Part XVI Matthew – Did Jesus Teach Us to Pray the Lord’s Prayer?
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 6 2014If it is true, as I have suggested, that Jesus never preached the Sermon on the Mount then we immediately have to face other startling implications. That conclusion would …
Part XV- Matthew: Understanding the Sermon on the Mount: Conclusion
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 27 2014Jesus never preached the Sermon on the Mount! That needs to be said again and again until it is embraced as a fact. The Sermon on the Mount was …
Part XIV Matthew – The Sermon on the Mount: Sinai Revisited
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 20 2014Matthew is portraying Jesus as the New Moses who went to the top of a new mountain to deliver a new interpretation of the Torah. He is not a …
Part XIV Matthew – The Sermon on the Mount: Sinai Revisited
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 20 2014Matthew is portraying Jesus as the New Moses who went to the top of a new mountain to deliver a new interpretation of the Torah. He is not a …
A Life Fulfilled – EMB
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 13 2014It was a very unusual memorial service. It was not held in a church, a synagogue or a temple, but in the Avery Fisher Hall of the Lincoln Center …
Part XIII Matthew: “A Prophet like unto Moses” – Introducing the Sermon on the Mount
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 6 2014It should not be surprising that a Jewish scribe in the first century, which is what the author of the gospel we call Matthew was, would make constant references …
Part XII Matthew: Matthew Introduces John the Baptist-The New Elijah
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 30 2014Matthew has thus far mined the Hebrew Scriptures for texts that will advance his thesis that Jesus has fulfilled the Jewish messianic expectations. In the opening genealogy, he has …
The Wedding of Charles and Robert
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 23 2014It was January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, sometimes called “Old Christmas” in some parts of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The church was still decorated with its hanging greens …
Part XI Matthew: Proof Texting the Birth Narratives
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 16 2014Matthew never allows us to forget that he is a learned scribe in charge of a synagogue made up of Jewish people who are the followers of Jesus. He …
A Political Q and A
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 9 2014From time to time I receive a letter which requires an answer that is too long for the question and answer format of this column, so I have to …
The Passing of Greatness
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 1 2014On December 9, 2013, 65,000 people braved strong rains to gather in the Olympic Soccer Field in South Africa to pay tribute to a man named Nelson Mandela. They were joined by …
Part X Matthew: The Story of the Magi and Their Gifts
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 25 2013The wise men from Matthew’s birth story have been deeply attached to our Christmas celebration, stretching all the way back to the time that Matthew introduced them in the …
Part IX Matthew. Matthew Introduces Joseph – The Earthly Father of Jesus
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 19 2013Matthew’s opening genealogy of Jesus is now complete with the intriguing idea that the line which produced Jesus of Nazareth, traveled not only through the royal family of the …
Three Spanish Citizens who are Changing the Culture of Spain
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 12 2013Spain is a nation of 47 million people located on the southwestern part of the continent of Europe. It almost touches North Africa at Gibraltar and thus has a much …
America’s Health Care Debate and What it Reveals
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 5 2013Every nation I visited on my recent European lecture tour has a National Health System, paid for by tax dollars and run for all the people by the government …
A Thirty-Day Lecture Tour of Europe
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 28 2013It was probably the most exciting and fulfilling book tour of my entire career. Over a period of thirty days, I journeyed through Europe delivering sixteen public lectures in …
Part VIII Matthew: What is the Meaning of the Virgin Birth?
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 21 2013It is difficult for most Christians to imagine that the story of Jesus’ virgin birth was a late developing tradition in the Christian faith, yet it appears to have …
Part VII Matthew: The Shady Ladies of Matthew’s Genealogy
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 14 2013The audience for which Matthew wrote was conversant with the Jewish Scriptures, so when he mentions Tamar in the genealogy, they would know her story. The Torah (Genesis, Exodus, …
Part VI Matthew: The Genealogy (1:1-17)
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 7 2013“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” — that is how the gospel of Matthew begins. The word “ …
Part V Matthew: Isolating This Gospel from All the Others
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 31 2013Having now introduced you to a different way of reading the gospel of Matthew, and puncturing for you, I hope forever, the assumption that this book along with all …
Part IV Matthew – The Sermon on the Mount
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 24 2013Jesus never preached the Sermon on the Mount! Some of the content recorded in that well-known part of Matthew’s gospel may well stretch back to the literal words of …
We Have Had Our Run. It Is Time to Leave.
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 17 2013“We have had our run. It is time to leave.”
Andy Pettitte, Pitcher for the New York Yankees
They …
My Great Mentors – Number Seven: Clifford L. Stanley
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 10 2013He was my Professor of Theology, teaching me for two of the three years I was in Seminary. For me he was the major voice on that 1950 …
An Adventure in Church Building in Springfield, Missouri
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 3 2013Springfield is Missouri’s third largest city. Its approximately 160,000 people occupy space in the southwestern part of that state, where this city serves as the county seat of Greene County. …
Part III Matthew: The Shadow of Moses Continues
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 26 2013Using the gospel of Matthew as our guide we have begun the task of opening the background necessary to grasp, as members of the current generation of Christians, the …