Unbelievable : why neither ancient creeds nor the reformation can produce a living faith today

Unbelievable Why neither ancient creeds nor the reformation can produce a living faith today

John Shelby Spong

Book - 2018

Five hundred years after Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses ushered in the Reformation, bestselling author and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong delivers twelve forward-thinking theses to spark a new reformation to reinvigorate Christianity and ensure its future. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Christianity was in crisis-a state of conflict that gave birth to the Reformation in 1517. Enduring for more than 200 years, Luther's movement was then followed by a "revolutionary time of human knowledge." Yet these advances in our thinking had little impact on Christians' adherence to doctrine-which has led the faith to a critical point once again. Bible scholar and Episcopal bishop John Shelby ...Spong contends that there is mounting pressure among Christians for a radically new kind of Christianity-a faith deeply connected to the human experience instead of outdated dogma. To keep Christianity vital, he urges modern Christians to update their faith in light of these advances in our knowledge, and to challenge the rigid and problematic Church teachings that emerged with the Reformation. There is a disconnect, he argues, between the language of traditional worship and the language of the twenty-first century. Bridging this divide requires us to rethink and reformulate our basic understanding of God. With its revolutionary resistance to the authority of the Church in the sixteenth century, Spong sees in Luther's movement a model for today's discontented Christians. In fact, the questions they raise resonate with those contemplated by our ancestors. Does the idea of God still have meaning? Can we still follow historic creeds with integrity? Are not such claims as an infallible Pope or an inerrant Bible ridiculous in today's world? In Unbelievable , Spong outlines twelve "theses" to help today's believers more deeply contemplate and reshape their faith. As an educator, clergyman, and writer who has devoted his life to his faith, Spong has enlightened Christians and challenged them to explore their beliefs in new and meaningful ways. In this, his final book, he continues that rigorous tradition, once again offering a revisionist approach that strengthens Christianity and secures its relevance for generations to come.

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Subjects
Christianity > 21st century.
Published
New York, NY : HarperOne [2018]
Language
English
Main Author
John Shelby Spong (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xvi, 319 pages ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780062641298
  • Preface
  • Part I. Setting the Stage
  • 1. Why Modern Men and Women Can No Longer Be Believers
  • Part II. Stating the Problem
  • 2. How the First Reformation Began
  • 3. Differentiating the Experience from the Explanation
  • Part III. Thesis 1: God
  • 4. The Challenge of the Copernican Revolution
  • 5. The Impact on Theism from Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin
  • 6. Dealing with the Insights of Freud
  • 7. A Place to Begin-Being Not a Being
  • 8. The Quest for God: A New Form
  • 9. Our Definition of God: Evolving, Never Fixed
  • Part IV. Thesis 2: Jesus the Christ
  • 10. Escaping the Idolatry of the Incarnation
  • 11. The Collapse of the Salvation Story
  • Part V. Thesis 3: Original Sin
  • 12. The Garden of Eden
  • Part VI. Thesis 4: The Virgin Birth
  • 13. The Story of the Virgin Birth
  • 14. The Actual Details Behind Jesus' Birth
  • Part VII. Thesis 5: Miracles
  • 15. When Miracles Entered the Bible
  • 16. The Miracles in the Moses/Joshua Story
  • 17. Elijah and Elisha-Miracles Expanded
  • 18. The Miracles of Jesus
  • 19. Messiah Miracles-The Final Clue
  • Part VIII. Thesis 6: Atonement Theology
  • 20. Renouncing "Jesus Died for My Sins"
  • 21. Incomplete-Not Fallen
  • Part IX. Thesis 7: Easter
  • 22. The Resurrection
  • 23. Paul's List of Resurrection Witnesses
  • 24. The Gospels' Understanding of Easter
  • Part X. Thesis 8: The Ascension
  • 25. Elijah Magnified
  • Part XI. Thesis 9: Ethics
  • 16. Finding the Basis for Ethics
  • 27. How the Ten Commandments Have Changed Through History
  • 28. Meet Moses' Father-in-Law
  • 29. The Questionable Relevance of the Ten Commandments Today
  • 30. Modern Ethics
  • Part XII. Thesis 10: Prayer
  • 31. The Death of Prayer
  • 32. Prayer: An Act of Being or of Doing?
  • 33. Driving Prayer Toward a New Understanding
  • Part XIII. Thesis 11: Life after Death
  • 34. Life After Death-Still Believable?
  • 35. A New Perspective on Eternity
  • Part XIV. Thesis 12: Universalism
  • 36. The Marks of Tomorrow's Christianity
  • Part XV. Epilogue
  • 37. My Mantra: This I Do Believe
  • Bibliography
  • Scripture Index
  • Subject Index
Review by Booklist Review

