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The controversial bishop and moral activist attempts to wrestle
Jesus from the restrictive and dogmatic binds of religion so he can
become the hero the world needs.
The Bible contains many passages that believers and nonbelievers
alike would recognize as appalling theology. Whether these texts
are used to discriminate, oppress, or condemn, they distort the
truth of Christianity and cast doubt upon the love of God. Now,
legendary Episcopal bishop and advocate for liberal Christianity
John Shelby Spong addresses these passages, shattering our
misconceptions and delivering a new vision of how Christians today
can use the Bible.
In This Study I Found A Lord, a center for my being. Behind the supernatural framework of the first century...I discover 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."Illuminating the "figure who stands at the center of all the Christian Church is," John Shelby Spong explores Jesus under the light of the Hebrew tradition into which he was born. Candid, personal, and soundly argued, this is Spong's spiritual and intellectual pilgrimaged to the Christ he discovered in Jesus of Nazareth.
An important and respected voice for liberal American Christianity for the past twenty years, Bishop John Shelby Spong integrates his often controversial stands on the Bible, Jesus, theism, and morality into an intelligible creed that speaks to today's thinking Christian. In this compelling and heartfelt book, he sounds a rousing call for a Christianity based on critical thought rather than blind faith, on love rather than judgment, and that focuses on life more than religion.
In this boldest book since Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Bishop John Shelby Spong offers a compelling view of the Gospels as thoroughly Jewish tests. Spong powerfully argues that many of the key Gospel accounts of events in the life of Jesus -- from the stories of his birth to his physical resurrection -- are not literally true. He offers convincing evidence that the Gospels are a collection of Jewish midrashic stories written to convey the significance of Jesus. This remarkable discovery brings us closer to how Jesus was really understood in his day and should be in ours.
This text is a radical representation of the Christian faith for
the 21st century. Following the example of the Old Testament
prophets and the first-century Christians it overturns received
ideas about God. God is not an invisible person "out there"
somewhere, but lives in the human heart and mind as "the sum of all
our values and ideals" guiding and inspiring our lives.
The Antidote to Toxic Christianity In his bestselling book Why Christianity Must Change or Die, Bishop John Shelby Spong described the toxins that are poisoning the Church. Now he offers the antidote, calling Christians everywhere into a new and radical reformation for a new age. Spong looks beyond traditional boundaries to open new avenues and a new vocabulary into the Holy, proposing a Christianity premised upon justice, love, and the rise of a new humanity -- a vision of the power that might be.
The legendary Episcopal Bishop tells of his lifelong struggle to champion an authentic christianity based on love, not hatred.
A daring examination of the foundational event of Christianity, and an inspiring vision for reconciliation between Jews and Christians. Using approaches from the Hebrew interpretive tradition to discern the actual events surrounging Jesus' death, Bishop Spong questions the hitorical validity of literal narrative concerned the Ressurection. He asserts that the resurrection story was born in an experience that opened the disciples' eyes to the reality of God and the meaning of Jesus of Nazareth. Spong traces the Christian origins of anti-Semitism to the Church's fabrication of the ultimate Jewish scapegoat, Judas Iscariot. He affirms the inclusiveness of the Christian message and emphasizes the necessity of mutual integrity and respect among Christians and Jews.
Is celibacy the only moral alternative to marriage? Should the widowed be allowed to form intimate relationships without remarrying? Should the church receive homosexuals into its community and support committed gay and lesbian relationships? Should congregations publicly and liturgically witness and affirm divorces? Should the church's moral standards continue to be set by patriarchal males? Should women be consecrated bishops? Bishop Spong proposes a pastoral response based on scripture and history to the changing realities of the modern world. He calls for a moral vision to empower the church with inclusive teaching about equal, loving, nonexploitative relationships.
In Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, bishop and
social activist John Shelby Spong argues that 200 years of biblical
scholarship has been withheld from lay Christians. In this
brilliant follow-up to Spong's previous books Eternal Life and
Jesus for the Non-Religious, Spong not only reveals the crucial
truths that have long been kept hidden from the public eye, but
also explores what the history of the Bible can teach us about
reading its stories today and living our lives for tomorrow. Sarah
Sentilles, author of Breaking Up With God: A Love Story, applauds
John Shelby Spong's Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World,
writing that "pulsing beneath his brilliant, thought-provoking,
passionate book is this question: can Christianity survive the
education of its believers?...A question Bishop Spong answers with
a resounding yes."
John Shelby Spong, bestselling author and Episcopal bishop of Newark, NJ, challenges the doctrine of the virgin birth, tracing its development in the early Christian church and revealing its legacy in our contemporary attitudes toward women and female sexuality.
Bishop John Shelby Spong, author of Jesus for the Non-Religious,
Why Christianity Must Change or Die, Sins of Scripture, and many
other books, is known for his controversial ideas and fighting for
minority rights. In Eternal Life: A New Vision, a remarkable
spiritual journey about his lifelong struggle with the questions of
God and death, he reveals how he came to a new conviction about
eternal life. God, says spong, is ultimately one, and each of us is
part of that oneness. We do not live on after death as children who
have been rewarded with heaven or punished with hell but as part of
the life and being of God, sharing in God's eternity, which is
beyond the barriers of time and space. spong argues that the
discovery of the eternal can be found within each of us if we go
deeply into ourselves, transcend our limits and become fully human.
By seeking God within, by living each day to its fullest, we will
come to understand how we live eternally.
Always compelling and controversial, Spong, the leading
Christian liberal and pioneer for human rights, wrestles with the
question that all of us will ultimately face. In his final book,
Spong takes us beyond religion and even beyond Christianity until
he arrives at the affirmation that the fully realized human life
empties into and participates in the eternity of God. The pathway
into God turns out to be both a pathway into ourselves and a
doorway into eternal life. To Job's question "If a man (or a woman)
dies, will he (or she) live again?" he gives his answer as a
ringing yes
The Once and Future Jesus Conference took the quest of the
historical Jesus to a new level. At this unprecedented gathering,
leading thinkers turned their attention from the past to the future
and asked: What do new understandings of Jesus mean for the church,
the faith, and the world of tomorrow? Their answers can be found in
the pages of this book.
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Once and Future Faith (Paperback)
Robert W Funk, Karen Armstrong, Don Cupitt, Arthur J Dewey, Lloyd Geering, …
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R638
Discovery Miles 6 380
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Many ideas once thought to be foundational to Christianity are now
known to be false due to scientific discoveries regarding the
nature of the universe and historical findings about how
Christianity began. Is Christianity doomed to irrelevance or even
extinction? How might Christianity reinvent itself so that it can
address the real concerns of people in today's world? This
collection of essays from such leading thinkers as Karen Armstrong
and John Shelby Spong addresses questions such as life after death,
the meaning of God, apocalypticism, and the significance of Jesus'
death. Contributors: Karen Armstrong, Don Cupitt, Arthur J. Dewey,
Robert W. Funk, Lloyd Geering, Roy W. Hoover, Robert J. Miller,
Stephen J. Patterson, Bernard Brandon Scott, John Shelby Spong
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