Description: Now in paperback, the provocative national bestseller that issues a daring call for contemporary understanding of scripture. Outspoken and controversial, Bishop Spong brilliantly reclaims the Bible from the narrow-minded literalism that has been used to justify slavery, ban textbooks, deny the rights of gays and lesbians, subordinate women, and justify war and revenge.
Brief description:
John Shelby Spong, the Episcopal Bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000, has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard and at more than 500 other universities all over the world. His books, which have sold well over a million copies, include Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy; The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic; Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World; Eternal Life: A New Vision; Jesus for the Non-Religious, The Sins of Scripture, Resurrection: Myth or Reality?; Why Christianity Must Change or Die; and his autobiography, Here I Stand. He writes a weekly column on the web that reaches thousands of people all over the world. To join his online audience, go to www.JohnShelbySpong.com. He lives with his wife, Christine, in New Jersey.
Review Quotes:
"Throughout his career as an Episcopal priest and bishop, John Shelby Spong has been surrounded by controversy as he has labored on the leading edge of movements to bring blacks, women, and homosexuals into the full life of his church." - New York Times
"[Spong is] striving to revive the imaginative possibilities of ancient Scripture for the women and men of today." - Mirabella
"[Spong is] striving to revive the imaginative possibilities of ancient Scripture for the women and men of today." - Mirabella
"[Spong] wants to bring [the Bible] into the twentieth century by focusing on its eternal truths rather than the historical, philosophical, and scientific aberrations that have caused some to discount it entirely.... Spong offers interesting, well-thought-out ideas that should do what he intends-get people thinking about the Bible." - Booklist