Spong, John Shelby 1931-

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Spong, John Shelby 1931-

PERSONAL:

Born June 16, 1931, in Charlotte, NC; son of John Shelby (in sales) and Doolie Spong; married Joan Lydia Ketner, September 5, 1952 (died); married Christine Mary Bridger; children: Ellen Elizabeth, Mary Katharine, Jaquelin Ketner. Education: University of North Carolina, A.B., 1952; Virginia Theological Seminary, M.Div., 1955.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Morris Plain, NJ.

CAREER:

Ordained Episcopal minister, 1955; rector of Episcopal churches in Durham, NC, 1955-57, Tarboro, NC, 1957-65, Lynchburg, VA, 1965-69, and Richmond, VA, 1969-76; Northern New Jersey Episcopal Church, Newark, bishop, 1976-2000; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, William Belden Noble Lecturer, 2000; writer. Chaplain at Duke University, 1955-57, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, 1965-69, and Medical College of Virginia, 1969-76; member, executive council of National Episcopal Church, 1973-76; chair of board of directors of Christ Hospital, Jersey City, NJ; chair of Youth Consultative Service. Instructor, Chautauqua Institution; Vancouver School of Theology, University of British Columbia; Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007; University of Alberta, Edmonton, St. Stephen's College; Alaska Pacific University, 1998; University of the Pacific, 2003. Special studies and appointments at St. Luke's School of Theology, Sewanee, TN, 1961; Union Seminary, New York, 1988; Yale Divinity School, 1989; Harvard Divinity School, 1990; Magdalen College, Oxford University, 1992; University of Edinburgh, 1997; and Christ Church, Oxford University, 1997. Play-by-play radio sportscaster, WCPS-FM, Tarboro, NC, 1959-65, and WLVA, Lynchburg, VA, 1965-66; appeared on many national television shows.

MEMBER:

Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Brotherhood Award from National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1974; Doctor of Divinity, St. Paul's College, 1976, and Virginia Theological Seminary, 1977; fellow, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, 1992; Humanist of the Year, 1999. Doctor of Humane Letters from several institutions, including Muhlenberg College, 1998, Holmes Institute of Chicago, Lehigh University, 2004, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004.

WRITINGS:

Honest Prayer, Seabury (New York, NY), 1973, reprinted, Christianity for the Third Millennium and St. Johann Press (Haworth, NJ), 2000.

This Hebrew Lord, Seabury (New York, NY), 1974, published as This Hebrew Lord: A Bishop's Search for the Authentic Jesus, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1993.

(With Jack Daniel Spiro) Dialogue: In Search of Jewish-Christian Understanding, prologue by Frank Edwin Eakin, Jr., Seabury (New York, NY), 1975.

Christpower, Thomas Hale Co., 1975, reprinted, St. Johann Press (Haworth, NJ), 2007.

The Living Commandments, Seabury (New York, NY), 1977, reprinted, Christianity for the Third Millennium and St. Johann Press (Haworth, NJ), 2000.

The Easter Moment, Seabury (New York, NY), 1980, St. Johan Press, 2000.

Into the Whirlwind: The Future of the Church, Seabury (New York, NY), 1983, reprinted, St. Johann Press (Haworth, NJ), 2003.

(With Dennis G. Haines) Beyond Moralism: A Contemporary View of the Ten Commandments, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1986.

Living in Sin? A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1988.

Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1991.

Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Birth of Jesus, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1992.

Resurrection: Myth or Reality? A Bishop's Search for the Origins of Christianity, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1994.

Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes; Freeing Jesus from Two Thousand Years of Misunderstanding, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1996.

Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1998.

The Bishop's Voice: Selected Essays, 1979-1999, edited by wife, Christine M. Spong, Crossroad (New York, NY), 1999.

Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality (memoir), HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2000.

Beyond Moralism: A Contemporary View of the Ten Commandments, Christianity for the Third Millennium and St. Johann Press (Haworth, NJ), 2000.

(Author of foreword) Anthony Freeman, God in Us: A Case for Christian Humanism, Imprint Academic (Charlottesville, VA), 2001.

A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith Is Dying & How a New Faith Is Being Born, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2005.

Jesus for the Non-religious: Recovering the Divine at the Heart of the Human, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Christian Century, Living Church, and Witness.

