John Shelby Spong

By popular demand—study guides to two of Bishop John Shelby Spong's bestselling and controversial works, including questions, reflections, and summaries for group and individual use.

A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture

Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism

a gentile heresy : a journey into a new Christianity through the doorway of Matthew's gospel

Biblical literalism

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.

A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality

Living in Sin?

Jesus for the Non-Religious

Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love

The Sins of Scripture

A Bishop Speaks to Believers In Exile

Why Christianity Must Change or Die

why neither ancient creeds nor the reformation can produce a living faith today

Unbelievable

For two hundred years, scholars have been analyzing one of the most important books ever written—the Bible—and overturning much of what we once thought we knew. Everyday Christians, however, are not privy to this deeper conversation. It is for these people that renowned bishop and author John Shelby Spong presents Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, a book designed to take readers into the contemporary academic debate about the Bible. A definitive voice for progressive Christianity, Spong frees readers from a literal view of the Bible. He opens the possibility that some of the characters in the New Testament are imaginary composites or even literary creations—such as Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus; Judas Iscariot; Nicodemus; the Samaritan woman by the well; and Lazarus who was raised from the dead. He presents the Bible as an ever-changing and always growing story. He demonstrates that it is possible to be both a deeply committed Christian and an informed twenty-first-century citizen. In this thorough, substantive guide, Spong explores the origin and essential meaning of each of the individual books in the Bible, examining the background, the context, the level of authenticity and even the trustworthiness of the messages found there. He explains why these particular books, written between two and three thousand years ago, came to be regarded as authoritative and preserved as sacred; he traces the pathway that biblical religion has traveled as it evolved through the centuries, and he shows how people have misused many of these texts in the service of their prejudices. Reaching far beyond the familiar Sunday-school stories that have provided the content of most people’s biblical knowledge, Spong’s journey into the heart of the Bible is his attempt to call his readers into their own journeys into the mystery of God. “One does not,” he asserts, “have to twist one’s brain into a first-century pretzel in order to take the Bible seriously in this increasingly non-religious world.”

Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World

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.

Myth or Reality?

Resurrection

Drawing on a lifetime of wisdom, New York Times bestselling author and controversial religious leader John Shelby Spong continues to challenge traditional Christian theology in Eternal Life: A New Vision. In this remarkable spiritual autobiography about his lifelong struggle with the questions of God and death, he reveals how he ultimately came to believe in eternal life.

Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell

Eternal Life: A New Vision

In the history of the Western World, the Bible has been a perpetual source of inspiration and guidance for countless Christians. However, this Bible has also left a trail of pain. It is undeniable that the Bible is not always used for good. Sometimes the Bible can seem overtly evil. Sometimes its texts are terrible. Bishop John Shelby Spong boldly approaches those texts that have been used through history to justify the denigration or persecution of others while carrying with them the implied and imposed authority of the claim that they were the "Word of God." As he exposes and challenges what he calls the "terrible texts of the Bible", laying bare the evil done by these texts in the name of God, he also seeks to redeem these texts, hoping to recover their ultimate depth and purpose. Spong looks specifically at texts used to justify homophobia, anti-Semitism, treating women as second-class humans, corporal punishment, and environmental degradation, but he also delivers a new picture of how Christians can use the Bible today. As Spong battles against the way the Bible has been used throughout history, he provides a new framework, introducing people to a proper way to engage this holy book of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

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.

Why Traditional Faith is Dying & How a New Faith is Being Born

A New Christianity for a New World

Five hundred years after Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses ushered in the Reformation, bestselling author and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong delivers twelve forward-thinking theses to spark a new reformation to reinvigorate Christianity and ensure its future. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Christianity was in crisis—a state of conflict that gave birth to the Reformation in 1517. Enduring for more than 200 years, Luther’s movement was then followed by a "revolutionary time of human knowledge." Yet these advances in our thinking had little impact on Christians’ adherence to doctrine—which has led the faith to a critical point once again. Bible scholar and Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong contends that there is mounting pressure among Christians for a radically new kind of Christianity—a faith deeply connected to the human experience instead of outdated dogma. To keep Christianity vital, he urges modern Christians to update their faith in light of these advances in our knowledge, and to challenge the rigid and problematic Church teachings that emerged with the Reformation. There is a disconnect, he argues, between the language of traditional worship and the language of the twenty-first century. Bridging this divide requires us to rethink and reformulate our basic understanding of God. With its revolutionary resistance to the authority of the Church in the sixteenth century, Spong sees in Luther’s movement a model for today’s discontented Christians. In fact, the questions they raise resonate with those contemplated by our ancestors. Does the idea of God still have meaning? Can we still follow historic creeds with integrity? Are not such claims as an infallible Pope or an inerrant Bible ridiculous in today’s world? In Unbelievable, Spong outlines twelve "theses" to help today’s believers more deeply contemplate and reshape their faith. As an educator, clergyman, and writer who has devoted his life to his faith, Spong has enlightened Christians and challenged them to explore their beliefs in new and meaningful ways. In this, his final book, he continues that rigorous tradition, once again offering a revisionist approach that strengthens Christianity and secures its relevance for generations to come.

