The Origins of the Bible, Part XVI: Daniel
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 27 2008History is not well served by the way the Bible is organized. For example, the Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy), which seems to tell a continuous story, was actually written over a …
The Origins of the Bible, Part XV: Ezekiel
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 20 2008Does a crisis in the life of the Jewish people serve to call great people into leadership or do these leaders become great because they had to deal with a crisis?
George Will and the Episcopal Church Ignorance Masquerading as Journalism
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 6 2008George F. Will, a columnist and regular political pundit on George Stephanopoulos’ Sunday morning ABC talk show, is a doctrinaire, but not an unthinking, political conservative. He did in …
Origins of the Bible, Part XIV: Jeremiah, the Prophet of Doom
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 9 2008The book of Jeremiah, the second of the Major Prophets in the Bible after Isaiah, is not only a large and complicated piece of writing, but it exhibits no narrative line that can easily be followed or recalled.
The Origins of the Bible, Part XIII: II Isaiah — The Figure of the “Servant”
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 2 2008If I were to ask an ordinary group of people, even church people, to tell me about the message of the prophet we call II Isaiah, I suspect I …
Origins of the Bible, Part XII: Introducing the Prophet Isaiah
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 11 2008The Prophet Isaiah may himself have been a member of the royal family, all of whom were descendants of King David. He certainly shared their life style, educational background, values and perspectives.
Origins of the Bible, Part XI: The Meaning of the Prophets
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 4 2008If one takes the Book of Daniel out of the Old Testament, a much clearer view of the prophets of Israel becomes visible. Daniel, written during the time of the Maccabees and not during the Persian period, as it pretends to be, really doesn’t fit. The fact is the Book of Daniel should be in the Apocrypha, not in the Old Testament, but that would upset those people who like to predict the end of the world by quoting from this source.
Origins of the Bible, Part X: The Rise of the Prophetic Movement: Nathan – Prophecy’s Father
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 15 2008The prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures are not religious versions of Drew Pearson or Jeane Dixon. They do not predict future events. Prophets are those who are in touch with values, truth, perhaps we could call it God, and who thus see the issues of life more deeply than other people see them. Perhaps they are the ones who, by standing on the shoulders of others, can perceive future trends and speak to them before others see them developing.
The Origins of the Bible, Part IX: The Judges – Transition Between the Law and the Prophets
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 7 2008When one initiates a series of columns on the origins of the Bible and how it came to be written, there are inevitably times when there are transitions. They are not the most exciting part of the story, but they are essential if one is going to hear the story in its entirety. We come to such a transition part of the story in this column. Let me set the stage.
Opportunity Time: The Memoirs of Governor Linwood Holton of Virginia
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 16 2008An autobiography entitled Opportunity Time, written by A.
Linwood Holton, the Republican Governor of Virginia from
1970-74, has just been released by the University of
Virginia …
The Lambeth Conference 2008: Expect Heat, Not Light
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 9 2008The bishops of the world-wide Anglican Communion,
together with invited ecumenical and interfaith guests, will convene
on the campus of the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, on
…
New Mexico: Learning About a Minority Culture in a Majority World
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 2 2008It is historically very difficult for a majority
culture to understand the emotions felt by a minority culture living
in the same land. In the 1850s a group …
Beauty, Wonder and Excitement in New Mexico
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 25 2008I am now convinced that there are no sunsets more beautiful
than those that blaze through the evening sky in New Mexico. Perhaps
it is the juxtaposition of …
The Origins of the Bible, Part VIII The Priestly Revision of the Jewish Sacred Story (B)
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 18 2008While the first wave of Jews entered the Babylonian
Exile around the year 596, a second wave came in 586 after a rebellion
was put down by the Babylonians and …
The Origins of the Bible, Part VII: The Final Strand of the Torah, The Priestly Document (A)
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 12 2008Time after time we discover that it was the external
events of human history that more than anything else shaped the
content of those writings that would someday …
What Does the High School Generation Today Think About Politics in 2008?
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 4 2008Note: This column is based on the research of a student
who is just completing the tenth grade at George Marshall High School
in Falls …
Evolution and Homosexuality: The Twin Terrors of the Christian Church
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 28 2008Where is it that Christian people today focus their
anger? One has only to look at the content of current ecclesiastical
debates, listen to the rhetoric of church …
Christian Art: Reinforcer of a Dying Literalism
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 21 2008I did not realize how thoroughly biblical literature
has shaped Western civilization until I took a course offered by The
Teaching Company entitled “Great Artists of the Italian …
The Origins of the Bible, Part VI The Third Document in the Torah
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 14 2008The name of the Torah’s fifth and final book according
to the Bible is Deuteronomy. That name comes to us from the
combination of two Greek words: “deutero,” …
Jeremiah Wright
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 7 2008The emergence of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright into the
presidential campaign is, I am sure, an unexpected and probably
unwelcome diversion for the Obama camp. It gets him, …
The Universe, the Star of Bethlehem and Professor Alex Filippenko
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 30 2008Whether I am on the lecture circuit, where I spend most
of my time, or in my home a normal day for me starts about 6:00 a.m.,
when …
The Origins of the Bible, Part V The Elohist Document
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 23 2008Most people do not seem to realize that events in what we call the secular world of history shaped so much of the writing of the biblical story. …
Who Are the People in Pennsylvania Who Will Choose the Democratic Nominee?
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 16 2008The somewhat blurred eyes of the nation’s political
stargazers are focused at least until April 22 on the State of Pennsylvania.
That is the date on which its citizens …
The Origins of the Bible, Part IV The Story of the Yahwist Document
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 9 2008Thus far in this series on the origins of the Bible,
my efforts have been directed toward how the Torah, which
contains the oldest material found in the …
The Origins of the Bible, Part III Breaking Open the Books of Moses The Torah
Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 2 2008The Bible began to be written, relatively speaking, only a short time ago. When one considers the fact that the universe is some 13.7 billion years old and the birth of the planet Earth can be reliably dated between four and a half and five billion years ago, the beginning of Bible writing near 1000BC is very recent.