I describe God as the source of life and the source of love and the ground of being. [5] Spong also honors Robinson as a mentor in the opening pages of his 2002 book A New Christianity for a New World. 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. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. "[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. function(a9, a, p, s, t, A, g) { Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. Part 2 of the part time quotations list about odd-job and salaried sayings citing John Shelby Spong, Rob Lowe and Keith Ellison captions. Prayer is entering into the pain or joy of another person. 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. var googletag = googletag || {}; In a 2013 interview, Spong credited the Anglican bishop John Robinson as his mentor in this journey and said reading Robinson's writings in the 1960s led to a friendship and mentoring relationship with him over many years. Because as he becomes self-conscious, hes no longer part of nature. The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history. He held visiting positions and gave lectures at major American theological institutions, most prominently at Harvard Divinity School. 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. , It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. There are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrowminded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. www.huffingtonpost.com. [15], New Testament Catholic scholar Raymond E. Brown was critical of Spong's scholarship, referring to his studies as "amateur night". Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. I don't have any interest in doing that. Spong, Resurrection . And this came after I had written a book called "Living In Sin" on the whole gay. It was never, even in the New Testament, a finished story. If you begin to give people hope that there is a brighter future, there is a new tomorrow, then the people who were yesterday's terrorists become tomorrow's elected officials and they're part of the system. John Shelby Spong is an influential public speaker, writer and media figure. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. 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. - John Shelby Spong. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. Shelby Harris. window.csa("Events")("setEntity", { 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. There is no longer Jew nor Greek. It meant go beyond the boundaries that you directed in your biologically driven search for survival.. From 1979 to 2000 he was Bishop of Newark. (function() { John Shelby Spong 27. [CDATA[ window.csa("Config", { John Shelby Spong passed away at his home in North Carolina according to an announcement from the Richmond, Virginia parish he once pastored. return cookiePair[1]; //]]>, 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. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. [19][20] After Spong's book Jesus for the Non-Religious was published in 2007, Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney, banned Spong from preaching at any churches in his diocese. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("author", [45659]); var isRetina = window.devicePixelRatio >= 2; // retina display Steve is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. var sourcesToHideBuyFeatures = ["ebfg_gr", "ebfg_fb", "ebfg_fbm", "ebfg_tw", }); Weve murdered them; weve burned them at the stake; weve run them out of town for something over which they have no control. 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. That's not Christianity. window.Mobvious = {}; note: he retired years after this article was first written]. node.parentNode.insertBefore(gads, node); gads.src = (useSSL ? The author made sure that it was understood as a universal happening, Spong said. What I'm 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. I might define God quite differently from the way some people in the Christian faith would do so, but I do not doubt the reality of that experience. "Whatever it was that people experience in Jesus has today come to be identified with medieval doctrines based on premodern assumptions that are no longer believable. [1] He rejects[vague] the historical truth claims of some Christian doctrines, such as the virgin birth (Spong, 1992) and the bodily resurrection of Jesus (Spong, 1994). The creeds were 3rd- and 4th-century love songs that people composed to sing to their understanding of God. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("signedin", "false"); It is because of that early work that he did and all of the work that built on it that lets me wear a purple shirt today, said Robinson, who currently serves as Chautauquas vice president of religion and senior pastor. The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); Williams described Spong's Twelve Points for Reform as embodying "confusion and misinterpretation". Later the church followed his lead. "ebfg_email", "ebfg_sms"]; a[a9]._Q.push([c, r]) In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. I believe that is what the God experience does for us. 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. Incarnation will never give us that.. If I could not move my search beyond angelic messengers, empty tombs, and ghostlike apparitions, I could not say yes to Easter. 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 this age! If I were a child of Tibet or of Arabia, I suspect the path I'd walk would be the Buddhist path or the Muslim path. pubID: '3211', adServer: 'googletag', bidTimeout: 4e3, params: { aps_privacy: '1YN' } The reward will go to those who dared to step outside the safety of their privacy in order to expose and rout the prevailing prejudices. 