Being Interviewed in Bethlehem on the Birth Narratives of Jesus
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 21 2009On Tuesday of Easter Week, my wife and I made our way to Bethlehem, a journey that carried us across the checkpoint and into the West Bank. That transition …
Jerusalem: Where Scholarship Ends and the Tourist Trade Begins
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 14 2009It is not easy to be a biblical scholar when visiting the Holy Land. I spent Easter Monday of this year in the city of Jerusalem walking the Via …
Israel: A Secular State Erected on a Religious Base
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 7 2009In 1976 as a young bishop ordained to that office less than six months, I made my first trip to Israel. It was part of a three-stop tour designed to …
The Origins of the Bible, Part XXV: The Book of Psalms
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 30 2009When I was a child I went with my mother from time to time to Chalmer’s Memorial ARP Church, the church in which she had grown up. Those letters ” …
Why I Am Not a Unitarian
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 23 2009Some years ago, while I was delivering a series of Lenten lectures in St. Peter’s Church in Morristown, New Jersey, a lay woman asked me a pointed and provocative …
Life-Changing Moments in Duluth, Minnesota
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 16 2009Duluth, Minnesota, is a small city of less than 100,000 people at the southwestern corner of Lake Superior. It is known as one of the colder parts of America, receiving …
Watching the Demise of a Great Institution
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 9 2009We are watching today the tragedy of the demise of the Roman Catholic Church. It is a sad spectacle, but hopefully not one that cannot be reversed. It is …
The Origins of the Bible, Part XXIV: The Book of Ruth
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 2 2009
There are three books in the Hebrew Bible that are designated as “protest literature;” that is, they are all representative of a literary device used by an anonymous …
The Origins of the Bible, Part XXIII: Job, the Icon of New Consciousness
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 26 2009Three books of the Bible, Jonah, Job and Ruth, are known as “protest literature”. We treated Jonah in the section of this study on the prophets. We turn now to Job and Ruth.
The Origins of the Bible, Part XXII: Malachi and the Dawn of Universalism
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 19 2009
Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament as Christians organize the scriptures and it is the last voice to be heard in the Book of the …
New Jersey Will Be the Third State in America to Legalize Gay Marriage
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 12 2009It surprises me only that it was not first. New Jersey has a long history of supporting civil rights and equal rights of all its citizens, as well as …
Titles, Paradigm Shifts and New Consciousness
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 5 2009Paul Tillich referred to it as “The Creativity of the Demonic.” It has long been my experience that conflict does not have to be destructive; it sometimes leads to …
The Politics of Greed: A Response to a Theological Vacuum
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 26 2009There is much acrimony abroad today in the economic recession that has embraced our nation. The political landscape is filled with “victims” and “victimizers.” Some are overt, like Bernard …
The Rhetoric of the Stimulus Package
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 19 2009It has been fascinating watching our legislators in Washington debating the stimulus bill and seeking to reform the way stimulus monies have been spent thus far. My conclusion is …
The Origins of the Bible, Part XXI: Jonah and the Prophetic Lesson Against Prejudice
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 12 2009It was a profound shock to the people of Judah when the City of Jerusalem fell to the army of the Babylonians in the early years of the 6th …
The Origins of the Bible, Part XX: I and II Zechariah, Primary Shapers of the Christian Story
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 5 2009If you were to search the Scriptures for a book called II Zechariah, you would not find it. There is only a single fourteen-chapter book called Zechariah, buried in …
Eternal Life: Pious Dream or Realistic Hope?
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 29 2009Do modern men and women, even those who still attend church, really believe in life after death? Or do they, as I suspect, only believe in believing in life …
Lessons From the Obama Inauguration
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 22 2009In the days before the inauguration of President Obama, I happened to be reading a biography of the English abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759 and 1833), written by Eric Metaxas. The timing …
The Origins of the Bible, Part XIX: Micah, the Prophet Who Turned Liturgy Into Life
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 15 2009In my career as a bishop I have known churches that spent great time and effort on liturgy and worship. It was clearly the focus, the reason for being, …
A New Year Dawns for Our Nation and the World
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 8 2009A high level of anticipation marked both this nation and the world as 2008 went into the history books and 2009 dawned. This anticipation came from three sources that I can …
Looking at Christmas Through a Rear-View Window
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 7 2009It still has magic power. Across the Western world hearts beat lighter during the Christmas season, generosity expands and romance overflows its normal boundaries. Of course, there is a …
Christpower
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 25 2008Many years ago, in 1974 to be specific, for the sermon at the Christmas Eve Midnight service at St. Paul’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, I sought to redefine Jesus …
The Origins of the Bible, Part XVIII: Amos, The Prophet Who Transformed God Into Justice
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 18 2008Not every character in the Bible starts out to be a hero. Indeed, one of the great themes of biblical literature is that it is the meek and the …
Splinter Episcopalians: Giving Gravitas to Trivia
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 11 2008Ari Goldman, the former religion editor of The New York Times (and not coincidentally my favorite secular religion newspaper writer in America during my active career), once …
The Origins of the Bible, Part XVII: Hosea – The Prophet Who Changed God’s Name to Love
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 4 2008Hosea is probably my favorite of all the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures. His story is so real and so compelling and his expansion of the meaning of God …