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Jesus for the Non-Religious: Recovering the Divine at the Heart of the Human

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Author: John Shelby Spong
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

3 reviews
Sales Rank: 13522

Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.9

ISBN: 0060778415
Dewey Decimal Number: 291
EAN: 9780060778415
ASIN: 0060778415

Publication Date: March 2008
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Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars

Amazing and brave March 12, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I have the upmost respect for this man after reading just this one book. A brave, powerful work. Especially for someone in his position. Written clearly and entertaining. Im definately not religious but fascinated by the hold chritianity has on humans.

His ultimate conclusion doesnt give me the answers i perhaps wanted but i suspect thats asking too much of one man. This is definately amongst the best books i have ever read. Recommended to anyone with the slightest interest in religion. And of course...recommended to christians. Although i can say now, most of it will be too hard to swallow.

Great work.

4 out of 5 stars

More progress but seems not quite there yet March 2, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful

Over the years Bishop Spong has been working out his progressive Christian theology. Of the books I have read by him, this seems to me to be his best effort to date.

I had previously read by him:
Resurrection: Myth or Reality? : A Bishop's Search for the Origins of Christianity
Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers In Exile
and
A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith is Dying & How a New Faith is Being Born

My recommendation would be, if you haven't read any of these books, to only read "Jesus for the Non-Religious" - or at least to begin with it after which the others may only be of interest to you if you wish to trace the development of Spong's thought.

The biggest step that Spong has made in this book is in his speculation of how the story of Jesus that eventually appeared in the Gospels might have been built up in Jewish discussions, probably in good part in synagogues, of who Jesus had been and what his life and death had meant. In these discussions, the impact of Jesus was understood to a significant degree in terms of Old Testament texts, leading to the four New Testament Gospel accounts. Explaining in this way, Spong is able to make sense of how the myths arose and what the original images of Jesus were. Spong then can present a Jesus more relevant to our times, free of reliance on supernaturalism, by emphasizing how the life and death could nevertheless reveal the love of God in a Jesus who led people past boundaries: "tribal", of "prejudice and stereotype", and "religious".

Spong presents compelling reasons for the acknowledgement of the reason for the origin and for the power of Christian myth. In doing, he presents a powerful alternative to the literalized interpretations: he's attempted this before but seems most successful in this book.

One question that remains for me is whether Spong has remained too dependent on constructing his own image of Jesus. Perhaps his message might be even stronger if, without in any way denying the power of Jesus, he accepted that the details of the life of Jesus may never be knowable but emphasized more, as he speculated in discussing the impact in the synagogues to try to understand what Jesus meant, that Christianity is a response by many. As Spong acknowledges, Paul himself did not find much about the life of Jesus significant enough to share in his letters and yet didn't Paul of something of great power about Christianity to share with those his letters were intended for? It may be that a turning us to Christ as Paul did, to Christian history, and our shared condition is what a progressive Christianity can best do rather than join the many who compete to speculate upon a "winning" image of Jesus. Nevertheless, as Spong points, moving past "tribal" boundaries, "prejudice and stereotype", and "religious" boundaries may be among the best ways we can acknowledge that "Jesus is Lord".

But might it be possible, due to all the uncertainties and speculations about Jesus, that it might be necessary in order to be a Christian that one let a definite image of Jesus go ... just as Spong has encouraged us to let a definite image (the theistic one) of God go? Paul seemed not to have communicated a detailed Jesus in his letters? Why then now so long after Jesus, Paul, and so many others are we reaching to justify doing the right things by creating an image of Jesus whose authority we then appeal to and direct others to? Founders are important but so to are successors: at this time, informed by but not tied up by history, it is our present and future actions that matter. It seems up to the living to find what God means today and to act effectively in response. One of Spong's own teachers seems of help on this, I recommend Paul Tillich as in his
The Courage to Be
when one feels ready to take another step into progressive Christianity.

5 out of 5 stars

A stunning overview of Spong's theology to date April 21, 2007
25 out of 26 found this review helpful

This highly accessible and rewarding book is Jack Spong at his most direct and most engaging. In a series of short tightly-written chapters he strips away the interpretive mythology surrounding Jesus of Nazareth, clearly identifies the Jewish religious and liturgical background out of which those interpretations came, and leaves us with a portrait of the man in whom God's love was to be seen so uniquely.

Spong is the first to admit that in this book he revisits themes he has explored in greater depth in his previous books - especially 'Liberating the Gospels' - but the reader can sense that in this latest work Spong is offering us a chance to step back and review the bigger picture, and to observe how his more detailed theological insights from previous studies come together into a coherent whole.

The book has extensive textual notes which flesh out the supporting arguments behind some of his propositions, together with an extensive bibliography which will guide any dedicated reader into the deepest waters of biblical scholarship and progressive Christianity.

I commend this book highly as the latest part of the journey on which Jack Spong leads his readers towards the authentic Jesus and an authentic Christian faith.

Philip Jones
The Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester
England