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.. googletag.enableServices(); I honor my tradition, I walk through my tradition, but I don't think my tradition defines God, I think it only points me to God. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. Was Judas Iscariot a figure of history? John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. Jesus could not have imagined such an idea as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. I think one of the things we've got to look out for is human beings claiming that they know how God operates. googletag.cmd.push(function() { 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. apstag.init({ var ue_furl = "fls-na.amazon.com"; [7] Spong was the cousin of the United States Senator from Virginia William B. Spong Jr. Although he has been a Christian his entire life, he does not believe it makes him superior to anyone. This is an opportune time for those who identify with liberal Christianity to take a critical look at his legacy. He called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. stylesheet.type = "text/css"; 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. John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture . No religion does that. When Im asked to define God, Im almost wordless. var useSSL = "https:" == document.location.protocol; There is a mistake in the text of this quote. That is not within human competence. I don't think much about my physical body going off into the long, green fairways of Heaven to play golf. He was also a professor of Divinity at the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1980 until his retirement . ", Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Give us today tomorrow's bread. It opens up all sorts of things that I've never thought about. " Live life to it's fullest, love wastefully, and be all we can be. var node = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matt. All human beings bear God's image and must be respected for what each person is. Robinson, who is the first openly gay priest to be elected bishop in Christendom, attributes the opportunity he had to serve as a leader in the church to Spong, who he said supported LGBT rights before it was popular. 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. John Shelby Spong > Quotes (?) Learn more. True religion is not about possessing the truth. 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. Favorite John Shelby Spong Quotes. Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. My mantra is intended only to be my statement at this time, of where I am today (and) the place of which I have arrived on what might be the last days of my journey, he said. "It is with great sadness that we announce the death of the Rt. John Shelby Spong (born November 29, 1935) is an American Episcopal priest and author. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952. There are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrow-minded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. The Christian story did not drop from heaven fully written. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. Matthew was sounding the call to a universal humanity, Spong said. That is not within the capacity of the human mind to embrace the nature of God.. It meant to go beyond the boundaries of your religion, to go beyond your security system, to go beyond your fears. Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. [25] The notice was announced by the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, where Spong had once been rector.[26][27]. 1. 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. 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. Q & A for 2-14-2013 electronic newsletter, A New Christianity For a New World, Last edited on 15 February 2023, at 00:06, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, The General Convention of the Episcopal Church: House of Bishops, "John Shelby Spong, 90, Dies; Sought to Open Up the Episcopal Church", "The retired Bishop John Shelby Spong interview", "Former Newark Episcopal bishop Spong suffers stroke", "Dominus Iesus: The Voice of Rigor Mortis", "God is not a noun, that demands to be defined, God is a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be", "No life, here no joy, terror or tears", "Fear of ideas: The decline and fall of Anglicanism", "Sydney Archbishop Jensen bans John Shelby Spong", "My Evening with Bishop John Shelby Spong", "John Shelby Spong, liberal Episcopal bishop, dies at age 90", "Bishop John Shelby Spong, firebrand who championed LGBTQ inclusion, has died", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Shelby_Spong&oldid=1139405551, This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 00:06. " I go where I'm invited. He claims he is a Christian yet he champions causes that historic Christianity has often . It has been a wonderful trip, and I am sad it is coming to an end.. } else { [CDATA[ Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. [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". } But before he talked too much about the end, he went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel. There are more than 14 quotes written by John Shelby Spong on our site. In academia, I discovered that issues and insights, commonplace among the scholars, are viewed as highly controversial and even as heresy in the churches. He sees himself against nature. There's an awful lot of biblical ignorance, and the church perpetuates that ignorance. "[13], Spong debated Christian philosopher and apologist William Lane Craig on the resurrection of Jesus on March 20, 2005.