Rating: 
Summary: Shame, shame indeed!
Review: Very naughty, bishop! Bad Spong! How dare you make God out to be a being large enough to wish to speak to *everyone*, but at the same time making him into a truly loving being that *doesn't* support homophobia or misogyny? And what's all of this "The bottom line is to love each other" nonsense? No, despite Jesus' own words in the New Testament, that's not the purpose at all! (I am without sin because of my belief in Jesus, which redeems me, so if anyone needs me, I'll be over here casting the first stones. See you in Heaven...unless you're somehow unable to separate the church's all-pervading Holy Spirit from Spong's belief of "God in all things", in which case you deserve to go to Hell.)Now that I'm finished with the sarcasm, Spong speaks eloquently to those of us who have had problems justifying a loving God who wants us to have contempt and hatred for some of the rest of us "Down here," or even the smaller minority willing to endure whatever eternal punishments may await due to a willingness to follow our hearts to a truly just, loving, and fair God, instead of faithful adherence to prejudices out of the fear of retribution. Organized religion has been a longtime justification for genocide and the termination of those with conflicting beliefs, and it's refreshing and commendable to see someone else who agrees that we'd all be much better off trying to get along than to become God's personal lynch mob.
Rating: 
Summary: Shame to the shepard that leads sheep astray!
Review: Mr. Spong should drop any affiliation with the Christian and/or Episcipal church. His writings go against the Bible and sadly, he will be held accountable someday for his false teachings. Christianity will not die because it doesn't change. That is the joy of loving a God that never changes and is always the same, yesterday, today and forever. He is a Saviour and the only way to eternal life is thru Jesus Christ. I'm sure Mr. Spong will face eternal death before Christianity does if he does not repent and truly give his life to the one that created him.
Rating:
Summary: Why Episcopalians must Clean House
Review: If Bishop (cough cough cough) Spong doen't believe in the divinity of Christ, he has no business being a Christian. How dare he use our church as a vehicle for his own clubby, social activism. We have political parties for that. His own stealthy means of change are what will ultimately be the undoing of the Episcopal Church.
Rating: 
Summary: A thoughtful work on believing with integrity.
Review: I have already read this book twice in the short time I have had it. As a minister in the Christian tradition, it is nice to finally read some thoughtful work on what can be seen as archaic practices. For me, Spong has revitalized not only the importance of faith, but also the reasons for that faith. As I have read through most of his books, a new world of faith and spirituality has been opened for me, one in which the message that "God is Love" finally rings true. I felt as though I had found somewhat of a kindred spirit as I read through this book. Although I do not agree with all of his conclusions, I do honor his work and champion his conviction in believing in a Transcendent Reality with integrity and honesty. Most of the questions he addresses in this book have crept into my mind before, and there is a bit of discomfort in reading this book if you take it at all seriously. Yet I am sure that once you read and reflect on what he has written, you will see the same thing that I saw, the Transcendent Reality as strong as it ever was before, just now freed from the restrictions of language. After all, like he puts forth in his book, isn't it really just a problem of language anyway?
Rating:
Summary: Why Christianity Must Not Change and Die
Review: Uncompelling and tendentious, Spong's latest offering had the effect of strengthening my conviction that Christianity must not change and die.
Rating:
Summary: Gutless Drivel
Review: I would have had more respect for the good Bishop if he would have just been honest enough to come out and say he was an agnostic rather than rationalize on the fence with this pseudo-spiritual gobbeleygook. Christianity is dying in the US because of the selfish, secular, over-commecialized and unresponsible "bread and cirus" world we live in today, not because the words have lost their meaning. To a lot of Americans, faith and obedince to God and his transcendence either takes too much work, doesn't fit their own agenda, or is not "entertaining" enough. I have to laugh when we think our feeble rationalilty leaves us as the sole arbiter of everyting. Somehow I wish more people would read the works of Mother Theresa instead of Bishop Spong if they really wanted to know if Christianity is still alive. Spong is the same man who virtually had to apologize his Anglican clergy brothers in Africa for calling them "uneducated" because they would not subscribe to his stealth agnosticism. I know why the Episcopal Church is the fastest shrinking church in the US now. At the least, I owe him credit for that explanation.
Rating:
Summary: An inspiring book - this is the good news indeed!
Review: I loved this book. I was brought up in the Episcopal Church, but have not attended church for years. When I have found myself in church over the years, I have felt, just as Bishop Spong describes, hypocritical and rather numb, saying words that do not, in truth, hold meaning for me, yet yearning to find a home for my own spirituality. Reading the Bishop's book, I find someone expressing, and supporting with scholarship, what I feel. I am inspired by the idea of God as the Ground of Being of which we all partake; of Jesus, not as unattainable perfection, but as the model for passionate expression of that Being, which is available to all of us. Clearing all the paths for its expression is the task, but it's there, and it's ours. This is the true message of the Gospels. This is truly the Good News.
Rating:
Summary: Radical Left Collectivist "Christianity" at its Lowest
Review: John Shelby Spong, supposedly a Christian bishop (although really an atheistic collectivist or communist), attempts to reconcile his radical left-wing philosophy with a traditional Christian Church that has established its beliefs over 2,000 years. Actually, he tries to bend the "ultraorthodox" (with which, IMO, is becoming too liberal) Church into his direction. In this serious affront to Tradition, Sacred Scripture, God, and all Christian authority, Spong suggests what amounts to no less than a nihilistic destruction of the entire Christian Church, an alienation of the Christian God (who is a bigoted racist/sexist, by the way), and all who oppose Satan and sin. "Acceptance of homosexuality" etc. is precisely what the Devil himself would love for us to do. So why give into this wacko and help the cause of Hell? I wasted my money on this book. Add it to the Index of Prohibited Books, now.
Rating:
Summary: FINALLY AN ALTURNITIVE!
Review: I have been continuously looking for a church of which the beliefs allow one to think as well as believe in a high power. But living in the isolated area that I do, I am surrounded by Fundementalist that think they know everything. This book provided me the information and knowledge I was looking for as to what exactly Christianity is and is supposed to believe in.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good, if a bit optimistic
Review: Bishop Spong argues that much/most biblical theology/history cannot be bought by the honest modern believer. In this regard, the book is far from groundbreaking. What is rather revolutionary, however, is his prediction that there will be radical changes in mainline churches' conceptions of the divine (over an unspecified time scale), lest they lose their relevance to modern people. While I identify closely with his opinions (especially the image of believers in exile, among whom I count myself), I think he vastly overestimates the importance of reason to the average church-going believer. Consequently, I do not agree that such urgently needed revisions in "accepted" Christian theology are likely to be forthcoming any time soon. The inertia of ignorance in the church is presently far too great to facilitate such changes. The church is in no danger of dying. For a much more detailed description and defense of the existence of the panentheistic god (I think) Bishop Spong believes in, see Marcus Borg's _The God We Never Knew_.
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