ADAPTATIONS:

Here I Stand was adapted for a stage play titled A Pebble in My Shoe, 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

John Shelby Spong is a clergyman and author who has regularly courted controversy during his career in the Episcopal Church. Spong is known for his outspoken notions about subjects ranging from homosexuality, which he supports, to theism, which he questions. Writing in Insight on the News, Mark Tooley described Spong as "the most prominent theological provocateur of the religious left." Other writers have likewise portrayed Spong as a radical, idiosyncratic figure within organized religion. Heidi Schlumpf, for instance, wrote in Publishers Weekly that Spong is "one of the country's most outspoken voices for liberal Christianity," and she noted his involvement in "cru- sades against racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, and … discrimination against gays and lesbians." Schlumpf added that Spong "regularly makes headlines," and she contended that he is "best known for stirring the pot."

In addition to serving the Episcopal Church, Spong has produced more than fifteen volumes on various socioreligious issues and subjects. He published his first book, Honest Prayer, in 1973, and he readily followed it with such works as This Hebrew Lord, Christpower, and The Living Commandments. His publications from the 1980s include The Easter Moment, Into the Whirlwind: The Future of the Church, and—with Dennis G. Haines—Beyond Moralism: A Contemporary View of the Ten Commandments.

One of Spong's works from the 1990s is Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes; Freeing Jesus from Two Thousand Years of Misunderstanding, in which he argues that perceiving the Gospels as Jewish texts enriches their worth within Christianity. A Publishers Weekly reviewer dismissed Spong's perspective as "neither new nor exciting," but conceded that "his forceful readings … and imaginative speculations … are sure to provoke heated discussion among Christian interpreters." Booklist reviewer Steve Schroeder likewise contended that Spong's analysis "is not new" but concluded that it "is sure to sustain the aura of controversy."

An ensuing volume, Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile, proved similarly controversial. Here Spong asserts that Christians have become alienated from conventional notions of Christianity. To counter that alienation, Spong proposes a concept of Christ as a model human rather than a deistic entity. Library Journal reviewer John R. Leech deemed Why Christianity Must Change or Die "Spong's manifesto." A Publishers Weekly critic, however, concluded that the book "is less remarkable for its ideas than for its pronouncements on the end of fundamentalist Christianity." Ray Olson wrote in Booklist that "those who can't return to the old religion may find they can press on with Spong to the new."

Spong's more recent publications include The Bishop's Voice: Selected Essays, 1979-1999. A Publishers Weekly reviewer described the essays as "acerbic and humorous," and Library Journal critic Graham Christian deemed them "fascinating." Spong has also published a memoir, Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality. The book traces Spong's rise in the church and the development of his liberal ideas about faith, many of which are rooted in his own oppressive childhood growing up in North Carolina. There, he was subjected to what he later regarded as an overly religious atmosphere—the type that considered racism and other forms of prejudice as the natural result of a conservative approach to faith and biblical writings. Library Journal reviewer John-Leonard Berg proclaimed this volume "superb" and described it as "delicate and scrupulously honest." A Publishers Weekly critic, meanwhile, found Here I Stand to be a "full-bodied, racy chronicle." Andrew Carpenter, writing for the Antioch Review, opined that Here I Stand, "the fruit of Spong's unflinching gaze at his own intellectual and emotional development, bears impressive witness to the integrity of both the visionary and his visions."

A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith Is Dying & How a New Faith Is Being Born makes an argument for a modernized version of the church. This new Christianity would do away with myths and doctrines that lead to an overly patriarchal vision of religion, and instead promote love and freedom within the faith and a conjoining with other modern concepts, such as science, that have traditionally been at odds with religious beliefs. Spong wants people to be able to connect with God, to feel that He is accessible instead of a fierce and strict being to whom average human beings cannot relate. At a time when people appear to be seeking some sort of solace in their lives, Spong believes that an all-accepting and loving God is a far more attractive leader for the faith than an all-powerful and threatening one. A reviewer for Anglican Journal noted: "This is shocking stuff. What happens to our poetry and hymns, our prayers and liturgies? Bishop Spong's vision is of a God not bound by human systems and creeds. His point is that theism is only, ‘a human explanation of the God-experience—not a description of who or what God actually is.’" A reviewer for Publishers Weekly noted that much of the text recycles ideas from Spong's earlier works but concluded that "Spong openly reveals his honest struggles to fashion a living faith that transcends what he sees as the sterility of the Christianity in which he was formed." However, Library Journal reviewer Sandra Collins opined that readers "will struggle with the radical nature of his vision, laboring to see what is fundamentally Christian in his Christianity."

