A New Christianity For A New World

[halinsalem]

Spong was the author who got me interested in learning more about progressive Christianity and different alternative ways of reading the bible than fundamentalism, so I owe a lot to Spong for this. At the same time, I agree that Spong is a better speaker than a writer, but my problem isn't with Spong's demythologizing of Christianity. I think Spong's non-theistic Christianity is an important alternative way of looking at the bible that can help people who find the miraculous aspect of Christianity too unbelievable but find value in the teachings of Jesus rediscover their spirituality than a more pro-supernatural Christian which might turn them off from digging deeper into progressive Christianity. My problem with Spong is that I disagree with some of his criticisms of Paul. I don't think Paul was as sexist and dogmatic as Spong makes him out to be and most of the sexist passages attributed to Paul are later letters written after Paul's death and Paul actually had women leaders like Junia and Phoebe in his church. Spong also claims Ephesians was written by Paul but the identify of the author has come into question by many bible scholars like Bart D Ehrman. I also question Spong's hypothesis that Paul was a closeted gay man and I feel like he's reading too much into Paul's letters.

I have purchased, and read, six of Bishop Spong's books. For those of us who have ventured out the back door of the church and looked around, his views have helped us understand that the entire purpose of Christianity is not comfort and security for the believer. The book that was most interesting to me, and most enlightening, was the one entitled "Liberating The Gospels". This also is one of the most difficult of his books to read and understand because it is very scholarly. This book gave me a completely different view of the four gospels, why they were written (in the later years of the first century) and the primary purpose they served (sabbath liturgical material for the diaspora synagogues).

 

Hal