Rating: 
Summary: Awful...
Review: Well, I read roughly a paragraph of this book before I put it back on the library shelf. Honestly, a "non-theistic view of God?!?!?!?!?!" Come on.
Rating: 
Summary: George
Review: The poor author seems more dedicated to destroying christianity that really trying to fix it. Most of what he wants to throw away was settled in the first three centuries of christianity after much debate. If he is so displeased with christianity why does he not just create a new religion like so many others who have in the past and even in the present? I wish he the best but I'm sure I will see this work in the clearance bin rather quickly.
Rating:
Summary: Lets call ourselves Christians while bashing Christianity
Review: Spong, the self-proclaimed voice of liberal Christianity, writes this tirade to believers in exile? I must ask: believers in what? When one reads behind the lines, Spong pretty much disavows the deity of Christ, denies the essential Christian doctrine, scoffs at the divine inspiration of Scriptures, and he repudiates much of the moral teachings of Christianity. The appellation of Christian to anything Spong writes is irreverent and fallacious. A previous reviewer of Spong has sarcastically opined in his title: "Can a bishop be wrong?" This says a lot about why this pretentious character took up the cloth and hides behind the pulpit. He elicits controversy and sells books by espousing his homespun anti-theism from an Episcopalian pulpit. Most of his writings are typical screeds against those 'zealot fundamentalists of the religious right' and arguments why the church should coddle homosexuals despite the clear Scriptural pronouncement that homosexuality is a sin and morally repugnant. The rest of his works are devoted to recanting the essential doctrines of the Bible. Also, Spong gravely distorts the beliefs of Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer about what is wrong with the modern church to make his case. I've skimmed through his other books at the bookstore like Taking the Bible Back from the Fundamentalists and this one is virtually no different. It is the same diatribe against Christianity under the sobriquet of "liberal Christianity." Needless to say, if you take this charlatan seriously, you probably have no FAITH, for he denies the deity of Christ and the inspiration of the Word of the God. It is nice of liberals to praise Christ as a brilliant prophet and man of God. However, they disavow his teachings as well as his atoning, burial and resurrection. They must face the trilemma posed by C.S. Lewis: Christ is either a lunatic, liar or Lord? It is as simple as that. C.S. Lewis, of course, believes as I do, that Christ is indeed Lord. If you want to be an atheist, agnostic, unitarian or a pantheistic new-ager that gives the pretense of religiousness and spirituality by hanging out in a Christian-looking 'church' like Spong while ostensibly observing Christian liturgy, and even call yourself a Christian than this is your book. Though, I suspect the bulk of Spong's online fans dispense with the pretense and take a more crass line like that of Nietzsche's The Anti-Christ. Nevertheless, I say to all of Spong's cohorts that Christ is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes unto the Father except by him (John 14:6).
Rating:
Summary: Spong's best yet
Review: This collection of tired and intellectually nugatory heresies are the best thing Spong has produced yet. It does not quite rise to the level of utter stupidity, but is straining up towards it.
Rating: 
Summary: Exiled Believers in What?
Review: I confess-- I have something in common with most of the Rt. Rev. Spong's fans. Like them, I've read very little of what he's written. (For example, "Can A Bishop Be Wrong" has two five-star reviews from Spong fans who are under the impression that Spong wrote this book-- apparently, they feel comfortable praising Spong's work sight-unseen).
Don't get me wrong. I've tried to read Spong. But, alas, the Rt. Rev. S. is a ghastly writer. After a while, the charms of Spong's writing-- his relentless self-congratulation, his presenting of hackneyed 19th-century pop-biblical-criticism as his own daring innovation, his use of the passive voice to hide sweeping and questionable assertions ("...there is surprise at how insignificant were the theological issues dividing the two sides [of the Reformation]"), his utter lack of a sense of humor, his unforgivably poor skill with words-- begin to pall. I haven't yet met someone who can read an entire chapter of Spong at one sitting. That's where another book comes in handy- "Can a Bishop Be Wrong?". The authors don't exhaustively categorize the intellectual sins of the Rt. Rev. Spong-- such a task could never be worth the trees killed. But they provide a good survey of his looking-glass kingdom. "Can A Bishop Be Wrong" isn't a work of Christian apologetics, because it doesn't have to be. Spong's main contention-- the foundation of all his work-- is his claim that no intelligent person of the twentieth century can be an orthodox Christian. To respond, one doesn't have to prove Christianity-- one just has to provide a counterexample. This book categorizes his errors and logical lapses with admirable thoroughness. Not an exhaustive thoroughness, to be sure, but sufficient to the silly task at hand. This book has its flaws. As others have noted, it is a collection of essays, and they repeat some of the same points over and over. The authors sometimes let Spong goad them into anger. And they don't argue much against Spong's theological outlook-- but since Spong's outlook is just rehashed nineteenth-century "modernism", you can find plenty of orthodox arguments against heavier intellectual forces than Spong. (Try Chesterton's _The_Everlasting_Man_, for starters.) This book has a limited market. Spong's fans will not be moved by what they read here, if they were inclined to try reading it. But to the traditional theist of whatever religion, who wonders whether he ought to read Spong and find out what all the fuss is about, this book offers a strong and well-reasoned answer: "Nope."
