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 “ …

Part XXII Matthew – Jesus through the Lens of Yom Kippur

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 19 2014

Matthew observes Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, with a flashback story in which John the Baptist, the quintessential Rosh Hashanah figure, although in prison, sends messengers to Jesus …

Part XXI Matthew – Yom Kippur and Sacrificial Blood

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 12 2014

The primary Christian mantra incorporated into our hymns, prayers and sermons is some variation of the phrase: “Jesus died for my sins!” It comes out of a Christian definition …

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

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 24 2014

Part I: The Lamb of Passover

I want to interrupt our study of Matthew for a few weeks in order to turn our attention to the great …

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 …

Part XVIII Matthew – Matthew’s Flashback to John the Baptist

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on April, 3 2014

We suggested last week that Mark, the author of the first gospel to be written, introduced his story of Jesus with a narrative appropriate to the Jewish New Year …

Cancel