Jesus for the NonReligious, John Shelby Spong
Jesus for the NonReligious, John Shelby Spong
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Jesus for the Non-Religious

Author: John Shelby Spong

Narrator: Alan Sklar

Unabridged: 12 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 02/27/2007

Synopsis

Writing from his prison cell in Nazi Germany in 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German theologian, sketched a vision of what he called ""Religionless Christianity."" In this book, John Shelby Spong puts flesh onto the bare bones of Bonhoeffer's radical thought. The result is a strikingly new and different portrait of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jesus for the non-religious.Spong challenges much of the traditional understanding, from the tale of Jesus' miraculous birth to the account of his cosmic ascension into the sky. He questions the historicity of the ideas that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that he had twelve disciples, or that the miracle stories were ever meant to be descriptions of supernatural events. He also speaks directly to those critics of Christianity who call God a ""delusion"" and who describe how Christianity has become evil and destructive. Spong invites his readers to look at Jesus through the lens of both the Jewish scriptures and the liturgical life of the first century synagogue. He proposes a new way of understanding the divinity of Christ as the ultimate dimension of a fulfilled humanity. Jesus for the Non-Religious may be the book that finally brings the pious and the secular into a meaningful dialogue, opening the door to a living Christianity in the post-Christian world.Read by Alan SklarPreface, prologue, and epilogue read by the Author

About John Shelby Spong

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Caroline on May 09, 2019

I found Spong's book fascinating... His Bible scholarship seems impressive. I say 'seems' because I am no-one to judge. I have never really studied the Bible, even in a 'keen church-goer' fashion. Even so, I was very impressed by his arguments that Jesus's miracles, and miraculous experiences (like......more

Goodreads review by Lee on June 09, 2012

The phrase "spiritual but not religious" has become such a common description that an acronym has developed: SBNR. Are you an SBNR? I'm not. As much as I want to belong, it doesn't really describe me. I'm more of a JBNR guy (Jesus but not religious). Jesus' dream of a kingdom of heaven on earth, and......more

Goodreads review by Brian on January 26, 2021

Spong reads the gospels, not looking for facts, but for signs of how the story tellers were changed. What defensive walls, fears, hypocrisies or self-centered views of life were blown down by encounters with Jesus? In pursuing this kind of encounter, Spong traces almost every phrase or image in the g......more

Goodreads review by Rob the Obscure on September 01, 2009

This book is in 3 parts. In the first two parts Spong uses the discoveries of decades of biblical scholarship, including textual criticism, historical criticism, etc. to call into question many of the traditionally held beliefs concerning the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth. He takes a number......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on January 25, 2011

Long ago (I think because of Oprah) I learned about John Shelby Spong, an episcopalian priest who wrote about Christianity in ways that interested me. Most importantly, ee seemed not to be about a literal interpretation of the Bible. I sought out his work, reading (I think) "The Easter Moment," a pi......more

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