Rating: 
Summary: Promoting Biblical Literacy
Review: At the outset of RESCUING THE BIBLE FROM FUNDAMENTALISM John Shelby Spong points out that the subject of Biblical inerrancy is a popular topic of debate among Bible scholars but goes largely unnoticed by the general public. The author is interested in taking this discussion to the people in the church pews. His particular target seems to be the mainline liberal Christian churches whose membership is shrinking due to the apparent apathy of many of its adherents. For the people who are turned off by what they see as an irrelevant message Spong wants to rework the Christ story so that it makes sense in terms of this century. At the present time the Bible remains a prisoner of fundamentalist Christians.Believing in the inerrancy of the Bible has always presented special problems according to Spong. For instance, Biblical writers did not possess any idea of the grand sweep of history. They also had no knowledge of distant lands, oceans or continents. In addition, they were very dependent on oral tradition. The Bible does contain much truth and it is our challenge now to lift that truthfulness out of the confining structure of the ancient world. Beneath the literalistic framework of the Bible lie some powerful messages. In the Old Testament stories of the prophets we can see attempts to remedy human problems of injustice and the later influence of the prophets on secular social reforms in Western countries. The gospels of the New Testament tell about the love of God visible in the life of Jesus who is able to break all human barriers of race, sex and nationality. The main message of Christ seems to be in fact all about destroying the barriers of our prejudices and becoming truly inclusive Christians.
Rating: 
Summary: A provocative, important, yet flawed work
Review: Bishop Spong is one of the guiding lights in the struggle to wrest Christianity from the hands of fundamentalists. This book--perhaps his most provocative--asks the reader to suspend his or her notions of the Bible and to look at it from a new, perhaps disorienting, perspective. He does a superb job of outlining the various theories of how the Old and New Testaments were composed, and offers compelling commentary on the four canonical gospels. I was in awe of his insights much of time, and certainly appreciated his attempts to free the texts from literal interpretations, but occasionally felt that he went too far. His assertion that St. Paul might have been a gay man, for instance, is exciting and relevatory in theory, but ultimately falls flat because he makes the critical error of applying modern-day terminology to a life lived in the earliest decades of the Common Era. Overall, however, I found this book to be a thrilling expedition into territory that must be explored in order to keep Christianity a vital and relevant path in our time and in the future. Read this book--learn from it--but keep an eye out for those pesky gaps in logic and context.
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Summary: Rescuing Liberalism from Jack Spong
Review: Bishop Spong is the quintessential "Modernist." He operates within a worldview totally limited by Enlightenment parameters. His was a respectable position a century ago, when it seemed that Science and Progress were moving straight ahead, and the world was improving because of them. Beginning in the 18th century, Modernists wisely challenged the West's Medieval vision of the Cosmos, rooted as it was in dogma not science. But, as the Scientific Method has succeeded in opening our understanding of the Cosmos, and retiring the dominant Medieval understanding of Christianity to history, it has also succeeded in retiring many Modernist assumptions as well. For example, the Cosmos -- Space/Time -- is a heck of a lot weirder than anybody thought just a century ago. The findings coming out of the natural sciences today remind us that the gaps in our understanding of the univere have grown larger and faster than our knowledge. As such, when Jack Spong speaks of life "after Newton" or "after Copernicus" or "after Darwin" -- well -- it is so charmingly old-fashioned as to be funny.
Jack Spong's take on "Modernity" is quite spot-on -- but Modernity is so over.
Postmodernity has shown us that people are FAR MORE interested in mystery, the supernatural, the transcendant, and the radically spiritual than any old fart like Jack Spong ever would have predicted. Heck, even Harvey Cox, another old-timer, has moved beyond Spong to explore the renascent interest in Jesus, the Resurrection, and the mysteries of "traditional" faith expressions.
