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In offering his vision of that which might be for the Church, Spong has poured his heart, soul, and mind into this book as the ultimate legacy of his struggle to discover and promote a Christianity that makes sense today.
Between 1910 and 1915, in response to biblical criticism in gen-eral and to the challenge of Charles Darwin in particular, a groupof conservative Christians published a series of pamphlets underthe title The Fundamentals. From those pamphlets the wordfundamentalism as a description of the literal beliefs of conserva-tive Christians entered the religious vocabulary.
The tracts defended such things as the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, the Davidic authorship of the Psalms, and the accuracy of the biblical prophecy predicting specific events in the life an death of Jesus Christ. Each of these suppositions has been successfully challenged by modern scholarship. Beyond that, these tracts also defended the literal accuracy of what they called "the primary Christian themes." In time these basic fundamentals of Christianity were said to be five doctrines was thought to be an act not just of heresy, but of actual apostasy.These five fundamentals were:I am a Christian.
For forty-five years I have served the Christian church as a deacon, priest, and bishop. I continue to serve that church today in a wide variety of ways in my official retirement. I believe that God is real and that I live deeply and significantly as one related to that divine reality.
I call Jesus my Lord. I believe that he has mediated God in a powerful and unique way to human history and to me.
I believe that my particular life has been dramatically and decisively impacted not only by the life of this Jesus, but also by his death and indeed by the Easter experience that Christians know as the resurrection.
Part of my life's vocation has been spent seeking a way to articulate this impact and to invite others into what I can only call the "Christ-experience." I believe that in this Christ I discover a basis for meaning, for ethics, for prayer, for worship, and even for the hope of life beyond the boundaries of my mortality. I want my readers to know who it is who writes these words. I do not want to be guilty of violating any truth-in-packaging act. I define myself first and foremost as a Christian believer.
Yet I do not define God as a supernatural being. I do not believe in a deity who can help a nation win a war, intervene to cure a loved one's sickness, allow a particular athletic team to defeat its opponent, or affect the weather for anyone's benefit. I do not think it is appropriate for me to pretend that those things are possible when everything I know about the natural order of the world I inhabit proclaims that they are not.
Since I do not see God as a being, I cannot interpret Jesus as the earthly incarnation of this supernatural deity, nor can I with credibility assume that he possessed sufficient Godlike power to do such miraculous things as stilling the storm, banishing demons, walking on water, or expanding five loaves to provide sufficient bread to feed five thousand men, plus women and children. If I am to make a claim for the divine nature of this Jesus, it must be on Some other basis than this. Nature miracles, I am now convinced, say volumes about the power that people attributed to Jesus, but they say nothing about literal occurrences.
I do not believe that this Jesus could or did in any literal way raise the dead, overcome a medically diagnosed paralysis, or restore sight to a person born blind or to one in whom the ability to see had been physiologically destroyed. Nor do I believe he enabled one who was mute and profoundly deaf since birth to hear. Healing stories can be looked at in a number of ways. To view them as supernatural, miraculous events is, in my opinion, the least credible of those possibilities.
I do not believe that Jesus entered this world by the miracle of a virgin birth or that virgin births occur anywhere except in mythology. I do not believe that a literal star guided literal wise men to bring Jesus gifts or that literal angels sang to hillside shepherds to announce his birth. I do not believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem or that he fled into Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod. I regard these as legends that later became historicized as the tradition grew and developed and as people sought to understand the meaning and the power of the Christ-life.