Why Neither Ancient Creeds Nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today

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.

For over 200 years, scholars have been debating, analyzing and exploring one of the most important books ever written—The Bible—and overturning much of what we know about this sacred library of books. However, a large group of people who actually use this book, mainly lay Christians, aren’t aware of this larger, deeper conversation. It is for these people that Spong writes Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, a primer on the history and significance of the Bible. In this informal and accessible survey, Spong moves book by book through the Scriptures, introducing their themes and messages by examining the sweep of history in which these books were originally written. What has history taught us? How should we read these stories today? What does it mean for how we live our lives? And why do people tenaciously hold on to so many myths associated with The Bible? There is a vast audience of religiously hungry people eager to explore a meaningful journey into the Bible, and Spong is leading the way with this book.

Re-Claiming The Bible For A Non-Religious World

An exploration of biblical passages that are used to justify discrimination, oppression, and violence against minorities, members of other faiths, and the environment seeks to reveal and recover the texts' ultimate depth and purpose.

Joseph Moingt

Jean-Marie de Bourqueney

Robert Ageneau

Cet ouvrage fait suite à la journée d’études du 5 octobre 2019 sur John Shelby Spong, lors de laquelle furent aussi discutées les idées de Joseph Moingt sur l’esprit du christianisme et cette partie de la théologie protestante familière de la culture moderne : la théologie du process et le protestantisme libéral. Cent quarante personnes ont participé à cette rencontre : des chrétiens en recherche, qui ont quitté la foi traditionnelle, s’en sont éloignés ou s’y trouvent mal à l’aise en raison des doctrines, des langages, des rites et de positions devenus obsolètes. La crise abordée ici, en particulier celle de l’Église catholique, ne se situe pas d’abord au niveau de l’organisation ou des structures des Églises. Beaucoup plus en profondeur, elle touche le coeur même du christianisme et la façon d’exprimer une fidélité vivante à Jésus de Nazareth qui, il y a vingt siècles, a donné son nom à notre « ère commune ». Le lecteur trouvera d’abord exposée la proposition de l’évêque Spong en réponse à sa question de base : pourquoi le christianisme doit changer ou mourir. Joseph Moingt, jésuite, nous questionnera sur une Église catholique toujours structurée autour du sacerdoce des prêtres et qui laisse peu de place aux laïcs. À travers la théologie du process, le pasteur Jean-Marie de Bourqueney nous ouvrira une fenêtre sur la recherche de Dieu comme énergie et puissance de vie. Si l’on ajoute les témoignages de personnes et d’un groupe sur l’étude des écrits de Spong, et les échanges qui ont ponctué la rencontre du 5 octobre, ce livre prend la forme d’un manifeste pour un christianisme d’avenir. Un christianisme ouvert et crédible, qui concerne notre génération.

Journée d'études du 5 octobre 2019

Manifeste pour un christianisme d'avenir

A global and pioneering leader of progressive Christianity and the bestselling author of Why Christianity Must Change or Die and Eternal Life explains why a literal reading of the Gospels is actually heretical, and how this mistaken notion only entered the church once Gentiles had pushed out all the Jewish followers of Jesus. A man who has consciously and deliberately walked the path of Christ, John Shelby Spong has lived his entire life inside the Christian Church. In this profound and considered work, he offers a radical new way to look at the gospels today as he shows just how deeply Jewish the Christian Gospels are and how much they reflect the Jewish scriptures, history, and patterns of worship. Pulling back the layers of a long-standing Gentile ignorance, he reveals how the church’s literal reading of the Bible is so far removed from these original Jewish authors’ intent that it is an act of heresy. Using the Gospel of Matthew as a guide, Spong explores the Bible’s literary and liturgical roots—its grounding in Jewish culture, symbols, icons, and storytelling tradition—to explain how the events of Jesus’ life, including the virgin birth, the miracles, the details of the passion story, and the resurrection and ascension, would have been understood by both the Jewish authors of the various gospels and by the Jewish audiences for which they were originally written. Spong makes clear that it was only after the church became fully Gentile that readers of the Gospels took these stories to be factual, distorting their original meaning. In Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, Spong illuminates the gospels as never before and provides a better blueprint for the future than where the church’s leaden and heretical reading of the story of Jesus has led us—one that allows the faithful to live inside the Christian story in the modern world.

A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew's Gospel

Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy

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.

John Shelby Spong

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