Spong's attempt to be contemporary is so painfully out-of-date -- he makes me think of Lawrence Welk or Bob Hope -- trying so desperately hard to be relevant-- and failing so miserably at it -- since around 1967. While Spong's real-life efforts to be inclusive to women and gays are to be applauded -- one does not need to jettison the essential Christian faith to do so!!! Jesus himself, the one who was born of a Virgin, died on a cross, and rose from the dead, was incredibly inclusive to women, and is the reason why any person of any kind should feel loved and fully included. In Spong's efforts to welcome all persons radically -- he has thrown out the reason to do so: Jesus Christ.
The Rev. Greg Jones -- Author of Beyond Da Vinci -- A Postmodern Christian looks at the Da Vinci Code.
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Summary: Wish I had written it--hope it helps
Review: Can Christianity be saved? Do you know its history? If you believe, do you know how, what you believe came to be? Should salvation be something that is determined by a group of men holding a meeting and casting votes? That is what they did at the first council at Nicea. What IS conversion? If a Roman soldier tells you to convert at the point of a sword, is it the same experience as the vision that St Paul reported? How did Cristianity go so far astray from the early days, and why did Martin Luther nail his edicts on the door of the cathedral? Who were the Neo-Platonists? Why has the Roman church worried so much about heresy and put heretics to death? Would Christ have been interested in a creed? Did he ever talk about a creed? Would he have wanted those uninterested in his message to be burned alive? He instructed his disciples to go forth and heal the sick, cast out demons. But if anyone should not wish their services, they were to leave the house, leave the town, and kick the dust from their heels, for do not cast your pearls before swine. How did the scriptures come to be? Who decided what was official canon and what wasn't? Why were so many of the scriptures found at Nag Hammadi repudiated and not included in the official Bible? Who taught you your Biblical interpretations, anyway? Where did they come from? Is that what the early Christians believed? I used to think that Christianity was so corrupt, so hopelessly defiled, that it is the most dangerous culture in history--and every Bible should be burned. Certain wrong-minded interpretations of the faith require you to surrender your reason, and your God-given judgement. Why would the Almighty give you the ability to understand complex aspects of the world, to appreciate beauty and to write poetry, and then ask you to surrender that reason in the interest of salvation? Christ taught us that the Kingdom of Heaven is already here, all around us. We are blind to it. Our blindness is our given spiritual predicament. He showed us how to be reborn in the spirit, to awaken to the Divine Reality, to see with new eyes and to hear with new ears. This is so valuable that you would sell all of your belongings to obtain this. But its like a sower going forth sowing seeds. Its a treasure buried in a field. Salvation is healing and liberating--in the here and now. It has nothing to do with asserting that you believe in this or that and then getting on the heavenly bus at the end of your days--it has to do with dying, spiritually, to your old ways of being, and being born, spiritually to a new way of perceiving the Father's Kingdom around you. This is an existential, psychological, spiritual process. Either you know what I am talking about or you don't. If you don't then you would sell all you have to obtain it. Don't you get it? Everything you know is wrong! Your wisdom is folly to God, but God's wisdom appears as folly to you. Seek, and ye shall find. Ask, and it shall be given. Knock and it shall be opened.
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Summary: thesis built on faulty assumptions, poor deductions
Review: Faulty assumptions and poor deductions abound in Spong's work: For one, Spong believes that people living in biblical times were ignorant of science; therefore, they were trapped in an ignorant worldview which embraced supernaturalism. In Spong's universe, if science says the earth is billions of years old, it therefore is. If science says man evolved from amoeba, so he did. If science says that Jesus can't walk on water or be physically resurrected, then He didn't. If science says a virgin can't give birth, then she can't. If science says homosexuals are born gay, then they are. It is indeed a faulty assumtion to discredit the biblical authors because we think we know more than they do. Second, Spong asserts that wherever the biblical narrative literally describes a God or Christ who is angry and condemns, then that narrative must be bogus. Spong even deduces that there is no way Jesus ever called the Pharisees "brood of vipers" because Jesus would never call someone a mean or offensive name. Third, in Spong's assessment regarding Paul's propensity to denounce fleshly desires, he concludes that Paul was gay! "Nothing else," says Spong, "...could account for Paul's self judging rhetoric, his negative feeling toward his own body,...his refusal to seek marriage...nothing else accounts for this data as well as the possibility that Paul was a gay male. Spong even states that Paul "...was not even a good scholar", and that no decent, modern scholar could take Paul's literal statements seriously. But then again, Spong is bent on discrediting all of the biblical authors, escpecially in their ability to accurately record events. In his attempt to "rescue" the Bible, Spong only introduces his own religion, one where there is no literal Abraham, no literal Moses, no real devil, no real resurrection, no Bible that accurately records Jesus' words, and one where Jesus won't ask you to change if you're gay.
