Re-Creating Easter VIII: Conclusion – Easter Dawns

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on November, 12 2015

Something happened! Lives were changed. God was redefined. Liturgies were reshaped. New holy days were born. Whatever Easter was, it constituted a transformative moment. It is easy to understand, …

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 …

Resurrection: A Reality or A Pious Dream? Part VI: Matthew’s Story of the Galilean Appearances

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on June, 4 2015

Mark’s messenger of the resurrection, described in that gospel as “a young man in a white robe,” had promised a future appearance of the raised Christ to the …

Part XLV Matthew – Judas Iscariot Person or Myth? Part II

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 26 2015

There are at least three traitor stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. They were all well known to Jewish readers of those scriptures. They would not, however, have been familiar …

Part XLIII Matthew – The Passion Narrative: Discovering the Liturgical Outline

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on March, 12 2015

In Matthew’s story of the Passion of Jesus, based as it is on Mark’s original written passion narrative, we can discover by a close analysis the outline of a …

Part XLI Matthew – Entering the Passion Narratives

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 19 2015

We looked last week at the passion narratives in the New Testament. We noted the additions, the deletions and the contradictions found in these central stories of our faith …

Part XXXIX Matthew – The Apocalypse and the End of the World

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on February, 5 2015

In Matthew’s narrative, the Jewish year came to an end with the month of Adar. The Passover would be the first celebration of the New Year which began …

Part XXXVIII Matthew – The First Confirmation Class

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 22 2015

Most people are not aware that Judaism, at the time of Jesus, had become a missionary, conversion-oriented religion. People all over the Roman Empire were finding their way into …

Part XXXVII Matthew – The Impact of Deuteronomy on the Journey of Jesus to Jerusalem

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on January, 15 2015

When the Transfiguration experience was over, Matthew tells us that Jesus and his disciples came down from that mountain. It had been a transformative experience for the disciples, Matthew …

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