Spong, the foremost popularizer of purging religious superstition and authoritarianism, here presents the 12 theses of the revivified, reformed Christianity he has long advocated. God is being, not a being. The Incarnation, original sin, virgin birth, atonement theology, the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus, unchanging ethical codes (e.g., the Ten Commandments), prayer, life after death all must be jettisoned or reconceived. Capping those contentions is that Christianity must become genuinely universal; it must eradicate all invidious discrimination because of race, gender, and sexual orientation. Spong draws liberally on theologians and religious historians and his own pastoral and personal life to make his arguments in the manner of a cogent, smart preacher or lecturer speaking to all who want to keep Christianity while dispensing with miracles, dogma, and blind faith. This means that, if he is not a fine writer nor an entirely punctilious historian (a comma in a compound sentence can elide decades), he makes his thinking clear and accessible. Luther launched a reformation with 95 theses. Spong would launch another with 12.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Theologian Spong (Jesus for the Non-religious), the retired bishop of Newark, issues 12 theses for radically reforming Christianity in this provocative call for a modern Christian faith. Rejecting a traditional image of the supernatural and omnipotent God of theism, Spong declares that God is the name of the power and source of all life, and though God is ungraspable by human cognition, God's force can be witnessed when living fully. Spong challenges the idea of original sin, claiming that Christians are not fallen creatures in need of salvation but are in fact evolving creatures always yearning for wholeness and seeking to be loved and empowered. This striving toward further evolution is the essence of grace, Spong argues, as it allows people to embrace all that we are capable of being. Resurrection, for Spong, is not some supernatural resuscitation of Jesus's physical body, but God calling Christians forth into "our essential oneness, our universal consciousness, our interconnectedness." Spong's stimulating call for a newly revitalized Christianity will appeal to contemporary Christians who view traditional Christianity as dismayingly outmoded. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A call for a new reformation casting aside the beliefs of Christianity.Episcopalian bishop and prolific writer Spong (Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, 2016, etc.) has penned what he declares to be his final book, encapsulating a lifetime of thinking and teaching in order to call upon Christianity to undergo a transformation. Echoing Martin Luther, he offers 12 "theses" upon which to build his argument. Spong asserts that the entirety of traditional Christian theology has been debunked by science and reason, leaving the church intellectually bankrupt. The only answer is to turn toward a new understanding of God and of Jesus, salvation, and every other pillar of Christian thought and belief. The author sees God not as a being, but as "Being itself." Indeed, "God is not a noun we are compelled to define; God is a verb that we are invited to live." Similarly, Spong asserts that Jesus was not a supernatural being in any way but rather someone who demonstrated a new way of living and a higher plane of ethics. The author believes that the resurrection has been misinterpreted and that the New Testament authors did not expect their accounts to be taken literally. "Resurrection wasa moment of new revelation," writes Spong, "that occurred when survival-driven humanity could transcend that limit and give itself away in love to others, including even to those who wish and do us evil." Leaving the author's theology aside, his view toward modern Christianity is regrettably smug. Having made his home in the declining Episcopalian denomination, he seems to look at the "church" and see only his reflection: Western, highly-educated, and skeptical. Throughout his 12 theses, Spong speaks only for his own brand of waning Christianity, excluding even from consideration the tens of millions of Christians worldwide who may not share his views but indeed still believe in what he rejects.A Western elite's dream for a new Christianity. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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