Rating: 
Summary: We all needed this book!
Review: This book has been awarded the Publisher's Weekly "Best Book of the Year." The author is the Episcopal Bishop of Newark in New Jersey. He has written fifteen other books, all hailed as controversial. He says theta the word "controversial" has become attached to his name and is almost a part of his identity. This book is no exception. During the first chapter, the Bishop manages to refute every basic principle or belief of traditional Christianity. He uses scientific data, mathematical data, medical discoveries, and vivid examples to make his point. For example, if God lives in Heaven and Heaven is up, Americans and Chinese are pointing in opposite directions toward God. So where is God? Of course, this was not a problem when the Bible was written because they knew the world was flat and Heaven was up. The author maintains that the state of faith of our postmodern world is "exile." We are believers in exile because we have been forced by scientific and medical advances to leave a place of ancient beliefs that we can never return to. Bishop Spong begins to methodically examine all the major factors that have combined to destroy each portion of the traditional Christian belief system: God, Jesus, the Bible, Heaven, hell, hymns, and prayer. Nothing escapes his scrutiny. Bishop Spong states: "Part of the nature of the exile experience is that it is a death watch for God as we have known that God." He states that the demise of theism began in the breakdown of a biblical literalism in Germany in the early 1800s. Whether you agree with Bishop Spong or not, this is an excellent book. He has provided many points to ponder. He presents solid arguments that can no longer be ignored. These conflicts within the Christian must be acknowledged. Officials must deal with them. I recommend this book for all: Christians and nonbelievers alike.
Rating:
Summary: More tired old liberal theology-from Tillich to Spong
Review: This is one of the finer examples of the result of following the theology of Paul Tillich-one leaves the oasis thinking that there must be something new to explore, and ends up getting lost in the desert, never to return. Such has been Bishop Spong's spiritual path. Though well written and easy to understand, Spong's book is ultimately a heretical bishop's rehashing of mid-century Tillichian theology, warmed over for semi-educated laymen. Spong makes himself and those on the same theological journey out to be spiritual heroes for departing from traditional Christian orthodoxy, but ultimately the stand he takes must be considered rather uncourageous, both spiritually as well as intellectually. "Death of God" theologies, such as the one propounded in this book, and utilizing "demythologization" techniques from the biblical studies realm, ultimately all fail in that they fail to give a rationally-based sense of hope to their adherents.
Rating:
Summary: While I appreciate the effort...
Review: I think that Spong's effort in reforming Christianity is a noble one, but this book makes it appear that Spong is more interested in simply "tossing out" outdated ideas rather than changing them. There is a line between fixing things that are wrong and simply ignoring them "because they aren't nice"; Spong falls on the wrong side of this line. He rarely uses Biblical arguments for his positions, instead backing them up by saying that they're not compassionate ideas. Compassionate or not, if God willed them, does it really matter? I would have appreciated a more scriptural approach to his ideas of reformation. Instead of arguing that his God's rules aren't pink bunnies and flowers, it would have been more effective had he argued from the position that God didn't will these things in the first place. For the record, I am neither conservative or Christian... and while I agree with many of his beliefs on social reformation, I don't think that the best way to accomplish them is to simply toss out beliefs that don't sit well.
Rating:
Summary: Bowl of Gravel
Review: A bishop who "exposes the Apostles Creed line by line" can only be trying to seek text proofs for his contemporary views. As the author tries to discard "outdated tenants" for soon to be outdated current socio-political presuppositions, his protests are rather self-revelatory. Like a character in a play, with a gun to his head, he threatens to pull the trigger unless the group he purports to support embrace the demands of their enemies. This book will feed those who have a religious affiliation, but are in fact - secularists. A bowl of gravel.
Rating:
Summary: No Work Left For A Theistic God
Review: Spong continues to amaze me in this book with both the breadth of his research and the number of his insights. One of the more interesting discussions he continues from earlier works is about theism - the idea that there is a personal God somewhere else who intervenes in the affairs of earth in order to accomplish the divine will. He cites Sigmund Freud who believed that theistic religion came about because of the trauma of self-consciousness experienced by the earliest humans. Now there is no work left for a theistic God to perform since the power attributed to this deity can be explained due to scientific advances. Spong's idea of a God who will replace the theistic God is more difficult to understand. The new God is described as a "transcending reality" found in all forms of life but only humans have the capacity to recognize it. Spong seeks this God in his own depths. Spong may seem to be slightly outrageous but he can never be accused of having a closed mind. I always feel energized after reading one of his books - including this one.
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