Charting a New Reformation, Part X – The Second Thesis: Jesus the Christ

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 18 2016

“If God can no longer be thought of in theistic terms, then conceiving of Jesus as ‘the incarnation of the theistic deity’ has also become a bankrupt concept.”

Charting the New Reformation, Part III – The Twelve Theses

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on December, 17 2015

“Time makes ancient good uncouth.” The poet, James Russell Lowell, who wrote these words, understood the difference between an experience and the way that experience is explained. So important …

Re-Creating Easter IV When? The Question of Time

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 15 2015

Life-changing “revelations” may well be timeless, but the one receiving these revelations is always bound in time. These insights invade time at a particular moment. We seek now to …

Re-Creating Easter III: Where? The Location in which Easter Dawned

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on October, 8 2015

Revelation and insight do not occur in a vacuum. They always come through a person. They have the effect of expanding the being of the recipient by opening his …

Re-Creating Easter II: Who Stood in the Center of the Easter Moment?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 24 2015

Who was the person who stood in the center of the most dramatic moment in Christian history, the experience we call Easter? Who was it who first saw the …

Re-Creating Easter Part I: The Background

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 17 2015

It was the noted author Jim Bishop, more than a generation ago, who first created a series of books that chronicled the minute-by-minute narratives of what turned out to …

A Wedding that Changed a Community

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on September, 10 2015

The couple stood holding hands before the altar where they would soon take their vows to “love, honor and cherish” each other forever. The congregation was in place ready …

Paris in the Late Spring: Part I, A Publication

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 13 2015

Imagine waking up on your birthday in Paris, France. It is mid-June, the air is fresh, and the sun is warm. You can smell the croissants baking. You are …

Resurrection: A Reality or a Pious Dream? Part X The Story of the Ascension

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 9 2015

“Ideas Have Consequences.” That was the title of a book that I was required to read early in my theological education. It was not a profound book, but its …