Review by Choice Review
In this well-written and lively book, Spong (retired bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Newark, NJ) seeks to free Christianity from outmoded and destructive beliefs and to present a viable and constructive alternative. Like Paul Tillich, Spong believes that Christianity must present a picture of deity that is beyond traditional supernaturalism, but not beyond the reality of God as the ultimate source and ground of being. Like the members of the Jesus Seminar, he believes that he has recovered the authentic and divine Jesus, free of the arcane veneer of the four canonical gospels. And like Carl Jung, he believes that evil must be embraced and transformed as part of the human quest for wholeness. Indebted as he is to others, Spong does not conglomerate their ideas, but presents an integrated vision that challenges readers to come to grips with the foremost intellectual and spiritual issues of our time. This controversial book should have a wide readership. Spong, who is well known for his liberal stand on social issues, is also the author of Why Christianity Must Change or Die (1999). Recommended for general readers through researchers and faculty. P. L. Urban Jr. emeritus, Swarthmore College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Retired Episcopal bishop Spong says this may be his last big statement on how Christianity must become nontheistic. Educated people, he avers, can't believe in God the Father anymore, and sustaining such a faith for others by institutional means validates hierarchical, male-centered systems of authority that oppress rather than free believers to live in the fundamentally egalitarian realm--not kingdom--of God that Jesus preached. God as Supreme Being, Jesus as the incarnation of God, and miracles as evidence of divinity are old notions that were imposed on Jesus' original teaching. God is, Spong says, adopting Paul Tillich's phrase, the ground of being. Furthermore, humanity participates in divinity by the fact of being, original sin is a misconception, and no religion is the one true faith. This is all, if hardly new, heretical stuff in the eyes of the church. But then, Spong believes the church is largely apostate, for it is based on the desires of church hierarchy rather than human needs. Bracing stuff, though, as usual for Spong, rather prolix. --Ray Olson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Religious reformer Spong builds upon the program he initiated in Why Christianity Must Change or Die as he outlines what he believes is an authentic faith for a new millennium. Taking cues from the works of John A.T. Robinson, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rudolf Bultmann, Spong proclaims that theism the view that a supernatural deity creates and provides for humanity is merely a "human coping device, created by traumatized self-conscious creatures to enable them to deal with the anxiety of self-awareness." The theistic God, for Spong as for Freud and Feuerbach before him, is nothing but a projection of our own desires and wishes. Since the theistic God was a construct that helped humans cope with their anxieties, the hysteria and trauma rampant in our society today is proof, says Spong, that the theistic God has died. But once theism is extinct, many of the central ideas of conventional Christianity, such as original sin, the incarnation and the Resurrection, tumble into uselessness. Spong's "new Christianity" is rather old, though. Just as in 19th-century theological liberalism, Jesus is god-presence and god is the ground of all being. Moreover, Spong recycles the central ideas of his previous nine books. At worst, this is an uninspiring and unoriginal tract for a formless and meandering quasi-spiritual life. At best, however, Spong openly reveals his honest struggles to fashion a living faith that transcends what he sees as the sterility of the Christianity in which he was formed. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In what he claims to be his parting manifesto, Spong, the former Episcopal bishop of Newark, NJ, saves his sharpest salvos for organized religion in general and Christianity in particular. Arguing for the full humanity of women, gays, and other disenfranchised groups, Spong continues arguments begun in earlier works (e.g., Why Christianity Must Change or Die), striving to improve upon his previously vilified or misunderstood ideas, such as the figurative nature of the Passion, the death of theism, and various dogmas and creeds that fall under the "theistic firewall of [religious] hysteria." Still, he doesn't anticipate much clerical support; he speaks instead to "the ordinary people whose name is legion" and is somewhat defensive in tone. As with his previous works, faithful folk will struggle with the radical nature of his vision, laboring to see what is fundamentally Christian in his Christianity. Loyal Spongians will welcome the conversation, but foes will be further infuriated. Purchase accordingly. Sandra Collins, Duquesne Univ. Lib., Pittsburgh (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.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
