Chautauqua Institution – 2014

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on August, 14 2014

It has many elements of a fantasy land. Once one enters the guarded gates, the world seems to fall away quickly. A person living in this community does not …

On Launching a Book in Paris

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 17 2014

There is nothing quite like Paris in the springtime. The flowers of the season are in full bloom. The sidewalk cafes are filled with people drinking wine, sipping café …

Part XXV Matthew – Atonement Theology, Conclusion: Seeking New Possibilities

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 10 2014

Have you ever wondered why the work of Charles Darwin has been so threatening to traditional Christians and to institutional Christianity? In fundamentalist and Bible belt regions of the …

Part XXIV Matthew – Interpreting Atonement Theology, Part II

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on July, 3 2014

“Atonement Theology” assumes that human life, though created in the image of God, is now both fallen and evil. It assumes that God is a being who can be “ …

On Spending the Day with Amos, i.e. Professor James H. Cone

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 22 2014

So much of Christianity is a delusion, built as it is around power images and institutional claims to possess either an infallible Pope or an inerrant Bible. The Christian …

An Evening with Barbara Walters

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 15 2014

She was born to non-practicing Jewish parents. Because her father owned a series of night clubs from Boston to Miami, she grew up in the company of show business …

Jewish Symbols of the Lamb Applied to Jesus- Part III

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 8 2014

The Lamb Before Its Accusers

In addition to the Passover lamb and the lamb of Yom Kippur, there is a third lamb of God in the Jewish …

Jewish Symbols of the Lamb Applied to Jesus- Part II

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on May, 1 2014

Part II:  The Lamb of Yom Kippur

Have you ever heard someone say: “Jesus died for my sin?” Have you ever asked what those words meant or …

The Reverend Fred Phelps, 1929 – 2014

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 10 2014

“I believe that all homosexuals should be castrated with rusty barbed wire.” Those words came at me from a television screen a number of years ago. The spokesman was …

Is the Jesus Story a Myth? Did a Man Named Jesus Ever Live?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 13 2014

Recently in my parish church, St. Peter’s in Morristown, New Jersey, I completed a seven week-lecture series on Matthew’s version of Jesus’ birth. In those lectures I pointed to …

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