Anglican Communion - General & Miscellaneous, Modern Christian Theology, Christianity - General & Miscellaneous

Why Christianity must change or die

Name: Why Christianity must change or die
Author: Spong
ISBN: 9780060605001

by Spong

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Overview

Not since Martin Luther has a leader risen from within the church to call for a more powerful reformation than that found in the pages of this book. Here John Shelby Spong integrates his compelling stands on the Bible, Jesus, sin, and morality into an intelligible creed that today's thinking Christians can embrace. While Bishop Spong has for many years called upon Christians to confront issues ranging from the role of women in the church and the unfair treatment of homosexuals to the perils of fundamentalism, this important book marks the first time he has offered a unified vision of authentic Christian belief that can live in the third millennium. Building on his bestselling books Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism and Living in Sin?, Bishop Spong proposes a Christianity based on a whole new way of thinking, premised upon justice and love rather than judgment and literal-minded readings of the Bible. Arguing that fundamentalism is incompatible with true Christian faith - and exploring the future of ethics, prayer, and Christianity itself - Spong's manifesto is both the summation of his life's work and a guide for every reader searching for a reasoned, just, and loving faith.

About the Author, Spong

John Shelby Spongwas the Episcopal Bishop of Newark for twenty-four years. Since then he has taught at Harvard, Drew, the University of the Pacific and the Berkeley Graduate Theological Union. Selling over a million copies, his books include Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, Eternal Life: A New Vision, Jesus for the Non-Religious, Why Christianity Must Change or Die and his autobiography, Here I Stand. His weekly online column reaches thousands of sub-scribers all over the world. He lives with his wife, Christine, in Morris Plains, New Jersey.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Spong, Episcopal Bishop of Newark, N.J., has made a career of debunking fundamentalist Christian views on the virgin birth, the resurrection and the infallibility of the Bible. Here Spong takes on the structure of Christianity itself in order to formulate a Christianity for the postmodern age. Spong contends that Christianity still clings to a premodern view of God and the world that has long since been challenged and discarded by science and philosophy. Yet, the realities of a God-presence, a human figure who embodies that presence (Jesus of Nazareth), and a community of believers who are trying to enact this presence (the church) are central to Spong's Christian belief. Thus, he contends, because the modern world has shattered the premodern views of God and the world and robbed contemporary Christianity of a language adequate to its beliefs, Spong claims that Christian believers now live in exile, still desirous of singing the Lord's song but living in a world and a Christianity that no longer wants to sing that song. Spong argues that Christians must find a new language with which to express their claims if they want to retain a vital faith in the midst of this exile. On the one hand, Spong's plea is an eloquent one: "Religion is a human attempt to process the God experience, which breaks forth from our own depths and wells up constantly within us." On the other hand, Spong's theology is so fuzzy"Jesus was a God presence"; "This reality [God presence] can be found in all that is but it reaches self-consciousness and capability of being recognized only in human life"that it results in a book less remarkable for its ideas than for its pronouncements on the end of fundamentalist Christianity. (May) (PW best book of 1998)