Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating and disturbing manifesto
Review: In this, his latest theological work, Bishop John Spong systematically delves into contradictions and conflicts between biblical literalism and modern society. He spotlights the uneasy mix between traditional Christian faith and a modern world-view: contrasting the seven-day creation story with fossils dating back billions of years: the understanding of Earth as but one planet in one galaxy of millions are just two examples of the major shifts in the world view that have taken place since the birth and death of Christ. For those espousing Biblical literalism and fundamentalism, this book will read like utter heresy. For the true atheist, perhaps, it will seem like goody-goody wishful thinking. Yet, throughout it all, Spong clings to the notion that God is Love, God is Life, God as the ultimate Source of All, and urges people, Christians or not, to examine their beliefs and enter into discussion and dialogue about what Christianity and religion mean in the world today, and for the next millennium. Even when I disagree with Bishop Spong's conclusions, he makes me reevaluate my own faith, and thus both stimulates and refreshes it. I am grateful for this book, even as it disturbs me.
Rating: 
Summary: Reason without Faith = Damnation!
Review: This book is merely one more in a large stream of publications that have 'the power to deceive even the elect, if that were possible'. Consider its stated appeal to those who are fed up with 'a Christianity that keeps serving up ancient fairy stories that are impossible for anyone with a critical (no, make that functioning) intellect to accept'. I assume, then, that Paul of Tarsus, Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Calvin - to name just a few - did not have 'functioning' intellects. On the contrary, those 'ancient fairy stories' are part and parcel of the 'faith which was once delivered unto the saints', and they have been believed by a great many persons whose fallen intellects have been renewed by God. People who do ~not~ believe them are called 'non-Christians' - and so are people who 'dismiss [Christianity] as a useless relic'. Why - in the name of heaven - should Christianity adjust itself to unbelief? There have always been unbelievers and the Gospel has always appeared to be 'foolishness' to the world. Is there something so unusual and special about ~modern~ unbelievers that we should tailor the Gospel to their subjective intellectual convenience? And I would like to make a final objection to such insulting and silly remarks as this one: 'It is extremely thought-provoking (which is probably why the fundies can't stand it) . . .' I suggest that if Spong's readers cannot defend him without making snide remarks about the alleged anti-intellectualism of evangelical Christians, they are merely demonstrating both their ignorance of evangelical Christianity and their implied recognition that Spong's views can be defined only negatively.
Rating:
Summary: Faith without Reason = Superstition!
Review: This book is awesome! I had only gotten a few pages into it and already I felt like Spong must have somehow tapped directly into my brain! He speaks to the many, many people out there who feel disenfranchised by a Christianity that keeps serving up ancient fairy stories that are impossible for anyone with a critical (no, make that functioning) intellect to accept. He asks a lot of the questions we are asking; dares to speak the truth about the anger, defensiveness, and politicism that have characterized the Church; and liberates Jesus from the doctrinal straightjacket the Church has encased him in.
No, he doesn't really provide *answers*--but I think that's the point. So often people who question are told, basically, to shut up and believe because shutting up and believing is what faith is all about. Spong replies that questioning and reformulating is healthy. I agree with him wholeheartedly that unless Christianity wakes up and starts reexamining itself, it is going to die. Thinking people will dismiss it as a useless relic because it will be so inadequate for their everyday lives. It's happening that way now.
I highly recommend that anybody with any spiritual life whatsoever read this book! It is extremely thought-provoking (which is probably why the fundies can't stand it), and no matter what belief system you arrive at, you need to arrive there informed.
Rating: 
Summary: Trying To Save A Dead Horse
Review: I can respect Spong's efforts to a certain degree, but what I don't understand is his inane attachment to Christianity. What he says for the most part makes sense, but he seems to insist on saving Christianity from it's own foibles. He is not, like some suggested, an atheist, but his newer views seem more Buddhist than Christian in nature, and few, if any, Christians will be able to accept his ideas. The problem is, once you take away all of the superstition and butchery and irrelevancies in the Bible, what's left? How honest can you be in referring to yourself as a "Christian" when you reject nearly all that makes a Christian a Christian? It seems as absurd to me as the Satanists who, if given the chance, will tell you that they are really atheists but simply call themselves Satanists. What's the point? Spong seems emotionally committed to a faith which he has intellectually outgrown. I think his efforts at saving Christianity are ultimately doomed . . . we must read the Bible symbolically rather than literally . . . OK, but how can this redeem the fact that the god of the old testament is an absolute butcher with no more morals than a common murderer? How can the historical aspects be read in such a manner? On the chapter on life after death, he never mentions NDE's or Ian Richardson's work, he never makes the slightest allusion to the mystical paths, which seem to be one of the few avenues open to the thinking person, so what's left? Hopefully the newer generations won't feel so imprisoned by the faith that they were raised in. Christianity was for another world and now it is dying to allow a more relevant and deeper scheme of meaning for the modern world . . . let it go.
