Title: Why Christianity Must Change or Die - A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile Author: John Shelby Spong Published by: HarperCollins, 1998 ISBN: 0-06-067532-2 [hardcover, 258 pages]
Not since Martin Luther has a leader risen from within the church to call for a more powerful reformation than that found in the pages of this book. Here John Shelby Spong integrates his compelling stands on the Bible, Jesus, sin, and morality into an intelligible creed that today's thinking Christians can embrace.Championing Christians he calls "believers in exile," and counting himself in that number, he says, "We are that silent majority of people who find it increasingly difficult to remain members of the church and still be thinking people." In Why Christianity Must Change or Die, he seeks to be "a resource for the religious seekers of our world who yearn to believe in God but who are also repelled by the pre-modern literalizations that so frequently masquerade as Christianity."
While Bishop Spong has for many years called upon Christians to confront issues ranging from the role of women in the church and the unfair treatment of homosexuals to the perils of fundamentalism, this important book marks the first time he has offered a unifed vision of authentic Christian believe taht can live in the third millennium. Among his assertions are:
- traditional theism is no longer credible, we need a new contemporary understanding of God as the source of life and love, not as a superperson running the universe,
- if theism is no longer a viable way to think about God, then the way we approach the Christ figure has got to be radically revised. Jesus can no longer be the incarnation of a theistic deity,
- the church as a heirarchical institution was not founded by God or Jesus, what Jesus initiated was a community of faith and service and that's what the church should be, and
- heaven and hell don't exist, but what they powerfully symbolize is that our deeds have eternal consequences -- a sobering reality for so-called Christians who persecute gays, marginalize women, and use doctrine to justify their acts of violence.
Building on his bestselling books Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism and Living in Sin?, Bishop Spong proposes a Christianity based on a whole new way of thinking, premised upon justice and love rather than judgement and literal-minded readings of the Bible. Arguing that fundamentalism is incompatible with true Christian Faith -- and exploring the future of ethics, prayer, and Christianity itself -- Spong's manifesto is both the summation of his life's work and a guide for every reader searching for a reasoned, just, and loving faith.
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