Rating: 
Summary: The Return of Spongian Apostasy
Review: Resurrection: Myth or Reality is Bishop Spong's attempt to redefine Christianity's central doctrine.This time, Spong's Jesus hasn't physically resurrected from the dead but merely lives on in his follower's hearts through the example of his selfless love and forgiveness for others. The Bishop's Jesus lives on in people's hearts much like a deceased loved one lives on through our memories and feelings for them. Ordinarily this would be well and good but it's not good enough for the person of Jesus. Without his literal death and physical resurrection, there is no Christianity. Spong's version of the resurrection, if you can even call it that, is nothing more than Orwellian doublespeak that undermines the blessed hope of Christ. Authentic Christianity tells us that Jesus was the Divine Son of God who had Glory with God before the worlds were formed. He took the form of a man, came to earth, died on the cross and physically resurrected from the dead. The significance of this being that ONLY he, God the Son in human form, was worthy enough, to once and for all pay the penalty for the sins of humanity in their entirety. A mere mortal would not have been righteous enough to take the place of billions - only God himself could accomplish this. Spong would dispute the resurrection on the basis that it defies the laws of nature. In other words, it's in the realm of the miraculous. There are of course some things that God cannot do. He cannot lie. (Titus 1:2) He cannot be separated from His people. (Romans 8:38-39) He cannot be tempted by evil. (James 1:13) But nowhere does it say that He who created the Universe cannot or does not override the laws that He made to govern it, to accomplish a purpose. And that, in the lowest common denominator, is what the New Testament is claiming God did when He resurrected Jesus. God defied and conquered the law and power of death. (Acts 2:24) The laws of physics and biology are not to be confused with God's moral laws like those found in the Torah that Jesus perfectly fulfilled 24-7 (Matthew 5:17). The Laws of Physics are different and the Bible tells us that God has on occasion over-ridden them to help His people. Did God not do this for Joshua and the Israelites when they needed another 24 hours to win their war against the Amorites? (Joshua 10:12-14) For those who think that the notion of God over-riding the Laws of Physics is Biblical mythology...Iranian scholars have recorded a night lasting three days followed by a day lasting three days. The Chinese recorded the same phenomena. Just because the Bible quotes something similar for Joshua and a resurrection for Jesus does not make these events any less viable. How does one explain Thomas' encounter with a physically Risen Christ? (John 20:27) Or Jesus having a meal with the apostles after his resurrection and challenging them with the words, "Look at my hands and my feet...Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." (Luke 24:39 NIV) What about Jesus appearing to 500 eyewitnesses at once after the resurrection? (I Corinthians 15:6)
Spong's attempts at an explanation for these events does not answer the question. But what actually happened in the months and years following serves to confirm the idea of a physically resurrected Christ. The apostles were changed after the resurrection. Where once they ran in fear of being persecuted by the Roman authorities for being friends with Jesus; after the resurrection they go out to the world and boldly declare Jesus as the Messiah - first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. In the process they left their families and livelihoods behind, suffered persecutions and ultimately lost their lives for the Gospel message; never recanting, never backing away from the central message that Jesus physically rose from the dead. Only the apostle John died a natural death but not before he was boiled in hot oil for preaching this Risen Jesus. What brought about this change of heart and courage in these men? Was it mere sentiment as Bishop Spong implies? Or did these people literally witness something that changed them? As for myth entering the story...St. Paul was preaching the death and resurrection of Jesus in the mid-fifties of the first century CE to the Thessalonians in Greece. (I Thessalonians 4:14) Twenty years after the death of Jesus was not enough time for myth and allegory to enter the picture. Finally, where's Jesus' body? According to Spong, no one knows. How convenient this is for his illogical arguments. The Jews had/have a wonderful way of remembering their dead. We can find the tombs of the patriarchs across the Holy Land with their history making bones enshrined. If Jesus died but did not resurrect; where is the body of the beloved Master? What is Spong implying; his followers forgot about him? Or that someone desecrated the tomb and robbed Jesus' body with Roman guards standing watch? Untenable nonsense. The question must be answered not avoided. Bishop Spong fails to address these points of fact in any credible manner - if at all. It's as if he is hell bent on denying and disproving Christianity with his apostate doublespeak. "...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile..we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.." (I Corinthians 15:17-20 NIV) For those interested in reading a more plausible account about what happend to Jesus after his crucifixion, read Frank Morrison's "Who Moved the Stone" or Simon Greenleaf's, "The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Four Gospels Examined By the Rules of Evidence."
