Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? Do you believe Jesus literally rose from the grave? Do you believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God and must be read literally? Answer “no” to any of those questions and there are many
Stranger in a strange land John Shelby Spong, the controversial Episcopal bishop who writes such provocatively titled books as Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speakers to Believers in Exile and Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture,
After reading four books by Bishop John Shelby Spong, I have decided to reevaluate the first of his books that I read, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture. As you can tell from the title, this book was written
Throughout the course of his lifetime, respected bishop and author John Shelby Spong has been an outspoken advocate of liberal Christianity. He has been globally recognized as a lightning rod for controversy and has made his name known to religious people everywhere. In addition to
What if we were to understand the resurrection and ascension not as the bodily translation of some individuals to another world — a mythology no longer credible to us — but as the promise of God to be permanently present, ‘bodily’ present to us, in
What Easter is all about As a liberal Christian, I have always had quite a few unanswered questions about the event that is commonly known as Easter. Growing up in a conservative household, I was raised to believe that Easter meant a literal, bodily resurrection
Shaping the face of a new Christianity When it comes to retired Anglican Bishop John Shelby Spong, there seems to be no middle ground. Either you love him or you hate him. Just a quick gander at the reviews posted on Amazon of his new
Freeing Jesus Like so many other people, I was taught as a child that the biblical books we call the Gospels were eyewitness accounts detailing the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The accuracy of these books, I was also told, was so precise that we
Battling for the heart of Christianity Rejoice gays and lesbians! Bishop John Shelby Spong says our battle has been won already. Bishop Spong’s critics often lambaste him for making statements they find outrageous, and when he told me during a recent interview that our battle