You cant have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability. That's sort of fourth-century Christianity that got turned into doctrines and dogmas that we've never been able to escape. 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). May your reign come. At its very core the story of Easter has nothing to do with angelic announcements or empty tombs. John Shelby Spong Quotes. 30 Quotes By "John Shelby Spong" For People Who Know Exactly How It Feels To Be Cheated On.The best 30 Quotes Of "John Shelby Spong" That Will Help Through Your Entire Damn Life. return false; I thought it presented Jesus as a visitor from another planet; in addition, Johns gospel is and has been interpreted as a document that fuels anti-Semitism in the church. Prayer is entering into the pain or joy of another person. A lot of people hear me attacking their certainty. I live on the other side of Charles Darwin and I can no longer see human light as having been created perfect and falling into sin, I see us rather emerging into higher and higher levels of consciousness and higher and higher levels of complication. '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 I don't think so. By popular demand, here are his conservations with Tapestry from 2007 and 2009. Are they people who no one prayed for? He is a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. var googletag = googletag || {}; He was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. I do not think so. [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. I don't have any interest in doing that. 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. 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. John Shelby Spong, whose books have sold more than a million copies, was bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for 24 years before his retirement in 2001. "[24], Spong died in sleep at his home in Richmond, Virginia, on September 12, 2021, at the age of 90. 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 . With the need for constant evolution in mind, Spong created his personal mantra. God is not a noun, that demands to be defined, God is a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be. A liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator, and author, he called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. " We walk into the mystery of God; we do not define that mystery. I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies. John Shelby Spong was born on June 16 1931 at Charlotte, North Carolina, the elder of two boys. The Bible was written between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago, and it's filled with the knowledge that people had in that period of time, some of which you and I rejected long ago. At 82, retired and enjoying life, Bishop John Shelby Spong doesn't have to be the liberal enfant terrible whose pronouncements for gay rights and against traditional dogmas once . var ue_mid = "A1PQBFHBHS6YH1"; That is not within the capacity of the human mind to embrace the nature of God.. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("resource", "author_45659"); And the way they did it was to say, the Jews killed our hero too. He called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. "https:" : "http:") + He is as radically liberal as it is possible to be and still maintain a nominal identification with the name "Christian.". Behind the supernatural framework of the first century, behind the language of myth, magic, and superstition, I discovered 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. He was also a professor of Divinity at the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1980 until his retirement . 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. var cookiePair = cookie.split('='); All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. There is no longer male nor female. During Chautauquas nine-week summer season, the, Iconic Chita Rivera to provide Chautauquans with one of final Amp performances in 22, Incoming pastor Rt. 52. } Apologetic explanations do not develop unless there is a reality that has to be explained and defended. How divine is the message that says for your finite failings you will be cast into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. Spong was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and educated in public schools there. I cannot possibly conceive of my planet Earth as the centre of a three-tiered universe. "ebfg_email", "ebfg_sms"]; function q(c, r) { It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. var gptAdSlots = gptAdSlots || []; Because as he becomes self-conscious, hes no longer part of nature. I call this God by different words. However, there was one last thing he wanted to add. 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. Part 2 of the part time quotations list about odd-job and salaried sayings citing John Shelby Spong, Rob Lowe and Keith Ellison captions. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("sid", "osid.a1fff312af8a1d2b3b241fa9193829a2"); It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. A.async = !0; Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. "Events.Namespace": "csa", "[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. He retired in 2000. No religion does that. He looks at the vastness of the universe and it looks hostile. [CDATA[ Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); I live on the other side of Charles Darwin and I can no longer see human light as having been created perfect and falling into sin, I see us rather emerging into higher and higher levels of consciousness and higher and higher levels of complication. He is also Bishop of Newark in New Jersey [Ed. I describe God as the source of life and the source of love and the ground of being." John Shelby Spong Life Love God Day "Mother Nature is not sweet." I believe that is what the God experience does for us. [CDATA[ The more deeply I can be all that I can be, the more I can make God visible.. I believe that I live my life every day inside the reality of this God. 