Rating: 
Summary: Spong Answers: Myth AND Reality
Review: Spong attempts to distinguish between the myths surrounding Jesus' "resurrection" and the reality of what he calls "the Easter Moment," which the myths "point to." He quite persuasively reconstructs what may well be the actual sequence of events leading up to and following "The Easter Moment." Jesus was probably crucified just before, during, or just after the Jewish festival of Passover. If the Jews had any input into the decision to put Jesus to death, their consideration of the matter did NOT occur during Passover. They may have concurred in the decision before Passover, or after Passover, or (most likely) not at all, but it would have been a major scandal for them to consider the question DURING Passover. They would have been horrified at the thought of desecrating the holy days of Passover by conducting such deliberations then, so it can be confidently asserted that they did not do so. The "Easter Moment," Spong argues, occurred not in Jerusalem, but in the vicinity of Lake Chinnereth (Galilee), quite possibly in a fishing boat on the lake itself. It occurred sometime during the summer following the Crucifixion, or possibly early in the fall. Read the book to find out who experienced the Easter Moment, and led the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and when. In the final pages, Spong says that he has led the reader to what he believes is the true beginning of Christianity, and that the reader must now decide for herself (himself) whether to answer as Spong has with a resounding "yes" and accept the reality of the resurrection as he has described it, or to answer "no" and walk away from it. This reader could do neither. While I am convinced that Spong's reconstruction of events is the most plausible account I have found, I cannot feel certain that Spong's interpretation of those events is correct, but neither can I feel certain that it is wrong. Spong's theology is certainly more plausible than the theology of those who insist that the lectionaries of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John are factually inerrant biographies of the life of Jesus. Spong's theology also leads him to "love wastefully" all of humanity, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and so on. But if Spong's "Christianity" becomes the wave of the future, how can it fail to be distorted and perverted by the commercial purveyors of "Christianity" (the "love Jesus and send me money" crowd), just as Jesus' message of all-embracing love was perverted to justify the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and more recently, the systematic raping of Islamic women in Bosnia?
Rating:
Summary: Spong Answers: Myth AND Reality
Review: Spong attempts to distinguish between the myths surrounding Jesus' "resurrection" and the reality of what he calls "the Easter Moment," which the myths "point to." He quite persuasively reconstructs what may well be the actual sequence of events leading up to and following "The Easter Moment." Jesus was probably crucified just before, during, or just after the Jewish festival of Passover. If the Jews had any input into the decision to put Jesus to death, their consideration of the matter did NOT occur during Passover. They may have concurred in the decision before Passover, or after Passover, or (most likely) not at all, but it would have been a major scandal for them to consider the question DURING Passover. They would have been horrified at the thought of desecrating the holy days of Passover by conducting such deliberations then, so it can be confidently asserted that they did not do so. The "Easter Moment," Spong argues, occurred not in Jerusalem, but in the vicinity of Lake Chinnereth (Galilee), quite possibly in a fishing boat on the lake itself. It occurred sometime during the summer following the Crucifixion, or possibly early in the fall. Read the book to find out who experienced the Easter Moment, and led the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and when. In the final pages, Spong says that he has led the reader to what he believes is the true beginning of Christianity, and that the reader must now decide for herself (himself) whether to answer as Spong has with a resounding "yes" and accept the reality of the resurrection as he has described it, or to answer "no" and walk away from it. This reader could do neither. While I am convinced that Spong's reconstruction of events is the most plausible account I have found, I cannot feel certain that Spong's interpretation of those events is correct, but neither can I feel certain that it is wrong. Spong's theology is certainly more plausible than the theology of those who insist that the lectionaries of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John are factually inerrant biographies of the life of Jesus. Spong's theology also leads him to "love wastefully" all of humanity, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and so on. But if Spong's "Christianity" becomes the wave of the future, how can it fail to be distorted and perverted by the commercial purveyors of "Christianity" (the "love Jesus and send me money" crowd), just as Jesus' message of all-embracing love was perverted to justify the Inquisition, the Holocaust, and more recently, the systematic raping of Islamic women in Bosnia?
Rating:
Summary: A great "bok" indeed
Review: The previous reviewer, if German, is quite right in calling it a great bok. "Bok" is phonentic German for "goat" and that just about sums it up.
Rating:
Summary: Hal Lindsey's Evil Twin?