Rating:
Summary: The bishop's confession
Review: Perhaps some of John Shelby Spong's readers have not read his own comments on his book. These appear in the 'editorial reviews' section, but you must click on 'See all 12 editorial reviews' in order to find his remarks. Spong begs, 'Please don't read my book as literal....', and then continues as follows: 'For those of you who are angry at the things I say about Christianity, please remember that we need to read _everything_ with a deeper vision, a deeper meaning than what's just there. There are a lot of chapters in my book that are simply allegorical in nature, though I never mention that in my book. Remember, if it offends you, just read it like I read the account of the Garden of Eden in Genesis: allegorical.' There are a lot of chapters in his book that are simply allegorical, though he never mentions that in his book. How utterly remarkable. I wonder which portions of his book (if any) are ~supposed~ to be taken literally. And so, probably, would many other readers if they had known what Spong did not see fit to tell us in the book itself. When he tells us that one or another Christian doctrine is primitive, parochial, and unsuited for modern Christians, does he mean this merely 'allegorically'? Is the title allegorical too? Just what does Spong mean by the terms 'Christianity', 'change', and 'die'? Perhaps he means that evangelical Christianity can survive only by refusing to budge on doctrinal matters? Somehow I think this meaning is precluded even on his 'allegorical' reading. I wonder whether his book would stand up, under 'nonliteral' reading, any better than the account of the Garden of Eden fares at his own hands. Perhaps Spong has forgotten that his 'nonliteral' approach left little intact when he presumed to apply it to the Word of God. Though there are of course allegorical passages in Scripture, people who mean what they say do not insist on being taken 'allegorically' when they are not writing allegories. The plea that his anti-Christian musings are ~nonliteral~ is nothing more or less than Spong's own confession of intellectual bankruptcy. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he'; spiritual bankruptcy cannot be far behind. Let the believer beware. And please ~do~ take me literally.
Rating:
Summary: Critical Examination of Today's Christianity
Review: Bishop Spong has given us a treatise with which to wrestle as we look at today's Christianity. Never have I been as spell-bound by a book on Christianity as I was this. It asks the hard questions and helps guide us toward some answers while leaving us to grapple with all that it means to be a Christian. My compliments to Bishop Spong, a true Christian looking out for a troubled religion. Anyone interested in strengthening their faith in Christ should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: An atheist's address to the atheists
Review: This book was written by an atheist, and is addressed to atheists, with the avowed purpose of making them feel good. It has acquired some notoriety not because of what it says, but because it is said by a practising Episcopalian bishop. The fact that he rejects God's existence and still celebrates mass in good faith is an indication of his convoluted thinking. The first part of the book attempts to discredit the Judeo-christian beliefs through simple, somewhat childish arguments: referring to the Nicene Creed's "creator of heaven and earth," he says that we now know there is no heaven, we have flown up in our planes and have seen nothing. But anyone who has looked up on a starlit night has seen the great majesty of the heavens. Having destroyed theism, to his satisfaction, he assumes that he has also destroyed deism, something quite different. He then proceeds to put forth in flowing sentences, his personal philosophy of religion, based on what he calls "the Ground of Being." But that is all it is, a philosophy, nothing more. The few pages located between the two sections reveal the source of the Bishop's difficulties. He does not know how to pray, he says, and he does not believe in the power of prayer, even though he describes a personal event which should have given him a pause for thought. There are many people, of course, who do not believe in prayer, but a practicing bishop who "has led many prayer groups"? The big joke about the book, however, is its title. Christianity cannot survive by changing along the lines he suggests and still remain Christianity. It will have died before it gets half way there. So if you are an atheist, buy the book, it will make you feel good. But if you believe in something, anything, don't waste your time.
