John Shelby Spong served the Episcopal Church as a priest and bishop for forty-five years. As a visiting lecturer at Harvard and at universities and churches throughout North America and the English-speaking world, he is one of the leading spokespersons for an open and engaged Christianity. He has initiated landmark controversial discussions within the church and is an outspoken advocate for change. His twenty-plus books, including The Sins of Scripture, A New Christianity for a New World, and his autobiography Here I Stand have sold over one million copies and have been translated into most of the major languages of the world. He also writes a weekly column for WaterFrontMedia. He lives with his wife, Christine, in Morris Plains, New Jersey.
"Bishop Spong's new book is filled with trenchant insights, searing honesty, and boundless hope." -- Robert W. Funk, author of The Five Gospels
"Bishop Spong's new book is filled with trenchant insights, searing honesty, and boundless hope." -- Robert W. Funk, author of The Five Gospels
In what he claims to be his parting manifesto, Spong, the former Episcopal bishop of Newark, NJ, saves his sharpest salvos for organized religion in general and Christianity in particular. Arguing for the full humanity of women, gays, and other disenfranchised groups, Spong continues arguments begun in earlier works (e.g., Why Christianity Must Change or Die), striving to improve upon his previously vilified or misunderstood ideas, such as the figurative nature of the Passion, the death of theism, and various dogmas and creeds that fall under the "theistic firewall of [religious] hysteria." Still, he doesn't anticipate much clerical support; he speaks instead to "the ordinary people whose name is legion" and is somewhat defensive in tone. As with his previous works, faithful folk will struggle with the radical nature of his vision, laboring to see what is fundamentally Christian in his Christianity. Loyal Spongians will welcome the conversation, but foes will be further infuriated. Purchase accordingly. Sandra Collins, Duquesne Univ. Lib., Pittsburgh Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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