John Shelby Spong

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Illinois

Is celibacy the only moral alternative to marriage Should the widowed be allowed to form intimate relationships without remarrying Should the church receive people who identify as LGBTQ into its community and support gay and lesbian relationships Should congregations publicly and liturgically witness and affirm divorces Should the church's moral standards continue to be set by patriarchal males Bishop Spong proposes a pastoral response based on scripture and history to the changing realities of the modern world. He calls for a moral vision to empower the church with inclusive teaching about equal, loving, nonexploitative relationships.

Living in Sin

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A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture

By popular demand—study guides to two of Bishop John Shelby Spong's bestselling and controversial works, including questions, reflections, and summaries for group and individual use.

Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism

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Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell

Bishop John Shelby Spong, author of Jesus for the Non-Religious, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, Sins of Scripture, and many other books, is known for his controversial ideas and fighting for minority rights. In Eternal Life: A New Vision, a remarkable spiritual journey about his lifelong struggle with the questions of God and death, he reveals how he came to a new conviction about eternal life. God, says spong, is ultimately one, and each of us is part of that oneness. We do not live on after death as children who have been rewarded with heaven or punished with hell but as part of the life and being of God, sharing in God’s eternity, which is beyond the barriers of time and space. spong argues that the discovery of the eternal can be found within each of us if we go deeply into ourselves, transcend our limits and become fully human. By seeking God within, by living each day to its fullest, we will come to understand how we live eternally. Always compelling and controversial, Spong, the leading Christian liberal and pioneer for human rights, wrestles with the question that all of us will ultimately face. In his final book, Spong takes us beyond religion and even beyond Christianity until he arrives at the affirmation that the fully realized human life empties into and participates in the eternity of God. The pathway into God turns out to be both a pathway into ourselves and a doorway into eternal life. To Job’s question “If a man (or a woman) dies, will he (or she) live again?” he gives his answer as a ringing yes!

Eternal Life: a New Vision

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The Pope Describes the Ancient Traditional Jesus; Bishop Spong Brings Us a Jesus Modern People Can Be Inspired By

Jesus for the Non-Religious

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Significant highlighting.  Slight wrinkles on cover

Why Traditional Faith Is Dying and How a New Faith Is Being Born

In his bestselling book Why Christianity Must Change or Die, Bishop John Shelby Spong described the toxins that are poisoning the Church. Now he offers the antidote, calling Christians everywhere into a new and radical reformation for a new age. Spong looks beyond traditional boundaries to open new avenues and a new vocabulary into the Holy, proposing a Christianity premised upon justice, love, and the rise of a new humanity -- a vision of the power that might be.

A New Christianity for a New World

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#paperback #Jesus #non-religious #Spong
Bend on front cover, otherwise in very good to excellent condition. Pages are clean. Questions?? Just ask. Thanks 


Arkansas

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Florida

A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile a New Reformation of the Church's Faith and Practice

A New Creed for a New Millennium, from an Outspoken Advocate for a Christianity that is true to Jesus. Building on his bestselling books Resucing the Bible from Fundamentalism and Living in Sin?, Bishop Spong explores the future of ethics, prayer, and Christianity itself. His manifesto is both the summation of his life's work and a guide for every reader searching for a reasoned, just, and loving faith.

Why Christianity Must Change or Die

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North Carolina

A few highlights.  Cover has residue in top right of front from sticker.

Oversized Paperback (4 to 6 lbs)

My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love and Equality

Here I Stand

Extremely highlighted.  Some in light pencil

A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile





An important and respected voice for liberal American Christianity for the past twenty years, Bishop John Shelby Spong integrates his often controversial stands on the Bible, Jesus, theism, and morality into an intelligible creed that speaks to today's thinking Christian. In this compelling and heartfelt book, he sounds a rousing call for a Christianity based on critical thought rather than blind faith, on love rather than judgment, and that focuses on life more than religion.

Moderate highlighting.  Bend on top right corner of front cover

slight yellowing to pages, no marks or creases

Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes

In this boldest book since Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Bishop John Shelby Spong offers a compelling view of the Gospels as thoroughly Jewish tests.Spong powerfully argues that many of the key Gospel accounts of events in the life of Jesus—from the stories of his birth to his physical resurrection—are not literally true. He offers convincing evidence that the Gospels are a collection of Jewish midrashic stories written to convey the significance of Jesus. This remarkable discovery brings us closer to how Jesus was really understood in his day and should be in ours.

