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. He called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. In [the story of Jesus] I found a center for my being. Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. "Application": "GoodreadsMonolith", Let me try to do just that. Hollingworth said that it was not an appropriate moment for Spong to "engage congregations in matters that could prove theologically controversial". It opens up all sorts of things that I've never thought about. var googletag = googletag || {}; He received his Master of Divinity degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1955. I want to say something positively, something about the conclusion that I presently hold and bear witness to why I continue to be a member of this community.. The Christian story did not drop from heaven fully written. There are more than 14 quotes written by John Shelby Spong on our site. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. var ue_mid = "A1PQBFHBHS6YH1"; He was the eleventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester, New York from 1988 until 2000. If that is a requirement of my commitment to Jesus, I . 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. I am trying to understand what it means to be a Christian without being religious. He sees himself against nature. 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. 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. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes in the bullet points above are from Kitchen, "The Future Church and Bishop John Shelby Spong," p. 17. I am content to learn from them and to walk with them side by side toward the God who lives, I believe, beyond the images that bind and blind us. 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. 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. For the reformation to work, Spong said creeds can no longer be used to bring Christians together. He looks at the vastness of the universe and it looks hostile. But the irony was that as he was making his case, modernity was ending and postmodernity starting, and his rationalist perspective became pass. [10], Spong was a strong proponent of the church reflecting the changes in society at large. Jesus was undeniably a figure of history. 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. [15], New Testament Catholic scholar Raymond E. Brown was critical of Spong's scholarship, referring to his studies as "amateur night". 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 "[2], Spong served as rector of St. Joseph's Church in Durham, North Carolina, from 1955 to 1957; rector of Calvary Parish, Tarboro, North Carolina, from 1957 to 1965; rector of St. John's Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, from 1965 to 1969; and rector of St. Paul's Church in Richmond, Virginia, from 1969 to 1976. Papal infallibility and biblical inerrancy are the two ecclesiastical versions of this human idolatry. There was new openness to the supernatural. And the Bible is being quoted to deny homosexuals their equal rights, and the Bible will lose. 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. 23:17). He claims he is a Christian yet he champions causes that historic Christianity has often . 12:34), "sons of vipers" (Matt. 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. 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. In academia, I discovered that issues and insights, commonplace among the scholars, are viewed as highly controversial and even as heresy in the churches. I don't think so. John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000. I was married before the church's altar; trained at the church's seminaries, ordained deacon and priest at age 24. } [18], During a speaking tour in Australia in 2001, Spong was banned by Peter Hollingworth, the Archbishop of Brisbane, from speaking at churches in the diocese. ! . He was 90. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. He stated that he was a Christian because he believes that Jesus Christ fully expressed the presence of a God of compassion and selfless love and that this is the meaning of the early Christian proclamation, "Jesus is Lord" (Spong, 1994 and Spong, 1991). The Christ path is the path I've walked all my life, so it's normal and natural. [CDATA[ I do not think so. John Shelby Spong passed away at his home in North Carolina according to an announcement from the Richmond, Virginia parish he once pastored. John Shelby Spong Quotes "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. I just go beyond them. 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. I'm not in the comfort-giving business. Forcing the evolution is the dialog between yesterday's words and today's knowledge. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. An Episcopal court ruled that homosexuality was not counter to its principles in 1996, and the church recognized same-sex marriages in 2015.[4]. } 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. He sees himself against nature. I'm interested in penetrating the meaning of certainty. 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.. var sourcesToHideBuyFeatures = ["ebfg_gr", "ebfg_fb", "ebfg_fbm", "ebfg_tw", Part 2 of the all things quotations list about every-one and in-its-entirety sayings citing Jay Baruchel, David Frum and David Frum captions. 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. The Bible is full of dreadful things. John Shelby Spong. 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. gads.src = (useSSL ? 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. 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. // page settings 25:30)? var ue_sid = "242-2972433-4130551"; So I ask you where hope is located, and you say, "You can't locate it.". for(var i=0; i " John Shelby Spong 84. }("apstag", window, document, "script", "//c.amazon-adsystem.com/aax2/apstag.js"); function getCookieWithoutJQuery(name) { '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 window.Mobvious.device_type = 'mobile'; Although he has been a Christian his entire life, he does not believe it makes him superior to anyone. 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. Above all, words must be recognized as symbolic pointers to truth, not objective containers of truth. Learn more. Our motto is: Don't quote it if you can't source it. Prayer is what I am doing when I love wastefully, passionately and wondrously and invite others to do so. Whatever diminishes life is evil, and whatever enhances life is good. 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. John Shelby Spong Quotes. He calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. 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. John Shelby Spong has long been known as the "nightmare" of the more conservative element of the Anglican Church in America. Are they people who God just didn't like? 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. 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. a[a9] = { var cookie = cookies[i]; A.src = t; stylesheet.type = "text/css"; 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. " John Shelby Spong 2. 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 . When charting a new reformation, we must engage in a task of getting even deeper into the vision of universalism, he said. } else { And I don't mind saying that I don't invalidate any of those paths. That's sort of fourth-century Christianity that got turned into doctrines and dogmas that we've never been able to escape. He believed that theism had lost credibility as a valid conception of God's nature. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("gr_author", "false"); _Q: [] 1. 51. (function () { John Shelby Spong Life, Want, Reason, Normal Generate image var cookiePair = cookie.split('='); From 1979 to 2000, he was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey. 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. gads.async = true; Is there a different Bible? The Rt. I think the best way to view the Gospels is to view them as a magnificent portrait being painted by Jewish artists to try to capture the essence of a God experience that they believe they had with Jesus of Nazareth. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. fetchBids: function() { John Shelby Spong I cannot say my yes to legends that have been clearly and fancifully created. Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. var stylesheet = document.createElement("link"); return cookiePair[1]; I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. [CDATA[ There is a mistake in the text of this quote. ", Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. By popular demand, here are his conservations with Tapestry from 2007 and 2009. [25] The notice was announced by the St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, where Spong had once been rector.[26][27]. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. The ultimate meaning of the Bible escapes human limits and calls us to a recognition that every life is holy, every life is loved, and every life is called to be all that that life is capable of being. My religious schizophrenia is at an end. We must move beyond the now irrelevant dualistic patterns and discover the holy at the heart of the human. Oh this age! I prepare for death by living. [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. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. 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. for(var i=0; i