RECLAIMING THE BIBLE FOR A NON-RELIGIOUS WORLD
by John Shelby Spong
Harper One, 2011
Harper One is well on its way toward establishing itself as one of the best publishers of insightful yet accessible new books on religion. John Shelby Spong, former Episcopal Bishop of Newark and a featured speaker at the founding conference of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, has become famous for his willingness to challenge all existing Christian orthodoxies and to provide a spiritual foundation for Christian ideas that have been mistakenly trivialized by the religious establishment. In this book, Spong provides a summary of the books of both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. He writes at an introductory level that gives the reader a basic overview of the stories that have shaped much of the religious thought of the West. Spong concludes from his study of the Bible that “life is holy, that all life is loved, and that each of us is called to be all that we are capable of being.”
If you want to go deeper into the texts of the Hebrew Bible, see The Meaning of the Bible, by Douglas A. Knight and Amy-Jill Levine.
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(To return to the Spring 2012 Table of Contents, click here.)
I highly recommend some debate from progressives like Rabbi Lerner, Bishop Spong, Sister Chittister with Robert Royal and what he says on the latest Bill Moyers show about faith and politics. There needs to be more debate from religious leaders on this subject of helping the poor, not from an elitist attitude. http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-nuns-faith-and-politics/
thank you.