Jesus for the Non-Religious | 
| Author: John Shelby Spong
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  64 reviews
Sales Rank: 5277
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060778415
Dewey Decimal Number: 291
EAN: 9780060778415
ASIN: 0060778415
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
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Product Description
The Pope Describes the Ancient Traditional Jesus; Bishop Spong Brings Us a Jesus Modern People Can Be Inspired By
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| Customer Reviews: Read 59 more reviews...
 Jesus for Non believers. September 29, 2008
Bishop Spong's book is well done and well put together. This is a very provocative book and it requires patience and persistance to understand where the Bishop is leading. The first half of the book does a good job of demethologizing Christianity and the Bible. I didn't feel that the Bishop was as clear with the second half of the book. I am a 70 year old Roman Catholic cleric who has taught Scripture for over 35 years. I found that I had to work at this book to understand what the Bishop was saying. I got his message but never experienced the "ah ha" event. I plan to reread it again and see what I found.
 Way to Go! September 20, 2008
Unlike the title suggests, I do consider myself a religious persion. In fact, I am a teacher of theology to people of all ages, but mostly teens. I have also been on a life-long search for the Jesus/God of my imagination, and so, I love to look in all the unlikely places. This book has put much of my search into words and on paper. It is thought provoking and courageous and rattles a lot of cages (one of my favorite pastimes...!) I've also been reading books from the Jesus Seminar, and they complement Spong's studies beautifully. His writing is much more accessible, however.
Teens today are religious, but are unwilling to accept the same orthodoxy earlier generations grew up with. They are ever-searching for an image that works with the new scientific and philosophical studies of the present. These ideas presented by Spong, encourage further discovery on their part and "gives them permission" to ask more and more questions and enter into a lifelong search for themselves. I cannot give them this book, nor even suggest they read it because that would jeopardize my employment, but I can share some of the ideas. We are raising a strong-willed generation and we better be ready to meet them on their own terms. Churches and their hierarchies may change, but faith will continue. From Chaos comes Creation!
Thoughts for the 21-st century minds ! September 16, 2008
Hello to all users of Amazon.com,
I have read John Shelby Spong's book with interest and excitement.
The author is quite obviously very informed on issues of religious beliefs
and customs. At the same time he is extremelly intelligent and open minded
person who has realized that the outdated, superstitious and completely irrational positions of the "faith" based followers of Jesus's teachings ought to be replaced with carefully examined and rational interpretations
of WHAT Jesus was trying to give to people of his time.
For that reason alone, I reccomend this book to anyone, whether religious or non-religious, to read carefully and come to the thoughts which belong to the knowledge of the 21-st century.
Best wishes to the readers - Dan Kustudich
Bravo! September 9, 2008
Thank you, Bishop Spong, for stepping out of the "religous box". I'm a baby boomer who has been looking all my life for the Christian experience to make sense. I never thought anyone who was highly educated and a dedicated church leader would ever actually agree with some of my thoughts or answer so many more of my questions. And thank you for your courage.
Great at debunking, not so great at replacing August 25, 2008
I'm a huge fan of this book, and I'm reading it for the second time. Spong's analysis of how Old Testament stories and liturgical needs have shaped the Jesus story makes it almost impossible for anyone to think of the Jesus story as literal history.
However, after this debunking process, Spong attempts to paint a picture of "the real historical Jesus", that which can be glimpsed when the layers of myth are peeled away. He finds a Jesus that broke down boundaries of nationality, religion, and race. A Jesus that broke through prejudice. A Jesus that was so fully human that in his life the divine could be glimpsed.
There's a logical contradiction here. If we can't rely on the Jesus story as factual history, how can we rely on it to support the values of tolerance, love, and "being all that you can be"? It seems to me that those are Spong's values. Why does he need to argue that the historical Jesus represented those values? If the historical Jesus really didn't represent those values, which we of cours could never know since there is no historical record, my guess is that Spong would say, "Oops, I guess Jesus wasn't all that I thought he was, but I still believe in those values." If you believe in compassion, love, tolerance, etc., just say that's what you believe in. Why must you sell those values by arguing that they were Jesus' values?
Spong argues that the belief in a theistic God has led to all sorts of racial prejudice and persecution. I find that not a convincing argument. Yes, people who believe in a theistic God have killed Jews and persecuted minorities. However, that doesn't mean the belief itself was the decisive factor. Surely the belief in a theistic God also correlates with many positive statistics as well.
I agree that we shouldn't confuse our definitions of God with who God really is. However, I don't believe the God Spong hints at--a God who is impersonal, who has no consciousness of our every thought, the "Ground of Being", or whatever, will appeal to many people.
Still, it's a book that every Christian should read. And I greatly respect Spong for not just tearing down but attempting to put something new it its place. I'm just not quite ready to buy into his vision of that new item.
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