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Tanais
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I have heard a little about this episcopalian bishop who is very controversial. I was wondering if anyone could help me by telling me who he is and what are his views? links and articles would be nice too. Thanks!
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Chris_Burgwald
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Spong basically denies the core tenets of Christianity: he doesn’t believe that Jesus is literally God, and he doesn’t believe that God is a personal being (he isn’t a theist anymore).
Check out this “fan club” site to see some of his problems:
geocities.com/reuther_2000/spong.html
Check out this “fan club” site to see some of his problems:
geocities.com/reuther_2000/spong.html
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AmandaCatherine
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John Shelby Sponge was the (Episcopalian) bishop of Newark, NJ, now retired. You can visit their site at dioceseofnewark.org/jsspong/
or a fan site at
geocities.com/reuther_2000/spong.html
I remember him getting a lot of attention years ago for supporting church weddings for homosexual couples. He has written several books, with titles like Living in Sin? : A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality, Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus, and Why Christianity Must Change or Die. Spong is not a Christian by any orthodox definition, since he denies pretty much everything that Christianity teaches. One wonders why he remains a bishop, since he does not believe in Christianity. (I greatly enjoyed Mark Shea’s comments on Spong in his book, By What Authority, and highly recommend it. Shea says that the reason Spong stayed a bishop was because no one would buy a book called “A Plumber Re-Thinks the Virgin Birth!”)
Here is a taste of Spong’s work:
I think those quotes give the general idea of his thoughts. His work is extremely heretical!
+JMJ+
Amanda
or a fan site at
geocities.com/reuther_2000/spong.html
I remember him getting a lot of attention years ago for supporting church weddings for homosexual couples. He has written several books, with titles like Living in Sin? : A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality, Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus, and Why Christianity Must Change or Die. Spong is not a Christian by any orthodox definition, since he denies pretty much everything that Christianity teaches. One wonders why he remains a bishop, since he does not believe in Christianity. (I greatly enjoyed Mark Shea’s comments on Spong in his book, By What Authority, and highly recommend it. Shea says that the reason Spong stayed a bishop was because no one would buy a book called “A Plumber Re-Thinks the Virgin Birth!”)
Here is a taste of Spong’s work:
(dioceseofnewark.org/vox21096.html)
I think those quotes give the general idea of his thoughts. His work is extremely heretical!
+JMJ+
Amanda
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AmandaCatherine
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Ian_McClave
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Servant1
Guest
Spong is also decidedly non-Trinitarian. He is truly a heretic in several senses of the word.
He is intelligent and articulate, which makes him more dangerous as a heretic. He is very well spoken and a good debater. But at its very core, much of what he teaches or espouses is pure heresy. As with most heretics, the mixture of heresy with non-heretical things ia part of what makes him both dangerous and attractive to some. He can say some good things (he said some needful things in his book, “Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism”). But he mixes it in with the heresies. So he can be seductive to some. He is so heretical, though, that I think it makes it unsafe to pay attention to much of anything he says.
He is intelligent and articulate, which makes him more dangerous as a heretic. He is very well spoken and a good debater. But at its very core, much of what he teaches or espouses is pure heresy. As with most heretics, the mixture of heresy with non-heretical things ia part of what makes him both dangerous and attractive to some. He can say some good things (he said some needful things in his book, “Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism”). But he mixes it in with the heresies. So he can be seductive to some. He is so heretical, though, that I think it makes it unsafe to pay attention to much of anything he says.
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mean_owen
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For those not interested in forking out $ for his books, you can find several of Spong’s articles on Beliefnet. I used to think he had is heart in the right place (regardless of where his head was), and that some of his writings might serve as a gateway to bring in nonbelievers, but he really seems to be more about a cult of personality and being a theological shock-jock than anything else.%between%
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KateQ
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He’s also in favor of the “right” to be euthanized!
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Trad_Julia
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While I can’t give you many specifics about his views, (since I’ve never bothered reading much of his work) I’ll just do a full disclosure-style bit here.
I know Bishop Spong personally. My parents attend his church, I also regularly did until slightly over 2 years ago. I have heard him preach, I was baptized with him in attendance, and, at age 14, I was confirmed an Episcopalian by him.
Much of his thinking is antithetical to the Catholic Church and her beliefs, and in that context, is certainly herretical. To accuse him of non-Christianity, however, smacks of a lack of Christian charity (not to mension severe judgementalism).
In short, you may not agree with his opinions or ideas, but recognize that he is not calling for an abandonment of all Christian theology, simply a radical reinterpretation of much of it.
I know Bishop Spong personally. My parents attend his church, I also regularly did until slightly over 2 years ago. I have heard him preach, I was baptized with him in attendance, and, at age 14, I was confirmed an Episcopalian by him.
