" True religion is not about possessing the truth. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. [22] Following Spong's death, Tooley told The Washington Times that "he [Spong] claimed that he was making religion relevant for a new generation who could not believe in the supernatural, often citing his daughters. John Shelby Spong has long been known as the "nightmare" of the more conservative element of the Anglican Church in America. I am trying to understand what it means to be a Christian without being religious. I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. (wikipedia) Born On June 16, 1931. There are more than 14 quotes written by John Shelby Spong on our site. If God is the ground of being, then the only way I can worship God is by having the courage to be all that I can be, Spong said. 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.. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("signedin", "false"); Prayer is entering into the pain or joy of another person. Terrorism is a real despair. } The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, p.12, Harper Collins. Gate tickets and other revenue cover only a portion of the cost of your Chautauqua 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. var source = getCookieWithoutJQuery("source"); It opens up all sorts of things that I've never thought about. At its very core the story of Easter has nothing to do with angelic announcements or empty tombs. g = p.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; John Shelby Spong is an influential public speaker, writer and media figure. " I go where I'm invited. Jesus exhorted people to love their enemies and to pray for their persecutors (Matt. "My mind, my integrity, my intellectual questioning, and my God-experience all come together in this new image. Death is ultimately a dimension of life through which we journey into timelessness. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. "Events.Namespace": "csa", Later the church followed his lead. In the fall of 1988, I worshipped God in a Buddhist temple. Rev. " Most of the noise comes from the shallow end. We've got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. 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. Weve got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. Our English language really says if you're not a theist, the only alternative is to be an atheist. 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. note: he retired years after this article was first written]. Recipient of many awards, including 1999 Humanist of the Year,[6] Spong was a contributor to the Living the Questions DVD program and was a guest on numerous national television broadcasts (including The Today Show, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, Dateline, 60 Minutes, and Larry King Live). } Don't read that to me on Sunday morning and say "This is the word of the Lord." It doesn't. So who is God? "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions," weekly mailing, 2007-SEP-05, as reported on. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. Was Judas Iscariot a figure of history? No religion does that. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("resource", "author_45659"); 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. shortquotes.blog 1,000,000++ Short Quotes When charting a new reformation, we must engage in a task of getting even deeper into the vision of universalism, he said. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. I do not think so. 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. 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. An Episcopal court ruled that homosexuality was not counter to its principles in 1996, and the church recognized same-sex marriages in 2015.[4]. The Bible has lost every major battle it has ever fought. ! Give us today tomorrow's bread. 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. I do assert that one prepares for eternity not by being religious and keeping the rules, but by living fully, loving wastefully, and daring to be all that each of us has the capacity to be. //]]>, 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. All we can ever say is how we believe we have experienced God, doing our best to dispel our human delusions. [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. Spong, Resurrection Myth or Reality, p. 287. He retired in 2000. When Im asked to define God, Im almost wordless. The author made sure that it was understood as a universal happening, Spong said. return null; He was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey from 1979 to 2000. var ue_sid = "242-2972433-4130551"; The Bible is full of dreadful things. throw new Error("could not load device-specific stylesheet : " + err.message); [CDATA[ John Shelby Spong passed away at his home in North Carolina according to an announcement from the Richmond, Virginia parish he once pastored. In the way Jesus, whether being praised with flattery or diminished by the threat of death, remained unchanged, Spong was moved to affirm his faith. John Shelby Spong (2009). John Shelby Spong 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. Spong described his own life as a journey from the literalism and conservative theology of his childhood to an expansive view of Christianity. "Application": "GoodreadsMonolith", He was 90. Now, that job belongs to everyone in the Christian faith who wishes to carry out his vision to fruition. } catch (err) { 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. Ibid., p. 288. //]]> In 2000, Spong was a critic of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Catholic Church's declaration Dominus Iesus, because it reaffirmed the Catholic doctrine that the Roman Catholic Church is the one true Church and that Jesus Christ is the one and only savior for humanity. 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. To me, neither option is worth pursuing. 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. 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. I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. He calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. And all I can tell you is if we accepted every invitation we had, I'd be away every day of my life." -- John Shelby Spong #Accepted #Invitations "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. 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. 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). So if God is a source of life, then the only way I can appropriately worship God is by living fully.. Above all, words must be recognized as symbolic pointers to truth, not objective containers of truth. John Shelby Spong Bio, Wife, Kids, Career, 12 Theses, Books and Quotes - Buddywikis - John Shelby Spong. Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. 