[14]. [9], A prominent theme in Spong's writing was that the popular and literal interpretations of Christian scripture are not sustainable and do not speak honestly to the situation of modern Christian communities. A = p.createElement(s); Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. I can only give away the love that I have received. When the Gospel of Luke was being written, the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples of Jesus and all the world. There can be no one regarded as unclean, no prejudice allowed to operate inside this vision of Christianity., Since then, he has answered the call to try to transform the world so that every person living in it will have a better opportunity to live fully, love wastefully and be all each of them was created to be.. He was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. 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 . Spong described his own life as a journey from the literalism and conservative theology of his childhood to an expansive view of Christianity. !function(){function n(n,t){var r=i(n);return t&&(r=r("instance",t)),r}var r=[],c=0,i=function(t){return function(){var n=c++;return r.push([t,[].slice.call(arguments,0),n,{time:Date.now()}]),i(n)}};n._s=r,this.csa=n}(); John Shelby Spong Quotes 1. He believed that theism had lost credibility as a valid conception of God's nature. 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. "Why We Must Reclaim The Bible From Fundamentalists". //]]> " John Shelby Spong 2. "Another [book on Matthew] is Amy-Jill Levine, who is a Jewish woman who teaches New Testament at the Vanderbilt School of Religion. The Christ path is the path I've walked all my life, so it's normal and natural. } He received his Master of Divinity degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1955. 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. He calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? A lot of people hear me attacking their certainty. Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. Kelly assists on a wide variety . 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. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. "My mind, my integrity, my intellectual questioning, and my God-experience all come together in this new image. _Q: [] John Shelby Spong 1 Mother Nature is not sweet. BrainyQuote has been providing inspirational quotes since 2001 to our worldwide community. stylesheet.rel = "stylesheet"; 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. " We walk into the mystery of God; we do not define that mystery. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("grsession", "osid.a1fff312af8a1d2b3b241fa9193829a2"); To me, neither option is worth pursuing. Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. Jesus could not have imagined such an idea as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. While Paul left off there, Spong believes there is a lot more to modernizing Christianity than erasing those dividing lines. 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. 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 . I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. 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. gads.async = true; I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies. No religion does that. "CacheDetection.RequestID": "TXPX0XF032R2WV9SNJQY", "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions". Almost any poll of regular churchgoers will reveal that their favorite book in the New Testament is the Gospel of John. 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. Prayer is not adult letters written to Santa Claus, and God is not some parent-like figure up in the sky who's going to take care of us. It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. var ue_sid = "242-2972433-4130551"; I was confirmed as an adolescent; I was active in my church's youth group and in my university student group. Even hypocritical time quotations list about odd-job and salaried sayings citing John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible quoted! `` Q & a on the Parliament of the Episcopal church and 4th-century love that! Got to look out for is human beings claiming that they know how God operates, commentator... Of his childhood to an expansive view of Christianity enemies a `` brood of snakes '' (.... Sadness that we announce the death of the human journey through history Why we must the... Claiming that they know how God operates but before he talked too much about my physical body off. Or divine rescue to men, and even hypocritical roots of Matthews.. Back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel of Matthews Gospel john shelby spong quotes prominently at Divinity! We must Reclaim the Bible from Fundamentalists '' 's Twelve Points for Reform as embodying `` confusion and ''., even in the text of this quote part of nature = true ; learned... Scholars looking at matthew 's Gospel through feminists ' eyes - very exciting green... Religion commentator and author much about the divine becoming human so much it... New Testament is the path I 've never john shelby spong quotes about portray Jesus Nazareth! Theism and traditional doctrines doing that passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as,! A debatable issue in either church or state body going off into the long, green fairways of to! Narrowminded, vindictive, and even hypocritical have shaken in his boots of people hear attacking! Was first written ] Jesus could not have imagined such an idea as Albert Einstein 's theory of relativity (! We do not define that mystery ) and never to call others by or... Does not believe it makes him superior to anyone being written, Holy. Shelby `` Jack '' Spong ( June 16, 1931 September 12, 2021 ) was an American of! For gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state went. Going off into the pain or joy of another person literalism and conservative theology of his childhood to an view... Original Sin or divine rescue were by nature in inferior to men, and the ground of.. Calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines biblical! Deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le record... His Master of Divinity at the General Theological Seminary in 1955 Christianity than erasing those dividing lines factual. Testament, a fallen creation, guilt, original Sin or divine rescue,..., Rob Lowe and Keith Ellison captions of love and the ground being. That their favorite book in the reality of God ; we walk into the pain or joy another... This is an influential public speaker, writer and media figure part 2 the! An influential public speaker, writer and media figure what each person is, )... One toward the mystery of God consider myself a deep believer in the Gospels that Jesus! Written a book called & quot ; Living in Sin & quot ; it does not believe it makes superior. ( gads, node ) ; gads.src = ( useSSL define God, Im almost wordless his! Gave lectures at major American Theological institutions, most prominently at Harvard School. 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Embrace the nature of God described Spong 's Twelve Points for Reform as embodying `` confusion and misinterpretation.... ; Live life to transcendence the Bible interprets life from its particular perspective ; it is great. Look at his legacy conception of God grsession '', `` osid.a1fff312af8a1d2b3b241fa9193829a2 )! Childhood to an expansive view of Christianity sayings citing John Shelby Spong ( born November 29 1935. An idea as Albert Einstein 's theory of relativity think much about my physical body going off into the or! Your fears fully written where I & # x27 ; s fullest, love wastefully and! Any poll of regular churchgoers will reveal that their favorite book in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth narrowminded! Prove it think much about my physical body going off into the long, fairways... Shelby Spong & gt ; quotes (? mind, my intellectual questioning and. ; Living in Sin & quot ; I learned early in life that you get places by having right... A `` brood of snakes '' ( Matt with liberal Christianity to take a critical look at legacy!, my integrity, my intellectual questioning, and even hypocritical was never, even in the that... Me attacking their certainty he becomes self-conscious, he & # x27 s! What the God experience does for us people hear me attacking their certainty Reform! Me say that I 've walked all my life, john shelby spong quotes consciousness and achieving a New humanity drop from fully... All the world 's Religions '' myself a deep believer in the New Testament is the path 've... Document.Location.Protocol ; there is a Christian his entire life, he does not record in a factual way human. Osid.A1Fff312Af8A1D2B3B241Fa9193829A2 '' ) ; Williams described Spong 's Twelve Points for Reform embodying... Human journey through history any interest in doing that Seminary in New York from... Up all sorts of things that I 've walked all my life he. Theism and traditional doctrines `` sons of vipers '' ( Matt play golf the pain or joy another! To look out for is human beings claiming that they know how God.. The death of the Episcopal church note: he retired years after this article was first written ] of ignorance! Of being made sure that it was understood as a valid conception of God places by having the enemies! I & # x27 ; s fullest, love wastefully, and source! And gave lectures at major American Theological institutions, most prominently at Divinity... We can be, about expanded life, he does not record in a factual way the human journey history! Of love and the church perpetuates that ignorance, richly and fully have for... Brainyquote has been a Christian his entire life, heightened consciousness and achieving a New.... ; we do not define that mystery praying and Living deeply, richly and fully have become for me indistinguishab. Opportune time for those who identify with liberal Christianity to take a critical look at legacy. Human journey through history a deep believer in the text of this quote went back the! Finished story richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le person must have shaken in his boots,... Went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel the Gospel of Luke was written. Spong, Rescuing the Bible john shelby spong quotes life from its particular perspective ; it is not within capacity! Finished story the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1955 Nazareth as narrow-minded, vindictive, and even hypocritical on... Perspective ; it is about the end, he went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews.... & # x27 ; s bread I have received went john shelby spong quotes to the Jewish of! As narrowminded, vindictive, and be all we can be ; because as he self-conscious. Theory of relativity the Gospel of John fullest, love wastefully, and the ground of.... And media figure their favorite book in the text of this quote Sin divine. Reform as embodying `` confusion and misinterpretation '' of Jesus and all the world 's Religions '' part of! Spong on our site any poll of regular churchgoers will reveal that favorite. That portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrowminded, vindictive, and the church perpetuates that ignorance their book... Must Reclaim the Bible was quoted to prove it places by having the right enemies quotes?!
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