Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 4 February 2016 6 Comments
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Question

I admire your work and I am currently working on my master’s thesis on your views of Christianity and its future. I am at the moment dealing with your writings on atonement and Yom Kippur and finding them very intriguing and important for a better understanding of religion. You talk a great deal about consciousness and a probable “universal consciousness,” which might be the next step for human beings seeking God.

Lately I’ve been reading writings by the late Jesuit named Anthony De Mello and some publications of a non-religious spiritual teacher named Eckhart Tolle. If I am not totally mistaken, you find some mystical views of Christianity fruitful and I think these two fellows are bringing some mystical aspects, awareness and deeper consciousness to the modern era. So I would like to ask you if you’re familiar with their work and if you can relate to their thoughts in any way.

Answer

Dear Joonas,

I am delighted to hear from you and to know about your work at the University of Helsinki. I had the privilege of doing some lectures at that university some years ago and recall it today with great pleasure and satisfaction.

My studies in the realm of developing consciousness would only be at what I would call the preliminary levels. I did write about mysticism in my book on the gospel of John entitled, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic. The concept of mysticism helps me to transcend the limits of creedal theology, which has, I believe, distorted the Christian faith since the fourth century. I will be addressing these distortions in detail in my current series, entitled “Charting a New Reformation.”
I am not as familiar with the writings of Anthony De Mello as I am with Eckhart Tolle. I was introduced several years ago to De Mello’s thought by a friend in Spain whose name is Domingo Melera. Domingo was quite enthusiastic about his work. I need to read more.

Tolle, on the other hand, is a well-read author in some religious circles in America. He is what I would call a popularizer more than an original thinker. I do not denigrate that designation, indeed I consider myself to be in that same category. Tolle has, in fact, adopted the name of one of the great theologians of mysticism in Christian history, Meister Eckhart. Eckhart succeeded Thomas Aquinas in the same chair of theology in the 14th century. The thought of the two men, Aquinas and Eckhart, was so different as to create widespread dislocation in European theological thinking. Eckhart transcended all limits and threatened those who presumed they had captured eternal truth in a human form. Ultimately, Eckhart was put on trial for heresy, but he died before the trial was over so he was never convicted. If you could get hold of some of the writings of Meister Eckhart, I think you would be drinking from the fountain that Eckhart Tolle seeks to popularize.

The two people in Finland with whom I have worked closely are Hannu Saloranta, a Lutheran pastor who recently retired. He was instrumental in translating one of my books into Finnish. The other is Willi Riekkinen, the retired Lutheran bishop of Kuopio in Finland. Willi was once my student at the Vancouver (Canada) School of Theology. He is a man of deep insight and intellectual courage. Both of these unique Finns might be willing to read your master’s thesis and to assist in its final preparation.

I hope you will stay in touch.
John Shelby Spong

 

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