Richard Dawkins and His Challenge to Christianity

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 12 October 2011 2 Comments
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Question

Since giving up the theistic God that I had for most of my life (I'm 71+) and its attendant dualism, it is as though I have had all the pieces, but they never fit together before.  Frankly, it was so easy to change that I wonder why I never arrived there before.  The paradox and ambiguity that so troubled me before no longer seem to be of concern.

I am finding that another result of this new relationship is that I am also experiencing a much greater sense of responsibility for reaching out to those around me, friends and otherwise.  Is this a response that I am correctly perceiving?  Second, I wonder if there is now continuing reason to believe in the efficacy of intercessory prayer.  If so, would you speculate about how it might work?

Answer

Dear Jim,

The witness in the first two paragraphs of your letter is a powerful one. Thank you for sharing it with me and my readers.

Your third paragraph poses the question which keeps many people in their ancient theistic mindset.  Intercessory prayer assumes a theistic deity beyond life who acts on life in response to prayer.  I do not believe that this God can, will or should survive. God is surely more than this image will ever give us. What we may discover, however, is that behind our concept of intercessory prayer, there is a deep and profound human connectedness and that our words, our thoughts and even our emotions do impact one another.  God may be part of this inter-connection, but the old prayer patterns will never get to that understanding.  New ones will be developed by people like you, so get about the task! My attempt to address this issue was in my book Eternal Life: A New Vision Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism Beyond Heaven and Hell.

~John Shelby Spong

 

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