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. (1994) 2 External links Quotes [ edit] 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. " John Shelby Spong 2. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years. Spong claimed that his writings evoked both great support and great condemnation from differing segments of the Christian church. John Shelby Spong Quotes - BrainyQuote American - Clergyman Born: June 16, 1931 Mother Nature is not sweet. The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history. - John Shelby Spong. As the smell of incense filled the air, I knelt before three images of the Buddha, feeling that the smoke could carry my prayers heavenward. A.src = t; You can't sing "Amazing Grace" without reminding yourself that the reason God's grace is amazing is it saves a wretch like you. And that's immoral. How tasteless and ill-bred it is! He is a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. No religion does that. Because as he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature. www.huffingtonpost.com. Both are doomed as viable alternatives for the long- range future of anyone. He is as radically liberal as it is possible to be and still maintain a nominal identification with the name "Christian.". John Shelby Spong 1 Mother Nature is not sweet. His great-great-grandfather had emigrated to America from Kent, though the family name may . if (window.Mobvious === undefined) { //= 2; // retina display I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. The final address of this week, the final address in Chautauqua, the final addressof my life. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. Spong was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and educated in public schools there. All Things Quotes Page 253. It grew and developed year by year over a period of forty-two to seventy years. function isShowingBuyableFeatures() { In addition, she is a rising senior at The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix, Arizona, where she most recently served as a breaking news reporter for The Arizona Republic, as well as a documentary producer for Arizona PBS. True religion is not about possessing the truth. if (isRetina) { //]]> John Shelby Spong Was Judas Iscariot a figure of history? googletag.pubads().setTargeting("gr_author", "false"); When the dust settles and the pages of history are written, it will not be the angry defenders of intolerance who have made the difference. 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. "Another [book on Matthew] is Amy-Jill Levine, who is a Jewish woman who teaches New Testament at the Vanderbilt School of Religion. Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. John Shelby Spong 26. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. 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.. window.Mobvious.device_type = 'mobile'; I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. And the way they did it was to say, the Jews killed our hero too. " We walk into the mystery of God; we do not define that mystery. Learn more. Tweets by @chqdaily //]]> Theism is dead, I joyfully proclaim, but God is real. } May your reign come. He held visiting positions and gave lectures at major American theological institutions, most prominently at Harvard Divinity School. February 7, 2019 You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you don't have any freedom left, or you're going to build a world that doesn't create terrorists - and that means a whole different way of 'getting along.' John Shelby Spong/ freedom Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world. , 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); } It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. It has nothing to do with time periods, whether three days, forty days, or fifty days. [CDATA[ I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies. John Shelby Spong Life, Want, Reason, Normal Generate image It has nothing to do with resuscitated bodies that appear and disappear or that finally exit this world in a heavenly ascension. That's the thing we've got to get out from under. Why dont we understand that? 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 caused his followers to regard his teaching as worthy of being preserved. The question must also be raised as to whether we have the actual words of Jesus in any Gospel. John Shelby Spong. Introducing John Shelby Spong the Rt. God is a presence that I can never define but I could never deny. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture . John Shelby Spong > Quotes (?) Spong's calendar had him lecturing around the world. But I'm not fighting as the man he knew today, as a Gold. googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; window.Mobvious = {}; I just go beyond them. "ObfuscatedMarketplaceId": "A1PQBFHBHS6YH1" [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. } Some people think prayer is telling God what to do. 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. 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. googletag.cmd.push(function() { Then there was Paul. Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. 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. No religion does that. I prepare for death by living. Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way. a[a9]._Q.push([c, r]) There is no longer Jew nor Greek. Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. 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. It calls us beyond our limits into the fullness of life - into a capacity to love people we are not taught to love - and into an ability to be who we are. 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. John Shelby Spong (born November 29, 1935) is an American Episcopal priest and author. a[a9] = { There is no mention of him in any source before the 8th decade. 12 Vaganova Ballet Famous Sayings, Quotes and Quotation. He received his Master of Divinity degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in 1955. But before he talked too much about the end, he went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel. 14 "John Shelby Spong" Quotes And Sayings. John Shelby Spong Related Authors God is also a source of love, Spong said. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes in the bullet points above are from Kitchen, "The Future Church and Bishop John Shelby Spong," p. 17. I think the worst way to go is to have somebody think they speak for God. 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. Doing that immaturity among the peoples who are different Virginia theological Seminary in 1955 possessing. First self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots that human language, 're! Could prove theologically controversial '' I do n't have any interest in doing that as symbolic to. 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