Review by Booklist Review
What Spong says is his fifth final book' concerns life after death and the meaning of mortality. In its internal narrative, he recalls gaining his first awareness of death, that of a pet when he was three, and with it the devastating lesson that when something or someone dies, they disappear forever. Spong has spent his life and work making sense of this most fundamental human issue, and he discusses the self-consciousness involved in the adoption of religion to cope with the finality of death. Some observations are humorous: he makes gentle fun of the birthday-card and cosmetics industries' attitude toward aging. More often he offers thoughtful, serious commentary on topics that include the rise of liberal politics and secularism, the religious approach of the mystics, and the Resurrection as symbol and reality. He concludes with the rather courageous belief that individuals be allowed to determine when and how to die. His fans will find this spiritual autobiography fascinating, but so, too, should anyone interested in the still uncomfortable topics of death and mortality.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this challenging, intellectually rigorous culmination of his body of theological work, retired Episcopal bishop Spong (Jesus for the Non-Religious) provides a lucid historical analysis of the development of human religious thought from the onset of self-conscious awareness to the present, and a compelling argument for the creation of a new religious paradigm. Offering deeply personal reflections on his own Christian journey and priestly career, Spong reviews a lifetime of passionate engagement with biblical study and with questions of faith, charting his growing discomfort with language that seemed "limited, falsifying and inadequate." Arguing that modern scientific understanding necessitates dismissing outdated metaphors and assumptions by which faith seeks to calm human anxiety, Spong suggests an understanding of God "not as a person, but as the process that calls personhood into being." Spong's examination of the gospel resurrection accounts includes an intriguing interpretation of John's portrayal of Jesus as "a being so courageously present that he was open to the ultimate reality of life, love and being." This work, bound to be influential, offers new insights into religion's big questions about life and death, making an invaluable contribution to both religious scholarship and faithful exploration. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Spong, the controversial retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark, NJ, may rightly be considered the bellwether of the most advanced opinions in theology that still cling to a nominal Christian identity. With subtlety and complexity, Spong promotes an idea of an ongoing existence beyond our physicality, one that entirely supercedes "religious" notions of Heaven or Hell and even conventional notions of God. For conservative Christians, Spong's views are heretical; for many other readers, Christian and non-Christian, Spong's writing here as elsewhere is intelligent, engaged, comforting, and uplifting. Verdict Spong's thought and theology are crucial stimulants for every thinking Christian; an important book. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
