{"id":3062,"date":"2009-09-11T00:04:21","date_gmt":"2009-09-11T07:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:23:12","slug":"book-openers-john-shelby-spong-facing-death-and-a-dead-theism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/book-openers-john-shelby-spong-facing-death-and-a-dead-theism\/","title":{"rendered":"John Shelby Spong: Christianity (Some of It) Is Bunk"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"john
John Shelby Spong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

Former Episcopal Bishop of Newark John Shelby Spong says it’s time to ditch the two principle beliefs of Western religion. The first one, he says, is that God is other, “a supernatural being who can do for me that which I cannot do for myself,” a\u00a0situation that requires getting and staying on God’s good side.<\/p>\n

The second outmoded belief is that human beings are alienated from the sacred and that our alienation\u00a0requires some kind of atonement — which is another way of saying that\u00a0we are all guilty as hell.<\/p>\n

On these two premises, says Spong,\u00a0 have Western believers\u00a0placed their dearest hopes for eternal life.<\/p>\n

And it’s bunk.<\/p>\n

Modernity, science, knowledge and\u00a0reason have demonstrated once and for all that these premises are flawed, Spong argues in his latest book, Eternal Life: A New Vision —\u00a0Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"JohnTo continue to believe in this sort of religion is to be naively, hopelessly and pathetically stuck in denial, he says. But Spong doesn’t accept the obvious alternative either — that we live meaningless lives in a meaningless Universe.<\/p>\n

Spong proffers a third way, one that involves being “fully human.” We are not really separated from God, he asserts. Rather “we are part of what God is and we are at one with all that God is.” We are finite, but we share in infinity. We are mortal, but we share in immortality.<\/p>\n

Spong, who turned 78 this year, says that “when I die I will rest my case in the ‘being’ of which I am a part . . . I step beyond words at this point into the wonder of a wordless reality.”<\/p>\n

Eternal Life: A New Vision<\/em>, by John Shelby Spong, HarperOne<\/a>, 2009, hardcover $24.99.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong minces no words: It’s time to ditch the two principle beliefs of Western religion. First,
\nthat God is other. And second, that we are alienated from God, guilty as hell, and in dire need of atonement. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,50],"tags":[424,135,34,425,426,427],"class_list":["post-3062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-openers","category-on-writing-reading","tag-atonement","tag-christianity","tag-dont-miss","tag-god-as-other","tag-guilt","tag-john-shelby-spong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3062"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52736,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions\/52736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}