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. Spong, Resurrection . Q & A for 2-14-2013 electronic newsletter, A New Christianity For a New World, Last edited on 15 February 2023, at 00:06, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, The General Convention of the Episcopal Church: House of Bishops, "John Shelby Spong, 90, Dies; Sought to Open Up the Episcopal Church", "The retired Bishop John Shelby Spong interview", "Former Newark Episcopal bishop Spong suffers stroke", "Dominus Iesus: The Voice of Rigor Mortis", "God is not a noun, that demands to be defined, God is a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be", "No life, here no joy, terror or tears", "Fear of ideas: The decline and fall of Anglicanism", "Sydney Archbishop Jensen bans John Shelby Spong", "My Evening with Bishop John Shelby Spong", "John Shelby Spong, liberal Episcopal bishop, dies at age 90", "Bishop John Shelby Spong, firebrand who championed LGBTQ inclusion, has died", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Shelby_Spong&oldid=1139405551, This page was last edited on 15 February 2023, at 00:06. window.Mobvious = {}; "Walking into the Mystery of God" by John Shelby Spong, www.uua.org. John Shelby "Jack" Spongis a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church. What the mind cannot believe the heart can finally never adore. [11] Towards these ends, he called for a new Reformation, in which many of Christianity's basic doctrines should be reformulated.[1]. url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_images-9e9093f0cfddba8c2b1e815375d976a3.css"; function isShowingBuyableFeatures() { All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. John Shelby Spong 25. Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("signedin", "false"); 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. gads.src = (useSSL ? I operate with an emotional fearlessness, and I really feel music; I really feel songs. Spong said the only way his mission can be successful is if his mantra is carried out without any set of boundaries. 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. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. Are they hopelessly misinformed? John Shelby Spong I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. return true; Don't read that to me on Sunday morning and say "This is the word of the Lord." } It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. . var ue_sn = "www.goodreads.com"; He was 90. That is not within human competence. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. 23:33), "blind fools" (Matt. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. It grew and developed year by year over a period of forty-two to seventy years. I know rather that the sun, around which my planet Earth revolves, is a middle sized star in a galaxy called the Milky Way that has over a hundred billion other suns or stars within it. John Shelby Spong I cannot say my yes to legends that have been clearly and fancifully created. What Im 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. 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. //]]> a[a9] = { It meant to go beyond the boundaries of your religion, to go beyond your security system, to go beyond your fears. } Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. There's a Psalm that says "Happy will you be when you take your enemy's children and dash their heads against the stones." John Shelby Spong (16 June 1931 - 12 September 2021) Introduction. googletag.pubads().disableInitialLoad(); page: {requestId: "TXPX0XF032R2WV9SNJQY", meaningful: "interactive"} setDisplayBids: function() {}, !function(){function n(n,t){var r=i(n);return t&&(r=r("instance",t)),r}var r=[],c=0,i=function(t){return function(){var n=c++;return r.push([t,[].slice.call(arguments,0),n,{time:Date.now()}]),i(n)}};n._s=r,this.csa=n}(); It is the book that is most often used at Christian funerals. He was the eleventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester, New York from 1988 until 2000. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. The Rt. Prayer is what I am doing when I love wastefully, passionately and wondrously and invite others to do so. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Browse top 25 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by John Shelby Spong. He began by admitting he still has no way of knowing who or what God is. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? gads.type = "text/javascript"; }); His views on the future of Christianity were "that we have to start where we are. [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. "[23], Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, described Spong's teaching as constituting the historic definition of heresy, having "denied virtually every major Christian doctrine. JOHN SHELBY SPONG: The first homosexual person that I ordained knowingly was a man named Robert Williams. 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. 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. -- John Shelby Spong #Giving "I go where I'm invited. var cookies = document.cookie.split('; '); I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. stylesheet.href = url; He was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey from 1979 to 2000. That is not what most Christians have been taught to think, but it is factual. That is a paradigm shift of the first order. var source = getCookieWithoutJQuery("source"); Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. var e = document.createElement("script"); e.src = "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41mrkPcyPwL.js"; document.head.appendChild(e); And so Christians began to define themselves over against the orthodox party of the Jews as a way of surviving against the Roman onslaught. Spong was born in North Carolina in 1931. 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. But before he talked too much about the end, he went back to the Jewish roots of Matthews Gospel. The Christians tried to separate themselves from the Jewish crowd so they wouldn't be the recipients of the persecution of the Romans. Spong said this means human division must disappear. . 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. If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you dont have any freedom left, or youre going to build a world that doesnt create terrorists and that means a whole different way of getting along.. //]]> try { 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. for(var i=0; i