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Summary: Think! Its not heresy!
Review: First let me say that Bishop Spong is NOT a television clergyman. He is an ordained bishop within the Episcopal Church. That said. I found this book, and others by Bishop Spong, to be a refreshing breath of fresh air. I don't necessarily agree with everything he has to say, but I DO agree with his willingness to look at the bible as what it is. For those of us who have a hard time with blind faith and swallowing the bible as literal "truth", the author gives us an acceptable alternative without trashing the whole Judeo-Christian faith. Read this books with an open mind. If you are easily offended, do NOT pick up this book. Bishop Spong doesn't sugar coat his questions and he doesn't feed you the answers or tell you what to believe. What he does do is allow the reader to ask questions they may not have thought of, or may not have been brave enough to ask, in the past.
Rating: 
Summary: Rescuing Christianity from John Shelby Spong
Review: I do agree with Bishop Spong's view that the fundamentalist movement (Jerry Falwell, Bob Jones, et al) has done more to drive people away from the Bible than anything else in Christian history. It happened to me: after attending several fundamentalist churches when I became a Christian, I was discouraged in the doctrines and beliefs that they preached. I turned away from the faith for ten years. Then, after realizing a real emptiness in my life, I turned back to the Scriptures-not following a fundamentalist's own doctrines, but to see for myself what the Bible says. I would let the message of the Bible speak to me. But what I don't get is this: if-as Bishop Spong asserts-the Bible is not to be taken literally (that is: the existence of God; faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus; repentance for sin; etc.) at all, what is the point of being a Christian? Or, why even read the Bible? It is absolutely true that God is love, as Bishop Spong points out. But we who believe have a responsibility, as is pointed out in the Scriptures: study (the Bible) to show yourself approved (in the faith); put on the whole armor of God; fear not, for God is with us; believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll never understand how Spong became bishop of anything; he sounds like an agnostic. The only thing "Rescuing" did for me was to strengthen my Bible reading and beliefs that I already had. It is for this reason that I would recommend Bishop Spong's book at all.
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Summary: Food for thought in a changing world
Review: I grew up in an environment of mystical, orthodox christianity that is not amenable to change, but in the latter clause of that sentence of experience, all of christianity - indeed, religions in general - are not amenable to change. The intransigence of christian denominations, in particular, makes many of them dinosaurs in the realm of human thought; and they must change to survive. The Catholic Church, the Episcopalian Church, and many other denominations seem to be making some headway, as this book, written by a bishop, attests. At its purest form, to be a christian is to be a follower of Jesus, and this often means that the person presuming to be a christian must struggle with what he or she understands Jesus to be. But sometimes the reality is not what we undersand it to be or what we would prefer it to be; and it can often be at odds with what others might believe Jesus to be. There is no direct record by Jesus recording his experiences or travails in this or any other world. In the end, we choose what to believe, and our beliefs are less about God or Jesus and more about what we find comfortable. Bishop Spong gently disrupts that comfort somewhat, and while this book does not result in an extensive rethinking of the meaning of Scripture, as the subtitle suggests, it provides a little food for thought. There are some who will automatically reject what is in this book because they are fundamentalists, but my somewhat limited experience with fundamentalists indicates that those of that belief system are among the most immune to reasoned discussion of the faith. It is also my experience that the belief in Jesus and God among fundamentalists is not predicated so much in an ability to intellectually support or defend fundamentalism or the "truth" of fundamentalism, but because it is what is firmly believed, and to critically think about the belief is not something that is considered proper. Fundamentalists do not want to hear what challenges their faith, only what affirms it. That is a shame, because the real value of a strong faith is not its intransigence, but its ability to deal with the challenges of a changing world. Bishop Spong's book is a gentle example of such a challenge and it deserves a good review. Religious beliefs must adapt with the times or become irrelevant; and sometimes deeply held views must be evaluated and reevaluated. As my father has often said to me, "there's a reason no one believes Apollo controls the movements of the sun, any more." If we do not wish to see christianity become as irrelevant as the belief in Apollo, we would do well to consider the words of authors such as Bishop Spong.
