Reviewed 4/24/2005
Spong writes in the context of reality. Given what we know and do not know regarding our universe and our natural history, how are we to know God and respond when encountering a truer understanding of God? Spong also asks,and answers, the question, "Can Jesus help us to know the nature of the actual Creator?"
Spong's response is to work at knowing God on His terms, not...
more Reviewed 4/24/2005
Spong writes in the context of reality. Given what we know and do not know regarding our universe and our natural history, how are we to know God and respond when encountering a truer understanding of God? Spong also asks,and answers, the question, "Can Jesus help us to know the nature of the actual Creator?"
Spong's response is to work at knowing God on His terms, not filtered through oft-times inaccurate dogma from 2000 years ago. Spong suggests we study the words of Jesus that were common to other wise men that are consistent with a God capable of creating such a wonderful, but unyielding world. To know God isn't to merely shuffle the routine of reading bible verses, God is everywhere and inspires us from all different perspectives, including much of what Jesus said.
His chapter on knowing Christ as a way to better know God correlate with Jesus' statements regarding our place in the Kingdom of God in the here and now. This perspective provides a much different perspective on how to act now, rather than how to act for a Kingdom yet to come. In the context of a Kingdom here and now, the words of Jesus shine through while some canonical writings defining a God of wrath and jealousy dwindle to nothing. Universal grace and love attain primary focus, and intolerance and bigotry are exposed to the light of day in all their ugliness.
Spong uses higher criticism to shed light on a God that tells us to honor the least among us, to turn the other cheek, to care for our widows and children - a God of amazing grace, who recommends we too live grace-filled lives; not a God used by evil-doers like Joshua to justify mass murder against the "other".
Spong's description of God demands a response from us filled with grace and love, and thus a rejection of the religious right proseltyzing for political power to perpetuate hatred and bigotry towards today's versions of the "other".
Spong's book is courageous because by portraying a God of universal grace and love, and not a humanistic God often portrayed by some authors in the Bible, Spong rejects literal interpretive, "pick and choose" theoglogy built to perpetuate political power and subservience to authoritarian institutions like the church. Spong instead recommends a truly personal relationship with the true nature of God, using the teachings of Jesus to guide us to the Creator. I'm not surprised by the number of death threats Bishop Spong gets, prophets continue to be misunderstood by the masses looking for re-affirmation of belief rather than the more the difficult journey towards a better understanding of reality.
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