbilt School of Religion. 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 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. He believed that theism had lost credibility as a valid conception of God's nature. He is as radically liberal as it is possible to be and still maintain a nominal identification with the name "Christian.". He looks at the vastness of the universe and it looks hostile. 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. //]]> It has not only to do with erasing human divisions, but about revitalizing our most cherished beliefs.. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. 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. 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.. Are they blinded by a combination of ego needs and navet? 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. 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. . 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. Jerry Falwell says, on Pat Robertson's program, that the reason we got attacked on 9/11 is that we were accommodating the ACLU and abortion and homosexuals and feminists in America, so God smacked us down. Thats where I think God is made visible.. } Apologetic explanations do not develop unless there is a reality that has to be explained and defended. 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. God Is Real. There is no longer Jew nor Greek. } Next, was his belief that God is a source of life. window.csa("Events")("setEntity", { John Shelby Spong 2 I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. Give us today tomorrow's bread. John Shelby Spong 26. Now, that job belongs to everyone in the Christian faith who wishes to carry out his vision to fruition. Prayer is entering into the pain or joy of another person. A lot of people hear me attacking their certainty. Steve is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. (wikipedia) Born On June 16, 1931. No religion does that. The Bible was quoted to keep women silent, and the Bible lost. Incarnation will never give us that.. If you're really thinking prayer can stop rockets or bullets, you have to ask why some people do get hit by rockets or bullets. John Shelby Spong 82. Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence. g = p.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; John Shelby Spong 1 Mother Nature is not sweet. " I go where I'm invited. a[a9]._Q.push([c, r]) Is there a different Bible? I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. So I ask you where hope is located, and you say, "You can't locate it.". There are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrow-minded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. At its very core the story of Easter has nothing to do with angelic announcements or empty tombs. If you begin to give people hope that there is a brighter future, there is a new tomorrow, then the people who were yesterdays terrorists become tomorrows elected officials and theyre part of the system. stylesheet.rel = "stylesheet"; Prayer is entering into the pain or joy of another person. His admirers acclaim him as a teaching bishop who makes contemporary theology accessible to the ordinary layperson he's considered the champion of an inclusive faith by many, both . Many of the characters who appear in the pages of the Fourth Gospel are literary creations of its author and were never intended to be understood as real people, who actually lived in history. 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. 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. 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. It caused his followers to regard his teaching as worthy of being preserved. node.parentNode.insertBefore(gads, node); People always like to have a good time and laugh, and, [among] the vast majority of the seven billion people on this earth, one thing that we all have in common is at some . John Shelby "Jack" Spongis a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church. The author of this book is not a single individual, but is at least three different writers/editors, who did their layered work over a period of 25 to 30 years. I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. That is a paradigm shift of the first order. When the Gospel of Luke was being written, the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples of Jesus and all the world. John Shelby Spong (2009). I cannot possibly conceive of my planet Earth as the centre of a three-tiered universe. for(var i=0; i John Shelby Spong Related Authors After love, he shared his beliefs about experiencing God. 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. John Shelby Spong (born November 29, 1935) is an American Episcopal priest and author. The sin of Christianity is that any of us ever claimed that we had somehow captured eternal truth in the forms we had created. googletag.pubads().disableInitialLoad(); }; It opens up all sorts of things that I've never thought about. The God of the Hebrews is a God that human language, we're not even supposed to speak the holy name. To me, neither option is worth pursuing. 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. Spong proffers a third way, one that involves being "fully human." We are not really separated from God, he asserts. I'm a bloodydamn Helldiver with an army of giant, mildly . We've got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. var googletag = googletag || {}; Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. Both papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy require widespread and unchallenged ignorance to sustain their claims to power. Paul tried to explain to the Galatians what it meant to put on Christ in the verse that reads, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.. Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence. There was new openness to the supernatural. John Shelby Spong 25. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("resource", "author_45659"); He sees himself against nature. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. J.B. Heller Quotes James Whitfield Thomson Quotes Jeanne A. Estes Quotes John Shelby Spong Quotes Julien Temple Quotes Lenny Kravitz Quotes Merrell Fankhauser Quotes Nicole Green Quotes Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn Quotes Priya Rawal Quotes S. Andrew Swann Quotes Scott F. Gilbert Quotes 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. That is not within human competence. Use them as an inspiration. But the irony was that as he was making his case, modernity was ending and postmodernity starting, and his rationalist perspective became pass. That identification means . Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. 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. There is no one who has been braver and ready to take whatever came his way for saving the truth., At 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 28, in the Hall of Philosophy, Spong, retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, discussed Matthew, his mantra and his legacy during his last lecture of the week and his career, titled Universalism: The Future of Christianity and Why I Remain a Christian, for Week Ones interfaith theme, Producing a Living Faith Today?, Todays the day, Spong said. I live on the other side of Charles Darwin and I can no longer see human light as having been created perfect and falling into sin, I see us rather emerging into higher and higher levels of consciousness and higher and higher levels of complication. So who is God? It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. I experience God as the source of life calling me to live fully and thus to respect life in every form as embodying the holy. Tweet. You can't go to church without praying ten or fifteen times for God to have mercy on you. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("surface", "mw"); I live on the other side of Charles Darwin and I can no longer see human light as having been created perfect and falling into sin, I see us rather emerging into higher and higher levels of consciousness and higher and higher levels of complication. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. 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); } I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. 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. It's just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. function(a9, a, p, s, t, A, g) { try { } catch (err) { We do not have to literalize their words to perceive their meaning or their intention to join in the singing of their creedal song. I prepare for death by living. From 1979 to 2000, he was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey. That is a paradigm shift of the first order. I rather experience God as the source of life willing me to live fully, the source of love calling me to love wastefully and to borrow a phrase from the theologian, Paul Tillich, as the Ground of being, calling me to be all that I can be. The cross reveals that we're called to a deeper, fuller experience of what it means to be alive and open to new dimensions of life which our religious boundaries - creeds, atonement theologies - have kept us from experiencing. 12 Vaganova Ballet Famous Sayings, Quotes and Quotation. Introducing John Shelby Spong the Rt. "[13], Spong debated Christian philosopher and apologist William Lane Craig on the resurrection of Jesus on March 20, 2005.[14]. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. John Shelby Spong is an American retired bishop of the Episcopal Church. John Shelby Spong Quotes "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. 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. While Paul left off there, Spong believes there is a lot more to modernizing Christianity than erasing those dividing lines. This self-denigration stuff - Jesus died for my sins - is nothing but a guilt message. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. He calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. Prayer is what I am doing when I love wastefully, passionately and wondrously and invite others to do so. Are they people who no one prayed for? [11] Towards these ends, he called for a new Reformation, in which many of Christianity's basic doctrines should be reformulated.[1]. 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