A New Christianity for a New World. Copyright © by John Shelby Spong. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.| Preface: The Origins of This Book: From Honest to God to Why Christianity Must Change or Die | ix | |
| 1 | A Place to Begin: The Old Is No More; The New Is Not Yet | 1 |
| 2 | The Signs of the Death of Theism | 21 |
| 3 | Self-Consciousness and Theism: Siamese Twins at Birth | 37 |
| 4 | Beyond Theism but Not Beyond God | 57 |
| 5 | The Original Christ: Before the Theistic Distortion | 79 |
| 6 | Watching Theism Capture Christianity | 97 |
| 7 | Changing the Basic Christian Myth | 113 |
| 8 | Jesus Beyond Incarnation: A Nontheistic Divinity | 129 |
| 9 | Original Sin Is Out; The Reality of Evil Is In | 147 |
| 10 | Beyond Evangelism and World Mission to a Post-Theistic Universalism | 171 |
| 11 | But What About Prayer? | 185 |
| 12 | The Ecclesia of Tomorrow | 201 |
| 13 | Why Does It Matter?: The Public Face of the Ecclesia | 219 |
| 14 | The Courage to Move into the Future | 233 |
| Notes | 247 | |
| Bibliography | 257 | |
| Index | 267 |
Anonymous
Posted July 29, 2003
Bishop Spong says in his book, 'The old myth of theism has lost its power and its appeal. A new myth to which we can once again be committed is not yet in place. Before the new myth can be developed, we need to understand how the old one was born, how its power was kept intact for so long, and how it has died. Perhaps then we will have a clue where to begin in our struggle to kindle once more a faith, a way of life, even a God who is not subject to the death of theism. At least that is our next step.' (p. 35) Hazel Motes, in Flannery O'Connor's novel, Wise Blood, 1952, starts his Church Without Christ. He preaches, ¿What you need is something to take the place of Jesus, something that would speak plain. The Church Without Christ don't have a Jesus but it needs one! It needs a new jesus!¿ (Wise Blood, Collected Works, Flannery O¿Connor, The Library of America, 1988, p. 80) Hazel asks his audience to give him such a jesus, someone ¿that don¿t look like any other man,¿ so they will see ¿how far the Church Without Christ can go!¿ (p. 80) Enoch Emery hears Haze's speech, and says he knows where to find the new jesus. He goes to a museum and takes out a shrunken mummy and sends it to Haze. But, Haze smashes the mummy against the wall. Enoch goes on to bury his clothes, dress up in an ape costume, and become an 'it' instead of a 'him' to O'Connor as he becomes totally bestial. Onnie Jay Holy (or Hoover Shoats) is a former radio preacher who wants to learn from Haze more about his concept of the new jesus so he can start commercializing on it. Haze rejects him so Shoats finds a consumptive man, Solace Layfield, who can barely work at anything to take Haze¿s place. He begins preaching, ¿The unredeemed are redeeming theirselves and the new jesus is at hand! Watch for this miracle! Help yourself to salvation in the Holy Church of Christ Without Christ.¿ (p. 94) The myth that is not yet in place is the new jesus that Enoch Emery finds for Haze, and the next step is to help ourselves to this salvation for ¿the unredeemed are redeeming theirselves.¿
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Posted August 5, 2003
Bishop Spong says in his book, A New Christianity for a New World, 2001, 'The old myth of theism has lost its power and its appeal. A new myth to which we can once again be committed is not yet in place. Before the new myth can be developed, we need to understand how the old one was born, how its power was kept intact for so long, and how it has died. Perhaps then we will have a clue where to begin in our struggle to kindle once more a faith, a way of life, even a God who is not subject to the death of theism. At least that is our next step.' (p. 35) This is very old liberal theology, in its newest form coming out of post-World War II America. Beginning in 1945 at the University of Iowa, Flannery O¿Connor was investigating this tendency. Since the late 1960¿s, when I began studying O¿Connor, major universities having developed O¿Connor Studies, such as Harvard, Yale, etc.. Such studies have now recognized her as a modern American prophet (see Karl Martin¿s doctoral dissertation, ¿The Ethical Implications of Flannery O¿Connor¿s `Prophetic Imagination,¿ ¿ 1991, University of Minnesota). In her book reviews of the 1950¿s, Flannery O¿Connor noted the errors of liberal theology that now apply to the liberal theology of today. For example, in her review of: Order and History, Volume I, Israel and Revelation, Eric Voegelin, Louisiana State University Press, 1956. ¿In the Hellenic world man was seeking God, in the Hebrew world God was seeking man. Real history begins when man accepts the God Who is, Who seeks him.¿ And, ¿'Without Israel there would be no history, but only the eternal recurrence of societies in cosmological form.'¿ In reviewing The Christ of Faith, Karl Adam, Pantheon, 1957, O¿Connor notes: ¿It is particularly valuable in its criticism of the errors of liberal theology, pointing out that the textual critic assumes that Christianity is something finished and inflexible and has poured all its vitality into its literature and foundations and become fossilized in them.¿
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Posted February 1, 2003
