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Jesus for the Non-Religious
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Average Rating:  out of 72 Reviews
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Price: $24.95
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Sale: $6.99
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Manufacturer: HarperOne
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: John Shelby Spong
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Publisher: HarperOne
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Edition: 1
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Dewey Decimal Number: 232.9
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Publication Date: 2007-03-01
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Reading Level: 336
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Description: Writing from his prison cell in Nazi Germany in 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German theologian, sketched a vision of what he called "religionless Christianity." In this book, John Shelby Spong puts flesh onto the bare bones of Bonhoeffer's radical thought. The result is a strikingly new and different portrait of Jesus of Nazareth—a Jesus for the non-religious. Spong challenges much of the traditional understanding that has for so long surrounded the Jesus of history, from the tale of his miraculous birth to a virgin, to the account of his cosmic ascension into the sky at the end of his life. Spong questions the historicity of the ideas that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that he had twelve disciples, and that the miracle stories were meant to be descriptions of supernatural events. He also speaks directly to those contemporary critics of Christianity who call God a "delusion" and who write letters to a "Christian nation" and describe how Christianity has become evil and destructive. Spong invites his readers to look at Jesus through the lens of both the Jewish scriptures and the liturgical life of the first-century synagogue. Dismissing the dispute about Jesus' nature that consumed the church's leadership for the first 500 years of Christian history as irrelevant, Spong proposes a new way of understanding the divinity of Christ: as the ultimate dimension of a fulfilled humanity. Traditional Christians who still cling to dated concepts of the past will not be comfortable with this book; however, skeptics of the twenty-first century will not be quite so certain that dismissing Jesus is the correct pathway to walk. Jesus for the Non-Religious may be the book that finally brings the pious and the secular into a meaningful dialogue, opening the door to a living Christianity in the post-Christian world.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Godology |
Date: 2009-01-06 |
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Details: This book is properly titled, and not written for anyone who is religious, or fully immersed in their beliefs. Along with "Honest to God" by J.T. Robinson, and "Jesus Now" by a former Priest, I think this fits very well into a sequence of books that attempt to make Jesus relevant to people in a time period that is 2000 years removed from his life on earth. Bishop Spong follows a path that dates back to the German theologians who recognized that New Testament myth has been accepted as true history by most mainline Christians. The canonical books were chosen in an attempt to prove the humanity and divinity of Jesus at a crucial time in the history of the church. He strips away the miraculous claims with an appeal to reason, while maintaining that Jesus is still relevant to faith in God. Anyone who has trouble reconciling his beliefs with what the Church expects, will find this book helpful and provocative.
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Review Summary: Imaginative |
Date: 2009-01-03 |
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Details: Jesus for the Non-Religious by John Shelby Spong is a book that dismisses lots of the dogmas of the Catholic Church. It's his version of the Bible and what he likes, he keeps in and what he doesn't like, he dismisses. He is a retired Episcopal Bishop who found his own path to follow. Jesus is quoted as saying, "Preach my word as best you can" and I guess this is the best Spong can.
There is another beautiful new book on Jesus entitled "The Enlightenment, What God Told Me After One Million Prayers: A Message for Everyone," by John H. Eagan. I just finished it. It's really great and deals with Jesus' teachings and His Passion. It brought me to tears. I think the readers of Spong's book will really enjoy The Enlightenment.
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Review Summary: The Impact of a Blown-Out Man |
Date: 2008-12-24 |
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Details: Spong reads the gospels, not looking for facts, but for signs of how the story tellers were changed. What defensive walls, fears, hypocrisies or self-centered views of life have been blown down by encounters with Jesus?
In pursuing this kind of encounter, Spong traces almost every phrase or image in the gospels back to the Old Testament, from which they were composed, often word for word. I've never seen such a detailed exposure of how the Jesus stories were literally written "according to the [Hebrew] scriptures".
Where does all this lead? Strangely enough, the exposure of Jewish roots recovers Jesus' challenge to the people of his times, and to ours. It exposes the impact of his life to ordinary people of that culture, and what that impact might be for an utterly different global civilization.
--author of "Different Visions of Love" |
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Review Summary: Past the Idolatry of Scripture |
Date: 2008-12-07 |
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Details: Phenomenal. I could not read this book fast enough. (Spong validates what I have believed for years but did not have the biblical scholarship to fully verbalize it.) To my ear, he is a little preachy and may be a little harsh to those immersed in traditional Christianity, but I feel he gets his message through of a radical, new, life-affirming ("abundant life") Christianity.
Basically, he wants us to get us past the literal, past the symbolic, past the liturgical dogma of religion-as-an-establishment (past the idolatry of written words and the idolatry of a man) to the core message of Jesus of Nazareth, which has powerful meaning to the world -- regardless of religion or culture.
He is not suggesting "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" or subscribing to a believe-it-all-or-believe-nothing attitude as some more fundamental Christians have said in the reviews and blogs on this book I have read.
It is a book that needs to be read all the way through, though. However, if you come from an "inerrant word of G-d" background, you will most likely find the first part too painful to continue. If this is the case, I highly recommend that you read his introduction then skip to the last third section...and then go back and read the first two-thirds. You may not agree with Spong's conclusions, but you will have given him a chance to fully argue his points...and to experience Jesus of Nazareth in a whole, new way. If you come from a non-religious or hurt-by-Christianity background, I think you will be inspired by the potential of Spong's viewpoint. |
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Review Summary: Theism in Need of Reform |
Date: 2008-11-15 |
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Details: John Spong is a retired Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, NJ, a Biblical scholar, and prolific author of controversial books on Christianity. He has been labeled an atheist by his many critics, which he redefines as one who rejects the theistic definition of God. Rev. Spong is an excellent writer, clear and easy to follow, reaching solid, even revelatory, conclusions. In Jesus for the Non-Religious, Spong argues against a theistic view of God challenging Christians to seek a new way to translate pre-modern theistic categories into a post-modern, non-theistic language.
Much of what we read about Jesus in the New Testament is shaped and reshaped by its authors to make his birth, resurrection and miracles coincide with O.T. prophecy. This is rereading the events of Jesus' life and death back into history to make them coincide. Instead of reliable stories of a Messiah, we have good salesmanship and advertisement. Could there be a more unlikely Savior than Jesus who suffering a miserable death a cross expressing doubts as to why God needed such barbaric sacrifice? So much of his life is unknown and what we do know changes from Gospel to Gospel.
Spong charges theism with not keeping up with scientific advances and holding onto its primitive need of providing security. Theism is a projection of our needs for a humanoid God (father) who needs our praise, and confession, and who rewards and punishes at will. Theism traps us in a form of dangerous tribalism that defends itself against change with hate and self centeredness. To say Jesus came so that we might have a more abundant life is to question the church about its political passivity, its supporting wars, suppressing women, homosexual, and racial minorities.
Spong's challenge is to reform Christianity by pushing it to discuss the question at the heart of His message: can Christianity be separated from ancient theistic concepts and still be a living faith? What conclusion does one reach when they compare their faith to that of One who challenged the status quo, hung out with the wrong people, antagonized the establishment, resisted every attempt to domesticate his message, and refused to allow his actions to be assimilated into any existing religious framework? Would Jesus even recognize the faith that bears his name?
John Laughlin author of Reading Thomas Merton |
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