Examining the Meaning of the Resurrection, Part IV: What is the Meaning of Three Days?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 23 June 2011 5 Comments
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Question

I have read four of your books since December 23 and feel a guilt-free spiritual awakening.  Raised Episcopalian, I had to leave out most of the words in the creeds when omitting the words I believe.  You bring the spirit rather than just the letter of the law and explain inconsistencies beautifully.  I feel as if I can talk with fundamentalists now when promoting social issues, especially relating to the environment and women.  Thank you so much for your risky writing.

Answer

Dear Jill,

Thank you for your letter.  Literalizers of both the Bible and the creeds have done great harm to Christianity.  The first creed of the Church was only three words “Jesus is Messiah.”  When Christianity moved into a Greek-speaking Gentile world “Jesus is Messiah” was changed to “Jesus is Lord” because Gentiles did not know what to make of the Jewish concept of messiah.  From that change our creeds have become longer and more convoluted as each generation tries to spell out its beliefs in some rational way.  No one seems to realize that the God or even the Christ experience cannot be captured in human words so the tyranny of the creeds became real.

I do not believe that talking to or with fundamentalists about their beliefs is productive.  There is no common vocabulary for a serious conversation with a fundamentalist since fundamentalism is far more a response to an inner need for security than it is a rational way to explore the mystery of God.  To try to force people out of their security blanket with convincing words has never seemed to me to be possible and may even be received as hostile. I do want to proclaim that all people live inside the experience of the love of God so demonstrating that love brings the kind of security that makes conversation possible.

The consciousness of the world will rise to make it possible for us to treat our environment with concern, to treat women as fully human co-creators of all living things, to be fully supportive of our ethnic variety and to overcome our homophobia.  I do not think, however, that debate brings higher consciousness.

My best,

John Shelby Spong

 

 

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