In The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, which was published in 2005, Spong examines the ways in which the Bible is sometimes used to promote some of the least Christian values witnessed in society. He points out that conservative religious groups and leaders have interpreted the text of the Bible in such a way as to make women feel inferior and exclude homosexuals. However, beyond these interpretive actions, Spong notes that there are sections of the Bible that are cruel in their own right, without the need to interpret them in such a way as to wield them as weapons. Many of the stories of the Bible have harsh lessons and can be horrible and frightening. According to Spong, much of this is obvious when considered through a modern-day filter. When the stories were written, life was far harsher in general, and what might be considered unusually cruel in the modern world was nothing out of the ordinary during Old Testament times or the early days of Christianity. Spong sets out to reinterpret such stories, urging readers to use their own conscience to fully understand the meaning of the tales and to reveal the love beneath their crueler aspects. This approach has met with mixed reactions from reviewers, with more conservative individuals in particular disagreeing with Spong's outlook. In a review for Christianity Today, John Makujina remarked that "Spong assumes that the modern consciousness is superior simply because it is modern." Makujina went on to note that "his moral vision reflects modern Western values…. Spong falls prey to vices he reprehends in others: cultural imperialism and Eurocentrism." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found the book's sections somewhat uneven, and the first section weakest of all, but concluded that "nonetheless, this absorbing book has much to offer readers of all persuasions."

Spong's next work, Jesus for the Non-religious: Recovering the Divine at the Heart of the Human, presents Jesus through his teachings and the tenets of his faith, as opposed to through the biblical examples of his miracles. Spong attempts to strip Christianity of any trappings of the paranormal or supernatural, which in modern-day society he finds unnecessary and a distraction for individuals no longer prone to believing in magic. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly commented of Spong that "his own historical and theological reconstructions would be more palatable if he seemed more aware that he too is engaged in mythmaking." Steve Young, in a review for Library Journal, suggested that this less inspirational vision of Jesus might be even less likely to draw the attention of non-believers than the more glorified depiction. However, he admitted that "for the many who seek to salvage some vestige of a rejected religious heritage, Spong's writing continues to strike a chord."

In 2000, Spong retired from the New Jersey Episcopal Church and began teaching at Harvard University. He told CA: "I write as a believing skeptic inside the structures of the church for those who have drifted outside these structures. I try to keep one foot in tradition and one in radical secularity…. I seek the inner meaning of the Christian symbol beyond the literal words of scripture and creed."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Spong, John Shelby, Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2000.

PERIODICALS

Anglican Journal, December, 2001, review of A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith Is Dying & How a New Faith Is Being Born, p. 12.

Antioch Review, winter, 2001, review of Here I Stand, p. 112.

Booklist, September 1, 1996, Steve Schroeder, review of Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes; Freeing Jesus from Two Thousand Years of Misunderstanding, p. 40; April 15, 1998, Ray Olson, review of Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile, p. 1397; October 1, 1998, Ray Olson, review of Why Christianity Must Change or Die, p. 282.

Christianity Today, March, 2006, John Makujina, "Spong, the Measure of All Things: Maverick Bishop Jousts at Latest Foe: Scripture," p. 78.

Insight on the News, March 13, 2000, Mark Tooley, "And Malice to All: Episcopal Bishop's Parting Shots," p. 45.

Library Journal, April 1, 1998, John R. Leech, review of Why Christianity Must Change or Die, p. 100; May 1, 1999, Graham Christian, review of The Bishop's Voice: Selected Essays, 1979-1999, p. 87; February 15, 2000, John-Leonard Berg, review of Here I Stand, p. 171; January, 2002, Sandra Collins, review of A New Christianity for a New World, p. 111; April 1, 2007, Steve Young, review of Jesus for the Non-religious: Recovering the Divine at the Heart of the Human, p. 96.

Publishers Weekly, June 24, 1996, review of Liberating the Gospels, p. 52; April 27, 1998, review of Why Christianity Must Change or Die, pp. 60-61; March 8, 1999, review of The Bishop's Voice, p. 62; January 10, 2000, review of Here I Stand, p. 61; March 27, 2000, Heidi Schlumpf, "John Shelby Spong: Still Speaking Out," p. S23; August 27, 2001, review of A New Christianity for a New World, p. 80; March 28, 2005, review of The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, p. 76; January 15, 2007, review of Jesus for the Non-religious, p. 49.