Why Christianity Must Change Or Die
This is a review of Why Christianity Must Change or Die by the Episcopalian Bishop of Newark, John Shelby Spong. I suspected Bishop Spong was a theistic agnostic, and this turns out to be true. Spong is theistic because he believes in something labeled 'god,' agnostic because he insists we can't know anything about it.
One of the things I object to in the book is Bishop Spong's continued favorable use of emotion-packed words without their informational content. He says he believes in God, but that God is not supernatural, not male or any gender, not a person in any sense, lacks an independent existence in its own right, not an authority for truth or behavior, and performs no miracles or any other actions except through human good works. In short, he says Love is God. He describes it as the Ground of All Being.
Then he calls himself a Christian while flatly denying the atonement, the virgin birth, the resurrection, and all other miracles. He disagrees with teachings of the Jesus of the gospels on several points, calls the gospels legends, and denies that we have a reliable means of finding out any hard information about the historical Jesus behind them. Yet he says he can follow Jesus because he had a "Christ experience," whatever that is.
Then he says he prays but that prayer is not petition, praise or thanksgiving to any being. Rather he says prayer is doing good works.
He subtitled it, "A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile." There's another code word: when he says "believer" he means someone who still likes the beliefs on some basis other than their literal fact.
I strongly object to his his use of language as secret code instead of public participatory activity. Stripping words of their meaning makes them useless as commmunication tools. Putting a whole new meaning into them is confusing at best and misleading at worst. Bishop Spong insists he is not an atheist, for no other reason than the objectionable emotional connotations of the word "atheist." His world view is absent of the supernatural and his ethical statements are consistently humanistic. It is a mystery to me what motivates him to continue to adorn his talk with religious-sounding window dressing.
Because the reader has to struggle in every paragraph to decode this private code Bishop Spong has invented to talk in, his book is nothing more than a handbook for teaching you the code: substitute "love" when he says "god," "Christ experience" when he says "Jesus," and "good works" when he says "prayer." This is not intended to deceive since he is unapologetically open about it, but it still does more to obscure than to enlighten. Rather than breathe new life into Christianity, John Shelby Spong is harvesting organs from what he perceives to be its corpse.
Comments
Anonymous on Aug. 5, 2004 7:59 AM — Clinging to Corpses
Hello,
You cute devil, you. I think Spong clings to his corpse of religious words out of emotional connection to his upbringing. It somehow makes him feel complete that he is able to transform his religious backgroud to meet is current beliefs and needs. He probably feels more connected with his family and community when he uses these words and makes them mean what he wants. Yes, it is confusing, but certainly understandable from a psychological point of view. I bet even you would love to talk to your family old church and use words that they are familiar with and feel that you are somehow connecting. He wants to make the transition from strict faith-based Christianity to agnostism easier to swallow also. Just some thoughts. Hope you are having a wonderful day!
Rachel :-)
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