There are passages in the Gospels that portray Jesus of Nazareth as narrowminded, vindictive, and even hypocritical. "[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. I do not think so. q("i", arguments) " I go where I'm invited. If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. It is not necessarily words addressed heavenward. It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different. stylesheet.href = url; All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. A = p.createElement(s); And I have no reason to abandon it because it leads to where I want to go. "Events.Namespace": "csa", So if God is a source of life, then the only way I can appropriately worship God is by living fully.. url = "https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/mobile/phone_hd_images-2b89833762f600506d44865a33582d11.css"; _Q: [] } var ue_furl = "fls-na.amazon.com"; It's just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish. I'm a bloodydamn Helldiver with an army of giant, mildly . window.Mobvious.device_type = 'mobile'; Contents 1 Quotes 1.1 Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (1991) 1.2 Resurrection: Myth or Reality? And I don't mind saying that I don't invalidate any of those paths. q("f", arguments) 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. Integrity and honesty, not objectivity and certainty, are the highest virtues to which the theological enterprise can aspire. He believed in a more nuanced approach to scripture, informed by scholarship and compassion, which can be consistent with both Christian tradition and contemporary understandings of the universe. In the fall of 1988, I worshipped God in a Buddhist temple. The question must also be raised as to whether we have the actual words of Jesus in any Gospel. He was a liberal Christian theologian, religion commentator and author. BrainyQuote has been providing inspirational quotes since 2001 to our worldwide community. 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 (16 June 1931 - 12 September 2021) Introduction. "The older I get, the more deeply I believe but the. 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 priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years. I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God. 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. That is not within human competence. "Whatever it was that people experience in Jesus has today come to be identified with medieval doctrines based on premodern assumptions that are no longer believable. I call this God by different words. God is not a noun, that demands to be defined, God is a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be. var sourcesToHideBuyFeatures = ["ebfg_gr", "ebfg_fb", "ebfg_fbm", "ebfg_tw", If I could not move my search beyond angelic messengers, empty tombs, and ghostlike apparitions, I could not say yes to Easter. When Im asked to define God, Im almost wordless. [CDATA[ var gads = document.createElement("script"); The church is like a swimming pool. February 7, 2019 You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you don't have any freedom left, or you're going to build a world that doesn't create terrorists - and that means a whole different way of 'getting along.' John Shelby Spong/ freedom } //