Much of his thinking is antithetical to the Catholic Church and her beliefs, and in that context, is certainly herretical. To accuse him of non-Christianity, however, smacks of a lack of Christian charity (not to mension severe judgementalism).
In short, you may not agree with his opinions or ideas, but recognize that he is not calling for an abandonment of all Christian theology, simply a radical reinterpretation of much of it.
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gurneyhalleck1
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A piece of advice: don’t bother reading about Spong or researching him more than about ten minutes. He’s absolutely a mental case and has no credibility outside the confines of the extreme left of the Episcopal Church. Total section eight.
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Publisher
Guest
I have read most if not all of John Spong’s books. I have gone to Trinity Cathedral in Portland and heard him speak. He is a fantastic author and a wonderful speaker.
Much of his writings deal with bringing Christianity into the 21st century embracing the Eternal with a 21st century understanding.
True Bishop Spong is controversial…but his works are well worth the read. You may not agree with everything he says…you may not even agree with a portion of what he writes…but the man is a prolific writer.
I have enjoyed sitting in a packed cathedral listening to him speak. He is a very unasuming man in person. He challenges you and calls each to examine their faith and grow deeper into the Holy Mystery which is God.
He is a “non-theist”…he does not accept our anthropomorphic views of God…but sees God as Wholly Other…and the Source of our Being and the Souce of Life.
He claims “Jesus is Lord” along with the rest of those of us who call ourselves “Christian”. He seeks to live under the Lordship of Christ and studies scripture daily and is a man of prayer and deep devotion.
I highly recommend his books. They WILL cause you to think and pray and search the scritpures.
Much of his writings deal with bringing Christianity into the 21st century embracing the Eternal with a 21st century understanding.
True Bishop Spong is controversial…but his works are well worth the read. You may not agree with everything he says…you may not even agree with a portion of what he writes…but the man is a prolific writer.
I have enjoyed sitting in a packed cathedral listening to him speak. He is a very unasuming man in person. He challenges you and calls each to examine their faith and grow deeper into the Holy Mystery which is God.
He is a “non-theist”…he does not accept our anthropomorphic views of God…but sees God as Wholly Other…and the Source of our Being and the Souce of Life.
He claims “Jesus is Lord” along with the rest of those of us who call ourselves “Christian”. He seeks to live under the Lordship of Christ and studies scripture daily and is a man of prayer and deep devotion.
I highly recommend his books. They WILL cause you to think and pray and search the scritpures.
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Ginger2
Guest
He most certainly is. What he teaches is totally contrary to Christianity.
In short,
Spong stopped believing in God as a real being after his wife died. The whole church prayed and his wife still died, therefore, “God is not real” to Spong.
Instead, Spong teaches we should interpret Scriptures in any way that make us feel good about doing “good”.
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Publisher
Guest
Friend Mick,Bishop Sponge is on the record as declaring that,
If I were holding before my daughters or my granddaughters a model for their lives and my choices were the Virgin Mary and Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman would win hands down.
Check out the complete article here.
Cordially,
Mick
While I think Bishop Spong could have “softened” his words…all in all it was a good article IMO. It was not so much about Mary as it was about the plight of women down through the centuries and their struggle for equality.
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SSTeacher
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Hi Publisher,
You always look for the good in people and that’s an admirable quality. I certainly do agree that Bishop Spong could have “softened” his words but as he purposely chose to stick with harsh ones, and probably caused pain, anguish and confusion to many by doing so, I decline to sing his praises.
Ecumenically,
Mick
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Gerry_Hunter
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That is just so, so wrong, and the proof comes right off the tip of Spong’s pen. Shortly before a Lambeth conference, the last one before his retirement, he published 12 “theses”, which set out the faith he professes. Here they are. To read them is to see that what he professes is not Christianity at all.
Spong - The 12 Theses
- Theism, as a way of defining God, is dead. So most theological God-talk is today meaningless. A new way to speak of God must be found.
- Since God can no longer be conceived in theistic terms, it becomes nonsensical to seek to understand Jesus as the incarnation of the theistic deity. So the Christology of the ages is bankrupt.
- The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which human beings fell into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-Darwinian nonsense.
- The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ’s divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.
- The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.
- The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.
- Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.
- The story of the Ascension assumed a three-tiered universe and is therefore not capable of being translated into the concepts of a post-Copernican space age.
- There is no external, objective, revealed standard writ in scripture or on tablets of stone that will govern our ethical behavior for all time.
- Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way.
- The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.
- All human beings bear God’s image and must be respected for what each person is. Therefore, no external description of one’s being, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, can properly be used as the basis for either rejection or discrimination.
Blessings,
Gerry
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GKC
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