It caused his followers to regard his teaching as worthy of being preserved. - John Shelby Spong. [10], Spong was a strong proponent of the church reflecting the changes in society at large. And that's immoral. It is love that loves not because it has been earned. However, there was one last thing he wanted to add. As far as we know, a creaturewho can: define life, contemplates its beginning, anticipates its termination and raise the question of its meaning, is a rare thing, he said. for(var i=0; i
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. If I could not move my search beyond angelic messengers, empty tombs, and ghostlike apparitions, I could not say yes to Easter. I don't think that's the case. And so Christians began to define themselves over against the orthodox party of the Jews as a way of surviving against the Roman onslaught. During Chautauquas nine-week summer season, the, Iconic Chita Rivera to provide Chautauquans with one of final Amp performances in 22, Incoming pastor Rt. The God of the Hebrews is a God that human language, we're not even supposed to speak the holy name. " John Shelby Spong 84. a[a9]._Q.push([c, r]) The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. From 1979 to 2000, he was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey. Spong was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and educated in public schools there. It meant to go beyond the boundaries of your religion, to go beyond your security system, to go beyond your fears. I'm a bloodydamn Helldiver with an army of giant, mildly . 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. Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_hd_images-2b89833762f600506d44865a33582d11.css"; }, John Shelby Spong Was Judas Iscariot a figure of history? I prepare for death by living. There is a mistake in the text of this quote. 23:17). 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. Because as he becomes self-conscious, hes no longer part of nature. Last edited on 13 September 2021, at 21:11, "Why We Must Reclaim The Bible From Fundamentalists", https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=John_Shelby_Spong&oldid=3004716. Spong claimed that his writings evoked both great support and great condemnation from differing segments of the Christian church. [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. John Shelby Spong Buddhist, Prayer, Believe Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. Doctrines are never a description or definitionof our God experience. session: { id: "242-2972433-4130551" }, If you begin to give people hope that there is a brighter future, there is a new tomorrow, then the people who were yesterday's terrorists become tomorrow's elected officials and they're part of the system. John Shelby "Jack" Spongis a retired American bishop of the Episcopal Church. There is no way that the Fourth Gospel was written by John Zebedee or by any of the disciples of Jesus. The primary reason the old idea of rescuing the fallen is no good is that there never was a time when we fell from perfection into sin. Plenty of people out there think of me as the Antichrist or the devil incarnate because I do not affirm the literal patterns of the Bible. I believe that God is very real. window.csa("Config", { The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history. } Almost any poll of regular churchgoers will reveal that their favorite book in the New Testament is the Gospel of John. There is no longer male nor female. url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_images-9e9093f0cfddba8c2b1e815375d976a3.css"; You can't go to church without praying ten or fifteen times for God to have mercy on you. [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. 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. John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. var url; It's just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish. if (sourcesToHideBuyFeatures[i] == source) The Bible has lost every major battle it has ever fought. Many of the characters who appear in the pages of the Fourth Gospel are literary creations of its author and were never intended to be understood as real people, who actually lived in history. Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends. Spong's calendar had him lecturing around the world. Steve has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. } The Christians tried to separate themselves from the Jewish crowd so they wouldn't be the recipients of the persecution of the Romans. Let me try to do just that. Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. I think the best way to view the Gospels is to view them as a magnificent portrait being painted by Jewish artists to try to capture the essence of a God experience that they believe they had with Jesus of Nazareth. John Shelby Spong I Am 21st Century Child Am "I believe that God is very real. Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. Favorite John Shelby Spong Quotes. Shelby Harris. var node = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; According to The Episcopal Diocese of Newark, Bishop Spong suffered a stroke before a speaking engagement in Marquette, Michigan, on Saturday, September 10, 2016. John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture . John Shelby Spong. We do not have to literalize their words to perceive their meaning or their intention to join in the singing of their creedal song. 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. I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies. It has nothing to do with resuscitated bodies that appear and disappear or that finally exit this world in a heavenly ascension. function isShowingBuyableFeatures() { John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. '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
By popular demand, here are his conservations with Tapestry from 2007 and 2009. Part 2 of the all things quotations list about every-one and in-its-entirety sayings citing Jay Baruchel, David Frum and David Frum captions. } else { There was new openness to the supernatural. John Shelby Spong Quotes. Jesus was undeniably a figure of history. Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. 5:22), yet he called his enemies a "brood of snakes" (Matt. return false; We've murdered them; we've burned them at the stake; we've run them out of town for something over which they have no control. The Christian story did not drop from heaven fully written. I don't think so. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. Top John Shelby Spong Quotes. 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. 51. John Shelby Spong Quotes "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. That is a paradigm shift of the first order. If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. Terrorism is a real despair. 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); } John Shelby Spong You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability. When I stand in the presence of this God who inhabits the heart of life, I know just why I define myself as a joyful . } My religious schizophrenia is at an end. var cookies = document.cookie.split('; '); John Shelby Spong was born on June 16 1931 at Charlotte, North Carolina, the elder of two boys. I call this God by different words. So if God is a source of life, then the only way I can appropriately worship God is by living fully.. setDisplayBids: function() {}, Part 2 of the part time quotations list about odd-job and salaried sayings citing John Shelby Spong, Rob Lowe and Keith Ellison captions. Bishop John Shelby Spong (1931-2021) One of the Episcopal Church's most controversial liberal bishops, whom IRD frequently critiqued, has died. Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. 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. 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. } In the fall of 1988, I worshipped God in a Buddhist temple. Are they hopelessly misinformed? 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. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world. www.huffingtonpost.com. var cookiePair = cookie.split('='); I want the traditional family upheld, but I don't want it upheld to the detriment of other people. 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. John Shelby Spong Quotes. Spong, Resurrection . It was for me a holy moment for I was certain that I was kneeling on holy ground.I will not make any further attempt to convert the Buddhist, the Jew, the Hindu or the Moslem. ", Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. I do not think so. From 1979 to 2000 he was Bishop of Newark. Spong proffers a third way, one that involves being "fully human." We are not really separated from God, he asserts. John Shelby Spong Quotes - BrainyQuote American - Clergyman Born: June 16, 1931 Mother Nature is not sweet. John Shelby "Jack" Spong (June 16, 1931 - September 12, 2021) was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church. I do not live in a world where people can walk on water, or still a storm, or take five loaves of bread and feed 5000 men plus women and children. var stylesheet = document.createElement("link"); I don't think much about my physical body going off into the long, green fairways of Heaven to play golf. John Shelby Spong God, Thinking, People 57 Copy quote I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. After love, he shared his beliefs about experiencing God. Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. node.parentNode.insertBefore(gads, node); Giving It All Quotes Page 34 Part 2 of the giving it all quotations list about premature-birth and baby-shower sayings citing John Shelby Spong, Eve Ensler and Milo Ventimiglia captions Now, the fourth gospel says that the moment that Jesus is glorified is the moment he's put to death on the cross, not the resurrection. Most of the noise comes from the shallow end. "My mind, my integrity, my intellectual questioning, and my God-experience all come together in this new image. A liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator, and author, he called for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines.[1]. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world. [CDATA[ googletag.enableServices(); }); googletag.pubads().setTargeting("signedin", "false"); You can't sing "Amazing Grace" without reminding yourself that the reason God's grace is amazing is it saves a wretch like you. A I don't think you can locate God or define God. Matthew was sounding the call to a universal humanity, Spong said. 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. "[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. Forcing the evolution is the dialog between yesterday's words and today's knowledge. Spong said this means human division must disappear. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. With the passing of retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong in September 2021, the movement known as Progressive Christianity has lost one of its most revered writers. Thats where I think God is made visible.. } John Shelby Spong 1 Mother Nature is not sweet. Prayer is entering into the pain or joy of another person. I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. John Shelby Spong I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. About us. Hollingworth said that it was not an appropriate moment for Spong to "engage congregations in matters that could prove theologically controversial". He calls for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines. document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(stylesheet); 1. Prayer is being present, sharing love, opening life to transcendence. Idolatry is religion pretending that it has all the answers. 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. return cookiePair[1]; Sometimes, you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. God is also a source of love, Spong said. Oh, my God, teach him rather to think like other people! 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." He was the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey from 1979 to 2000. I could not believe that anyone who has read this book would be so foolish as to proclaim that the Bible in every literal word was the divinely inspired, inerrant word of God. I admire our ancestors, whoever they were. Spong, Resurrection Myth or Reality, p. 287. Rev. Spong was born in North Carolina in 1931. When the Gospel of Luke was being written, the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples of Jesus and all the world. 5:44) and never to call others by demeaning or hurtful names (Matt. "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions". window.Mobvious = {}; BrainyQuote has been providing inspirational quotes since 2001 to our worldwide community. I find that children have very little trouble understanding non-literal stories. 50. Kelly assists on a wide variety . These are people for whom life has been so negative that they're willing to die if they can take down some of their enemies. It's a group of essays by mostly womanly scholars looking at Matthew's gospel through feminists' eyes - very exciting. I'm interested in penetrating the meaning of certainty. I think the first self-conscious person must have shaken in his boots. "Walking into the Mystery of God" by John Shelby Spong, www.uua.org. throw new Error("could not load device-specific stylesheet : " + err.message); (wikipedia) Born On June 16, 1931. googletag.pubads().disableInitialLoad(); return null; He was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. There's a Psalm that says "Happy will you be when you take your enemy's children and dash their heads against the stones." Christ must be served in every person, he said. He began by admitting he still has no way of knowing who or what God is. By contrast, Phillip Aspinall, the Primate of Australia, invited Spong in 2007 to deliver two sermons at St John's Cathedral, Brisbane. Even in the widest variety of our humanity, in our deepest set of beliefs, there is no outcast in this community, he said. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. }); 25:30)? Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence. Praying and living deeply, richly and fully have become for me almost indistinguishab le. "Q&A on The Parliament of the World's Religions," weekly mailing, 2007-SEP-05, as reported on. He is also Bishop of Newark in New Jersey [Ed. The Christianity of the future cannot live inside the doctrines of the past, Spong said. It is rather an invitation into a journey that leads one toward the mystery of God. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake. 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