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Summary: New options for religious people who doubt
Review: I think this book will be especially appealing to people who believe there is some higher meaning to life but who are uncomfortable believing that the Bible is God's best and only voice on Earth. Many people find it inconceivable that the Bible can be the perfect revelation of God and yet can acquiesce in things like slavery, oppression of women, and oppression of homosexuals. But the alternative of atheistic nihilism is equally repulsive. Bishop Spong's book proposes a third way: that God has broken through human history at certain times (most notably in the person Jesus Christ) but that humans can only describe these events imperfectly, and they are usually tempted to interpret the events in terms of their own world-views. According to this model, the teachings, deeds, and death of Jesus radiated the nature of God so fully that human witnesses simply assumed the whole thing was the unfolding of some divine plan and backed it into Old Testament prophecies to prove their point. This isn't necessarily dishonest, as long as we understand that the authors of the New Testament were simply trying to make sense of something incredibly profound. If you're a hardcore atheist or agnostic, you will dismiss Spong's book as nonsensical talk about "God" that presupposes the very thing it concludes: that God is real and is interested in humanity. If you're a hardcore fundamentalist Christian, you will dismiss Spong's book as blasphemy, apostasy, and heresy. But if you're in the middle group, which wants to believe in an ultimate meaning to life but finds traditional religion limiting, atheism depressing, and agnosticism a cop-out, then this book will present you with some neat options. On the minus side, Spong's book completely omits any discussion of why a caring God would be content to let humans wallow in controversy over these matters. (The atheist would say, "But there is no caring God," and the fundamentalist would say, "But there is no controversy." See the poles of this debate?) Also, Spong's comments about eternal life left me groping for more, as if a tour guide had led me along a very long path and then unexpectedly announced "Tour's over!" Nevertheless, I'm glad I read the book and feel enriched by it, and I think it should be required reading for anyone who wants to appreciate the progressive-liberal wing of late 20th-century Christianity.
Rating: 
Summary: A fine book for the average believer in exile
Review: This is definately a book that speaks to the majority of people. When I say majority I mean the masses of people who attended church and have drifted away. The book portrays what most of know inside our hearts, that we do very much believe in God but have lost all faith in the christian religion. So is christianity dying, I very much believe so. It is no longer a religion for the people. It is increasingly difficult to believe in the christian theology. It is a religion that needs an overhaul. So I encourage people to read the book, keep an open mind and you will learn some interesting things.
Rating:
Summary: "Christian" Atheist
Review: After writing several books describing his dissents from traditional Christian belief, Spong finally gets to the bottom line: he is a "non-theist", or in ordinary language, an atheist. From a political perspective, atheism is an acceptable view. The USA is a free country that recognizes the right to hold whatever religious beliefs or unbeliefs we choose. But Spong should have had the integrity long ago to resign his position in the Episcopal Church. Failing that, the Church should have fired him. Spong has ceased to be a leader who supports even a minimum number of the beliefs that supposedly undergird his church. This book has the usual irritants present in all Spong's books. He characterizes anyone who disagrees with him as uneducated, even stupid (would that C.S. Lewis were still with us; Lewis, a far more learned man than Spong and an incomparably better prose stylist, would have shredded Spong's pretensions). Spong's real passion isn't the quest for God. His obsession is with left-wing politics, and showing the world how advanced he is, especially by comparison with the fundamentalist straw men he continually sets up. Spong and I will likely vote for the same Presidential candidate this November, but his look-at-me liberalism is misplaced in a book supposedly about Christianity. It is almost comical to read the breathless reviews by the five-star Spong worshipers. Most of these folks believe that Spong is an original thinker. Actually, he is a garden variety naturalist who worships at the altar of science. How would he condescend to the thousands of scientists who have far greater scientific knowledge, but who still believe in God? One topic Spong has never addressed is the beginning of existence. If there is no personal, creative God, how did the process of evolution get started? Who set the Big Bang banging? Science tells us that every reaction has a cause, and that all matter was somehow created from an antecedent cause. Who or What was the First Cause? The only part of Spong's thinking that I find engaging is his idea that virtually the whole New Testament is based on a "midrashic" interpretation employed by the New Testament authors (this concept is expounded at length in "Liberating the Gospels"). It's clear to me that the Gospels are either historical accounts based on solid facts (in which case Christianity IS the one true explanation for this world), or they are mythic explanations for the phenomenon of Jesus. After 20+ years of agnosticism, I have recently recognized the historical and rational basis for belief in traditional Christian doctrine. Despite what Spong writes, intelligent people can and do accept this doctrine after careful reading and hard thought and struggle. I am not yet a full-blooded Christian, but I now know why many, many thoughtful and intellectually minded people have been and are. Spong's value for most people is that following his atheistic philosophy makes few demands on us. Just vote for left-wing politicians, and above all, don't moralize about other people's behavior (unless they vote for evil Republicans).
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