A NEW CHRISTIANITY FOR A NEW WORLD represents the latest stage in the author's rapidly evolving vision of the future of Christianity. Spong begins by stating that theism is dead. God is not a supernatural being who can or does periodically intervene in the world. Our modern view of the natural order suggests that this is not possible. Spong explains that theism was born in the beginning of civilization when people first experienced feeling unsafe and alone. Theism developed as a coping mechanism against trauma. The author asserts that the theistic interpretation of Jesus was only added in the later Christian writings. Spong does not believe in much of the traditional Christian story. He does not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus or the idea that Jesus founded either a church or its sacraments. He says he does not have a problem with the faith - only with the literal way it is interpreted and described by some others. Spong sees a need for a new faith that is not subject to the death of theism. God is real even though theism is dead. Can Christianity still live after the death of theism? It will, according to the author, if we are willing to move beyond our traditional ideas of Jesus. Spong sees God as the source of all life, love and being. He views the church of the future as a place where worshipers will still seek the Holy and the Realm of God. They will search for an environment which allows them to increase their capabilities to love and embrace life to the fullest. God is real and Jesus is the doorway into this reality. Spong still considers himself to be a Christian and he remains optimistic about the future. He is not sure where his new reformation will ultimately lead us but he is convinced we have to take the first step. If we do nothing, Spong believes that Christianity will surely die anyway.
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Posted May 14, 2002
After reading A New Christianity for a New World, I find that I have new criteria for choosing hymns and other music for our church. Bishop Spong has eloquently stated many of the thoughts that I have had about the necessity for change in our Christian vocabulary and practices.
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Posted July 28, 2002
Spong's book gives us a chance to revisit the original intent of Jesus' teachings. He urges us to always focus on the love and compassion that are the root of Christianity. Many layers have been placed on top of original ideas and while they may have been helpful at the time need to be examined for what they are - human, not Divine, additions for the sake of institutionalization and organization of the church. Spong is a radical follower of a radical leader - Jesus. A great read for every person seeking the essence of Christ's message.
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Posted July 20, 2012
John Shelby Spong is without a doubt a good writer. He Claims the Bible is mostly myth. Some of his points I can agree with, others are way out in space. I read three of his books. Much of his writing is rehash of his last book. None of his theories can be proven any more than the bible can be proven. Everyone must live by the faith they believe in. A book for study of a different view of Christianity, however, not a book for fundamentalists.
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Posted January 21, 2012
Spong combines intellectual genius with impeccable scholarly research. A courageous work with a fresh and universal pespective !
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Posted May 9, 2009
I Also Recommend:
In his book "A New Christianity for a New World," Bishop Spong attempts to reformulate the Christian notions of God, Jesus, original sin, the atonement and the church. This book will be alarming to more traditional Christians and a sigh of relief to those in "spiritual exile"--those men and women who have left the church because they find the creeds of the church too unbelievable. To those persons who'd like to once again believe in God, Jesus and the Christian life, this book will be a help along the way.
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Posted October 16, 2001
Bishop Spong has provided an approach for updating the reality needed in Christianity.His book prompted me to think about its significance with respect to how the outdated aspects of the major world religions have contributed to the growth of terrorism and how very difficult it will be to overcome such deep-seated problems. Bishop Spong presents problems with current Christianity and how they evolved. He integrates and further develops the contents of his previous books in a very personal and straightforward way. He seems to reveal, and give, all of himself to the world. I strongly recommend this book. Furthermore, I believe John Shelby Spong fulfills the intended purpose for award of the 'Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.'
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Posted July 30, 2009
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Posted December 28, 2009
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Posted September 6, 2011
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Posted April 9, 2010
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Overview
In offering his vision of that ...