Liberating the Gospels

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#hardcover #bible #deconstruction #Christianity #theology #fundamentalism
Like new condition. Questions?? Just ask. Thanks. OBO 


Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Drawing on recent scholarship and personal studies, an Episcopal bishop argues against interpretation of the Bible as literal truth and explains how to make it vital and relevant to twentieth-century life

#hardcover #Christian #Bible #deconstruction #scripture #theology #love #God 
Like new condition. Questions?? Just ask. Thanks. OBO


Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love

In the history of the Western World, the Bible has been a perpetual source of inspiration and guidance for countless Christians. However, this Bible has also left a trail of pain. It is undeniable that the Bible is not always used for good. Sometimes the Bible can seem overtly evil. Sometimes its texts are terrible.

Bishop John Shelby Spong boldly approaches those texts that have been used through history to justify the denigration or persecution of others while carrying with them the implied and imposed authority of the claim that they were the "Word of God." As he exposes and challenges what he calls the "terrible texts of the Bible", laying bare the evil done by these texts in the name of God, he also seeks to redeem these texts, hoping to recover their ultimate depth and purpose. Spong looks specifically at texts used to justify homophobia, anti-Semitism, treating women as second-class humans, corporal punishment, and environmental degradation, but he also delivers a new picture of how Christians can use the Bible today. As Spong battles against the way the Bible has been used throughout history, he provides a new framework, introducing people to a proper way to engage this holy book of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

The Sins of Scripture

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California

In this text, Bishop Spong challenges traditional Christian understanding by examining the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life and teaching through a Jewish lens. He draws attention to the thoroughly Jewish substance beneath the surface of the New Testament.

An important and respected voice for liberal American Christianity for the past twenty years, Bishop John Shelby Spong integrates his often controversial stands on the Bible, Jesus, theism, and morality into an intelligible creed that speaks to today's thinking Christian. In this compelling and heartfelt book, he sounds a rousing call for a Christianity based on critical thought rather than blind faith, on love rather than judgment, and that focuses on life more than religion

Texas

A Bishop Speaks To Believers In Exile

Why Christianity Must Change Or Die

#hardcover #bible #deconstruction #Jesus #Gospels #Christianity #theology 
Few underlines with pen and few yellow highlighting. Otherwise in almost new condition. Questions?? Just ask. Thanks. OBO 


For two hundred years, scholars have been analyzing one of the most important books ever written—the Bible—and overturning much of what we once thought we knew. Everyday Christians, however, are not privy to this deeper conversation. It is for these people that renowned bishop and author John Shelby Spong presents Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, a book designed to take readers into the contemporary academic debate about the Bible. A definitive voice for progressive Christianity, Spong frees readers from a literal view of the Bible. He opens the possibility that some of the characters in the New Testament are imaginary composites or even literary creations—such as Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus; Judas Iscariot; Nicodemus; the Samaritan woman by the well; and Lazarus who was raised from the dead. He presents the Bible as an ever-changing and always growing story. He demonstrates that it is possible to be both a deeply committed Christian and an informed twenty-first-century citizen. In this thorough, substantive guide, Spong explores the origin and essential meaning of each of the individual books in the Bible, examining the background, the context, the level of authenticity and even the trustworthiness of the messages found there. He explains why these particular books, written between two and three thousand years ago, came to be regarded as authoritative and preserved as sacred; he traces the pathway that biblical religion has traveled as it evolved through the centuries, and he shows how people have misused many of these texts in the service of their prejudices. Reaching far beyond the familiar Sunday-school stories that have provided the content of most people’s biblical knowledge, Spong’s journey into the heart of the Bible is his attempt to call his readers into their own journeys into the mystery of God. “One does not,” he asserts, “have to twist one’s brain into a first-century pretzel in order to take the Bible seriously in this increasingly non-religious world.”

Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World

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John Shelby Bishop. Spong

New York

John Shelby Spong, bestselling author and Episcopal bishop of Newark, NJ, challenges the doctrine of the virgin birth, tracing its development in the early Christian church and revealing its legacy in our contemporary attitudes toward women and female sexuality.

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John Shelby Spong

Living in Sin

John Shelby Spong

Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism

John Shelby Spong

Eternal Life: a New Vision

John Shelby Spong

Jesus for the Non-Religious

John Shelby Spong

A New Christianity for a New World

John Shelby Spong

Jesus for the Non-Religious

John Shelby Spong

Why Christianity Must Change or Die

John Shelby Spong

Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism

John Shelby Spong

A New Christianity for a New World

John Shelby Spong

Here I Stand

John Shelby Spong

Why Christianity Must Change or Die

John Shelby Spong

Why Christianity Must Change or Die

John Shelby Spong

Liberating the Gospels

John Shelby Spong

Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism

John Shelby Spong

The Sins of Scripture

John Shelby Spong

Liberating the Gospels

John Shelby Spong

Why Christianity Must Change Or Die

John Shelby Spong

Liberating the Gospels

John Shelby Spong; John Shelby Spong

Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World

John Shelby Bishop. Spong

Born of a Woman