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Summary: A "fundamentalist" responds
Review: I like to listen to old Bob Dylan songs and reinvent them in my head. His words and melodies seem something like treasures that take a little imagination to fully appreciate some thirty years after they were recorded. It seems to me that John Shelby Spong is a guy who is trying to come out with his own cover version of Christianity. He's sick of all the ugly, dated parts of the Bible... he desperately wants to salvage the Bible for a new generation, a new era, a new people. After all, who's going to tolerate a book which condones war and incest, which condemns homosexuality and women in general, and which is riddled with errors? John Shelby Spong should be read sympatheically by Christians - especially those who fiercely oppose his message. He is not trying to destroy peoples' faith or send people to hell. Instead, he is saying that there is something worth salvaging in this Christianity thing. You might not agree with anything he says. Fine. But you have to understand that he's trying to save his view of Christianity. This is not a new argument. The idea of salvaging Christianity was quite common early last century. Reading Spong reminded me of sermons like "Will the Fundamentalists Win?" by Harry Emerson Fosdick. Like Fosdick, Spong usually attacks a straw person. I don't really think you can find "fundamentalists" who believe all of what Spong says they really believe. His demands on a literal interpretation of Scripture do not allow for idiom, figures of speech, thematic narration, or literary subtleties. No current evangelical commentator would make the arguments Spong attributes to them. He shores up his arguments with emotional appeals galore and does not show even the most obvious "literalist" counterarguments. As a result, this is basically a book written for a certain audience. For those readers who wish to clench their teeth at those hate-mongering fundamentalists, eat your heart out. Likewise those who are angry at a legalistic fundamentalist childhood. Spong is polemical and vociferous enough that you can use his writing to indulge in daydreams where you really show fundamentalists how backwards they are. The problem with any single person's attempts to "fix" Christianity is that they inevitably find out that their own views are the "real Christianity." J. Gresham Machen argued in "Christianity or Liberalism?" against Fosdick that the modernists had created a new religion and stolen an old name. If Machen were alive, perhaps he would apply the same argument to Spong. Regardless, Karl Barth discovered that a critical anthropocentric Christianity is a dead end. He did not believe that the Scriptures were inerrant, but he believed they were miraculously God's word and by God's grace, led to faith in Jesus Christ, truly sovereign God..
Rating:
Summary: Definite eye-opener..
Review: I myself am a Christian, and I found this book to be quite an eye-opener. The first 50 or more pages is filled with a lot of obvious literal conflicts within "the Word" itself, and I think that those whom try to fight this or take stand on this book without a --LOT-- of Biblical/Scholarly knowlege are on for quite a challenge. I do like his message about getting the feeling (and not the word-for-word translation) behind the Bible; this holds true for me. I had a difficult time at the latter half of the book. I would strongly reccomend this book for seminary students or priests, however for a common person like me, there is quite a bit of Scholarly discussion this last half of the book which makes it a bit sticky to follow. Definite eye opener. I think we should all keep open minds about these controversial issues. Spong does a good job of this, I think.
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