Rating: 
Summary: Nailing Fundamentalism to the cross!!
Review: It's about time this subject came out into the open. Christianity is in dire need of reform, and has been for quite some time now. This book should be only the first in a series by many authors, Christianity can no longer provide answers to many questions posed by its followers. Prayer has been proven ineffective in healing the sick, preventing disasters and stopping crime and war. The earth is no longer seen as the center of the universe and mankind is nothing but one species out of tens of millions on this planet. Fundamentalism is antiquated, its science is obsolete and its foundations are crumbling...eroding before the ever-strengthening winds of reason. Buy this book, read it, and recommend it to others.
Rating: 
Summary: A work of courage and power
Review: One of the earlier reviews called this book "gutless." I could not think of a less appropriate word. Some conservative Christians would excommunicate Spong for this book alone, but I for one have found him to be speaking my language. I was "born again" at 16 and remained a fundamentalist for 8 years after that experience. Moving away from that, I did not go to church for some time, and I questioned whether I was a Christian at all. A few years ago, I began to rediscover the faith in a mainline denomination I once ridiculed. Having come through the exile to a renewed faith, I found Spong to articulate my own doubt, fears, and struggles beautifully. His chapter on "Jesus as Rescuer-- An Image that Has to Go" has got to be one of the boldest, most startling re-envisionings of Christian tradition I have ever read (and I have read Calvin's Insitutes, Luther's The Bondage of the Will, and other great texts of the reformation). To be a Christian without being a theist -- it sounds heretical, but a lot of us are in that position. It's startling to hear it from a bishop, since we laity usually expect leaders to be more assured (read: conservative) than ourselves. I only wish this book had been longer and more fully footnoted. Then it would be more able to withstand the assaults of outraged fundamentalists.
Rating:
Summary: Amazingly good book
Review: I left the Christian Church when I was 12, over the specific issue of its hate-crimes against gay people. But I had a lot of trouble with other "fairy-tale" aspects of the faith as well. How does a benevolent God create hell? If God exists, why doesn't he speak? This is the ONLY book I have ever read by a Christian where I found myself saying YES, YES, YES on every page. Spong addresses all the problems (from Copernicus to Darwin) and addresses them intelligently. A book that is destined to be a classic. If Christianity has a future, it will resemble this. The fairy-tale stuff is doomed.
Rating:
Summary: Spirituality for the Modern Age
Review: The Rev. Spong provides a concise, well-argued statement on behalf of a reformed Christianity in which the "God" concept becomes a force present in all living things, not the "grandaddy in the sky" God of the Bible. Spong focuses on the love and acceptance message of Christianity - in contrast to the fundamentalist focus on Christ as eternal redeemer and God as punishing parent to the human race. Anyone reading this book with an open mind will gain something from it. All of us folks who had given up on organized religion have cause to be excited.
Rating:
Summary: The Prison of Beliefs
Review: For me, Zen Buddhism has been a way to bring me back to Christianity -- as a practice, NOT a set of rigid beliefs. Why so much venom directed at Spong? Is he the enemy because he does not believe as you do? "Love your enemies" -- where have I heard that before? I think that if we all take a deep breath, clear our minds, then we can find peace with ourselves, and realize that it is how we treat each other, not what we believe, that truly matters. In some ways, Spong is trying to say that. There's so much hatred out there, and so much good Christian work to be done. Let's not throw our stones at each other but get down to the business of doing our work.
Rating: 
Summary: Spong is a muslim in diguise
Review: As I read the book, I couldn't help but wonder aloud "who on the face of the earth believes in and loves Christ, yet denies his divinity?" And the answer hit me like a ton of bricks, 1.4 billion muslims! Surely Spong has committed a greivuos crime against the church and fundamentalists. Perhaps he should check his collar at the door of the mosque?
Rating: 
Summary: a whiff of new age nonsense!
Review: If Spong claims to be a Christian, he really needs to research what the title and life really means. If he names Jesus, who is the living Christ, then he really is in trouble with the teachings that He taught. Our God is a living being, not a force, and he demands certain standards of holiness. Christianity- true Christianity will not change! The scriptures declare that God does not change; there is no shadow of turning with Him. What the Holy Bible teaches and declares is truth, and we dare not take away or add to it. Our thinking is not on the par of our Creator. Wisdom is contained in it and if any other teaches another Jesus than the one we are taught in the Bible, woe to him! People are searching for truth, hope and consistency in this world, being led astray by winds of doctrine disguised as Christianity. If you want to know true Christianity, don't look for it in this book! Fundamentalist Christians will not change! We love our Jesus,and know the truth. Don't believe this nonsense that Spong relates. It will lead you into a place called hell, and you'd better believe it does exist!
Rating:
Summary: Bishop goes out on a limb
Review: I have read a couple of the bishops earlier works and found some legitimate reasoning in them. However, his newest work seems to be a contradiction in terms overall. He speaks of an impersonal god in many areas and yet reverts to references that seem to imply that God is still personal for him on and off throughout the book. I don't think he has reconciled his belief for himself, and that comes out in the way the book is written. How can he postulate a god who is the "Ground of Being", the implication of which is that god is All, and yet refer to what we are "created" to do all in one breath? I had difficulty making the connections he sought so desperately to relate. I came away empty and feeling that if he is right there is no god at all. I have taken some classes in philosophy and read some difficult books on the subject. However, compared to some of those (such as "Scaling the Secular City" by J.P. Moreland)I found his philosophical thinking difficult to follow in the extreme. What disturbs me the most is that he seems to "throw out the baby with the bathwater". While I do consider myself a "christian in Exile" I do not believe that going to the opposite extreme from the fundamentalist paradigm is the answer either. I am willing to consider that current thought on the part of the church at large is not in keeping with who God really is. However I also believe that humanity has a limited ability to understand God in total. Much of the argument he postulates in this book seems to imply that modern thought (i.e. scientific thought) negates much of scripture. I belive that scientific thought should not be the sole criteria for trying to decide who or what God is. While Bishop Spong's earlier works do shed some light on the way the bible came to be written I have not found any significant resolution to many biblical problems in his current philosophy as represented in this book. If he wishes to be honest with his readers, I believe he should call his belief what it is: agnosticism. I could at least respect his views if he did not pretend that they in any way seek to further the cause of Christianity. Get honest, bishop!
Rating:
Summary: An intellectual exercise.
Review: Spong's new work is all about a formidable and powerful intellect totally frustrated in its proud efforts to encompass and conquer and possess the Holy, so it shapes for itself by logic and reason and some deconstruction that which permits it to continue and flourish without the pain of Mystery. Been there, done that, lost the same battle, thank God!
Rating:
Summary: Now I Get It!!!!!!!
Review: For most of my 38 years, I have been wondering how to explain (to myself), if there is a God, all powerful, all knowing, all caring, why must we endure all the horrible events of human suffering? Bishop Spong, now I get it. For those of you still wondering, buy, rent, or borrow this book.
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