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John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quotes

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John Shelby Spong is an American author and theologian known for his modern interpretations of Christian doctrine and his challenges to traditional religious beliefs. His work spans multiple fields, including religion, theology, history, and literature.

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Famous John Shelby Spong Quotes

“Theism, as a way of conceiving God, has become demonstrably inadequate, and the God of theism not only is dying but is probably not revivable. If the religion of the future depends on keeping alive the definitions of theism, then the human phenomenon that we call religion will have come to an end. If Christianity depends on a theistic definition of God, then we must face the fact that we are watching this noble religious system enter the rigor mortis of its own death throes.”

Ifs Way Humans Ends Facts Faces Religious Christianity Alive Atheism Dying Depends Definitions Positive Atheism Noble Phenomenon Inadequate Theism Rigor Conceiving Rigor Mortis

Author:John Shelby Spong

“A major function of fundamentalist religion is to bolster deeply insecure and fearful people. This is done by justifying a way of life with all of its defining prejudices. It thereby provides an appropriate and legitimate outlet for one's anger. The authority of an inerrant Bible that can be readily quoted to buttress this point of view becomes an essential ingredient to such a life. When that Bible is challenged, or relativized, the resulting anger proves the point categorically.”

Source: Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks this Meaning of Script

“They amuse themselves by playing an irrelevant ecclesiastical game called "Let's Pretend." Let's pretend that we possess the objective truth of God in our inerrant Scriptures or in our infallible pronouncements or in our unbroken apostolic traditions.”

Games Atheism Tradition Positive Atheism Scripture Objectives Irrelevant Infallible Unbroken Apostolic Truth Of God Objective Truth

Book:Resurrection: myth or reality? : a bishop's search for the origins of Christianity

Source: Resurrection: myth or reality? : a bishop's search for the origins of Christianity

“I could not believe that anyone who has read this book would be so foolish as to proclaim that the Bible in every literal word was the divinely inspired, inerrant word of God. Have these people simply not read the text? Are they hopelessly misinformed? Is there a different Bible? Are they blinded by a combination of ego needs and naïveté?”

People Needs Believe Book Different Would Be Religion Atheism Ego Inspired Positive Atheism Foolish Combination Word Of God Literal Blinded Vets

Author:John Shelby Spong

“The God understood as a father figure, who guided ultimate personal decisions, answered our prayers, and promised rewards and punishment based upon our behavior was not designed to call anyone into maturity.”

Father Prayer Decision Atheism Figures Behavior Understood Ultimate Rewards Punishment Maturity Our Prayers Father Figure Reward And Punishment Personal Decisions

Author:John Shelby Spong

“The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ's divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.”

Religion Christ Impossible Atheism Birth Understood Divinity Biology Virgins Literal Virgin Birth

Author:John Shelby Spong

“The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.”

World Stories Religion Atheism Events Miracle Posts Testament Deities New Testament

Author:John Shelby Spong

“The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.”

World Ideas Religion Sin Views Sacrifice Atheism Concepts Crosses Primitive Barbarians

Author:John Shelby Spong

“Prayer cannot be a request made to a theistic deity to act in human history in a particular way.”

Way Humans Made Religion Prayer Atheism Particular Human History Deities Request

Author:John Shelby Spong

“The hope for life after death must be separated forever from the behavior control mentality of reward and punishment. The Church must abandon, therefore, its reliance on guilt as a motivator of behavior.”

Religion Church Forever Atheism Behavior Guilt Rewards Punishment Abandon Mentality Reliance After Death Life After Death Reward And Punishment

Author:John Shelby Spong

“If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity, which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus' resurrection, also is not believable.”

Ifs Religion Jesus Views Christianity Atheism Depends Authenticity Fantastic Description Resurrection Doomed Believable Jesus Resurrection

Book:Resurrection: myth or reality? : a bishop's search for the origins of Christianity

Source: Resurrection: myth or reality? : a bishop's search for the origins of Christianity