Review: The two worst religious writers in the U.S. are, in my opinion, John Shelby Spong and Hal Lindsey. I know that they represent polar opposites of the religious spectrum, but I find them to be equally convincing (which is, not at all), equally perceptive (in other words, they seem to be completely ignorant of the intellectual life of the culture as a whole), and both equally unconvincing. A bishop? In this and the other book of his that I have read (WHY CHRISTIANITY MUST CHANGE OR DIE--though I find it interesting that the groups he most feels are in need of a change are the ones that show so much health, while his own religious tradition is in the throes of death), I have found some of the most earnestly held beliefs against Christianity that I have ever encountered. You could more easily convince me that these are lost texts by Robert Ingersoll than a Christian bishop. Can't his governing body change its mind? One thing that I have never been able to fathom about Spong is this: liberal churches are all, with no exceptions, shrinking, with massive losses of membership over the past few decades. Evangelical and even fundamentalist churches, on the other hand, continue to grow. The evangelical churches even acquire more educated and highly literate individuals than does Spong's own church. One thing is unquestionably certain: change too much, and your church will die.
Rating: 
Summary: A False Dilemma
Review: There is another explanation that is more plausible than either literalism OR Spong's implausible interpretation. It normally took days to die of crucifixtion. Jesus was up there only for a few hours. Then his tomb was found empty, and later he shows up at his friends' hideout. They all agree that he was solid, fleshly, and wounded, with nail holes in his hands. He begs them to give him something to eat (!), and then leaves, intending to rendevous with them again soon. Isn't it far more plausible to suppose he managed somehow to survive the cricifixtion, than that he was magically, supernaturally raised from the dead? Hello? People have been known to survive wounds far worse, including multiple stab wounds and bullets. Notice his friend, Joseph, is the one who took away the "corpse." Notice also the friend who gave him some substance to drink up there, after which he swoons. Think...
Rating:
Summary: BE CAREFUL TO WHAT YOU READ
Review: There is no excuse for the Truth and the Word of God
Rating:
Summary: A good read for liberal Christians.
Review: This book has an unfortunate title. It must have been titled by the greedy publishing company in an attempt to sell more books. Most of the book doesn't directly address the dilemma "Myth or Reality". The book views the resurrection as the crowning moment for Christianity, but in a larger sense it examines the New Testament gospels as being understood as midrash--a Judaic form of sermon and storytelling. Indeed, one of the obstacles in my faith was the fact that so much that the traditional church views as "history" is merely copying from the Old Testament Torah. Unlike G.A. Wells, or Earl Doherty, Spong does not want to dispel the entire Jesus episode as legend or myth, but rather he wants to distill the non-literal spiritual "truths" of Christ from the sermons that are Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. From those truths, he looks back and reconstructs some historical possibilities, but still doesn't view the historical literalism as a good foundation for faith. All in all, this is a well-written book and will give the reader something new to consider. Although I suppose those who claim the literal resurrection as truth will mark Spong's theology as some sort of modern-day gnosticism, his viewpoint is a good compromise for those of us who find it intellectually irresponsible to view the New Testament as historical.
Rating:
Summary: A good read for liberal Christians.
Review: This book has an unfortunate title. It must have been titled by the greedy publishing company in an attempt to sell more books. Most of the book doesn't directly address the dilemma "Myth or Reality". The book views the resurrection as the crowning moment for Christianity, but in a larger sense it examines the New Testament gospels as being understood as midrash--a Judaic form of sermon and storytelling. Indeed, one of the obstacles in my faith was the fact that so much that the traditional church views as "history" is merely copying from the Old Testament Torah. Unlike G.A. Wells, or Earl Doherty, Spong does not want to dispel the entire Jesus episode as legend or myth, but rather he wants to distill the non-literal spiritual "truths" of Christ from the sermons that are Matthew, Mark, Luke & John. From those truths, he looks back and reconstructs some historical possibilities, but still doesn't view the historical literalism as a good foundation for faith. All in all, this is a well-written book and will give the reader something new to consider. Although I suppose those who claim the literal resurrection as truth will mark Spong's theology as some sort of modern-day gnosticism, his viewpoint is a good compromise for those of us who find it intellectually irresponsible to view the New Testament as historical.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting but i'm still seeking
Review: this book is quite readable & Spong's recontruction is quite plausible. I also find his portrayal of Jesus dying alone without a proper burial, (no embalming, no angel) & the dark, bleak months between crucification & proclaim of ressurection, immensely more powerful & touching than the glorified version in the cannon Gospels. i'm an agnostic Christian (if such a term exists) i know quite a few Christians believers friends (Catholic, protestant, etc) who're such sweet and kind people. Yet, I can't even talk about my questions & doubts with them. i just got a look as if I commit a sacrilege & most of them immediately become defensive.
(they probably would pray for my lost soul) Also I am told not to think or analyze, just to believe. but then why does God give us brain & not use it? shouldn't truth withstand analysis? Frankly, if churches offer teachings like Spong's instead of the standard ones. i'd be more inclined to attend. i'm still seeking.
| 
