Liberating the Gospels : Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes

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Summary: Interesting and well-written,
Review: ...but a bit drier than some of Spong's other works. My favorite of his continues to be "Rescuing The Bible From Fundamentalism", but this one is certainly worth the read.

Spong's basic message is, essentially, that it is a mistake to try to force literal belief in the events of the bible; doing so is almost impossible for a modern, educated person, and the effort distracts us from the actual message of the book and of Christianity in general. The message of Christianity is love and joy and goodness; all else is window-dressing. This is a message that is difficult for most Christians to accept, and many who DO accept it come to a point at which they no longer define themselves as Christian, because the vast majority of those who call themselves Christian would not accept the commonality of their religious outlook. But this is the religion that Jesus taught, and Spong strives mightily to help people remember that the key to Christianity is to follow the teachings of Jesus, and that one cannot do that by blindly following what others have claimed were the teachings of Jesus. One must study the history of the writing of the Bible, in order to learn the truth of how certain passages came to be included, in order to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. If one doesn't do so, if one uncritically accepts what traditional teaching claims for the bible, one loses the power that originally led to the Christian movement, and is left with silly children's stories.

Not a book for those who wish to cling to a security blanket of a religion. But an excellent book for a mature reader who wishes to understand the real meaning of Christianity more fully.

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Summary: Why Did The Gospel Writers Claim Such Unrealistic Events?
Review:
Why did Mark, Matthew, Luke and John describe Jesus as they did? Were they simply under such euphoric idealism that they ignored reality, inventing stories that defy physical reality, acting as deception? This is not the case. And since this is not the reason, then why such miraculous stories of those such as a transfiguration and temptations by the Devil in the desert? There is an amazing answer that was formulated from a series of attempts by various theologians, B.W. Bacon, Austin Farrer, later scrapped, until Michael Goulder's thesis and later, John Shelby Spong's continuation of Goulder's analysis. Yet this thesis is not widely accepted as of yet among the mainstream theological community. That is, the seeing of the Gospels through Jewish eyes. It is here that one is revealed the midrashic method of description that correlates the story of Jesus to conform with the Jewish calendar and subsequent Jewish festivals that are so intrinsically bound to liturgical readings read in Synagogues each Sabbath, covering each (originally lunar) year. In Spong's Book, Liberating the Gospels, a full analogy on this thesis is presented, along with much more earlier and detailed writings of Michael Goulder.

It is an extremely enlightening look, an eye-opener, at why the Gospels were written and how they fit into the Jewish teaching and framework of liturgical life. It supports the fact that the stories were not literal, nor attempts to be so, but stories that repeat earlier ones in the Hebrew scriptures, acting as midrashic stories for liturgical purposes. John Shelby Spong is one of those writers that takes the mundane and brings it to life, in exciting vigor that forces one to think. A born writer.

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Summary: A Liberating View of the Bible
Review: I had long ago come to the conclusion that the Bible was not literal history but had been written as an expression of religious experience. However, I have never been clear about the particulars of this process. Spong presents the most common-sense and well-supported theory for how the Gospels were written that I have ever encountered. I am amazed by how clearly the arrangement and content of the Gospel stories fit into the liturgical calendar of the Jews. The use of Old Testament material to interpret the life of Jesus becomes obvious through Spong's unrelenting barrage of evidence. Spong makes such a strong case that only the most stubborn and narrow-minded fundamentalist could completely deny the theory put forth in this book. The book also sheds light on the writing of Acts and the epistles. I would love to see a future book dealing with the book of Revelation. By liberating the Gospels from a long history of cultural misinterpretation in a format for the popular reading public, Spong has done so much--through this and his other books--to liberate the Christianity and faith of so many in this secular age. This is a book to be studied as well as read. Like Spong's other books, it includes a detailed bibliography for those who wish to explore the subject further.

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Summary: Christianity that makes sense in Y2K
Review: If you are hanging on to your Christian faith by a thin thread, you need this book. In this modern world, many of us can no longer hold on to the myths of the ancient world as orthodox Christian theology continues to insist we must. The God we know we see reflected in Jesus is diminished by a literal reading of the Bible. Spong offers insight into how the gospels came to be written by early Christians who were also Jews .In doing so, he allows us to see the power of the truth they point to symbolically. Though we have long since stopped believing in the literal reality of a virgin birth or skies filled with singing angels, we do not have to discard these powerful images of our faith story. Reality and truth are not necessarily the same thing. Spong's work allows us to understand the ancient texts in a way that does not insult our modern brains. For those who are determined to hold on to a literal interpretation of the gospels, this book will not change their minds, for logic plays no role in their faith. So be it. But for any one needing a new way to hear the story of the Jesus they love, this book is a godsend. I thank Bishop Spong for his work.

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Summary: Restoring Jesus to his faith
Review: Once again, Bishop Spong has done Christianity an immense service. Spong is less a divider than a restorer. In his earlier books, he helped restore Jesus' essential humanity. In this book, he restores Jesus to Judaism, the even-then ancient faith to which Jesus was a devoted and reform-minded adherent. Spong helps us understand the gospels in the context of the liturgical calendar of Judaism. After reading this book, it becomes harder to imagine how one could understand Jesus except in this context. It takes courage to challenge the foundations of spiritual belief. It takes more than courage to do so as a leader of the church whose members are growing disproportionately gray and are being asked to forsake the representation of the faith that has sustained them for decades. The fact that everything Spong writes becomes a bestseller demonstrates that there is a receptive audience for a brand of Christianity that is not so magical; one in which Jesus' mother was perhaps less a virgin than a Jewish mother; and a faith focused more intensely on what Jesus described as his key messages: Love God, and Love Thy Neighbor.

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Summary: Simply Amazing!
Review: This is one of the poorest attempts at finding the Historical Jesus ever written, which is why it is so amazing! How did he ever get it published?! If he were not touting his title as "bishop", I doubt the publisher would have seen any value in it. The scholarship is seriously flawed, and the book that I recommend in its place will show why.

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."

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Summary: The Best Yet
Review: This is one of the two best books I have ever read, and I read a lot. (The other is "Davy," by Edgar Pangborn.)

The book presents a clear and convincing explanation of how and why the Gospels were written. Knowing this, it becomes possible much better to appreciate the wonderful, beautiful person Jesus was; to understand his message of inclusive love; to cast aside the distracting nonsense of the unbelievable literalist interpretation of the Gospels, so that one can try to see the picture of Jesus the Gospel writers intended their audience to receive.

Some critics would deny Spong the right to call himself a Christian, or to call the God he worships "God." Maybe they are right, but whatever name someone calls it by will not change Spong's faith by one iota.

Albeit I do not share Spong's faith, I recognize that it has in it a large measure of truth and goodness and beauty. It is probably not precisely the faith that Jesus held, but it resembles it much more than does the "Christian" faith of the perpetrators of the crusades, the inquisition, the holocaust, and the ethnic cleansing of Bosnia.