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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

“I do assert that one prepares for eternity not by being religious and keeping the rules, but by living fully, loving wastefully, and daring to be all that each of us has the capacity to be.”

Religious Christianity Capacity Eternity Daring Living Fully

Author:John Shelby Spong

“My hope is that a religious consciousness will begin to rise, one based on enhancing humanity, grasping life in all of its complex wonder, having the courage to live fully, to love wastefully and to be all that each of us can be and that it will express itself in our national life in more earth centered, justice enhancing and humane ways.”

Way Love Earth Humanity Religious Justice Consciousness Wonder Complexes Humane Grasping Humane Way

Author:John Shelby Spong

“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

“I think human beings are almost, by definition, religious people,in the sense that we ask questions of meaning, we anticipate future events, we deal with the issues of mortality from the first time we see a dead bird as a little child.”

People Thinking Firsts Humans Children Littles Asks Religious Human Beings Deals Issues Events Bird First Time Definitions Mortality Anticipate Future Events

Author:John Shelby Spong

“It's almost inevitable that we become religious people. The question is, what kind of religion is it?”

People Kind Religious Inevitable

Author:John Shelby Spong

“I don't see Jesus as rescuing the fallen; I see Jesus as expanding the potential of life. The primary reason the old idea of rescuing the fallen is no good is that there never was a time when we fell from perfection into sin.”

Life Ideas Reason Jesus Religious Sin Perfection Primaries Fallen Rescue Theologian Expanding Bishops Old Ideas

Author:John Shelby Spong

“The Bible Belt, the religious South, is the section of the country that practiced slavery until the war made them give it up. They practiced segregation. They practiced lynchings. I don't see any great value in that.”

Giving Made War Country Values Religious Slavery South Sections Segregation Belts Lynching Great Value

Author:John Shelby Spong

“I think the story of the Christian faith is how you can become more deeply and fully human, not how you can become religious. And I don't see any indication that being religious makes you more moral.”

Thinking Humans Stories Christian Religious Moral Indication Christian Faith

Author:John Shelby Spong

“We live in a very pluralistic society today. There are Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, atheists, Roman Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Christians like me. There are a wide variety of religious expressions in this country. I think they all must be treated with respect and none of them must be given priority in the public arena.”

Thinking Country Today Christian Given Religious Expression Catholic Atheist Jew Wide Priorities Treated Like Me Buddhist Variety Arena Evangelical Roman Catholic Society Today

Author:John Shelby Spong

“I get letters every week from people who live in rural Texas or rural Mississippi and who feel totally alone. They feel like they must be the strangest person in the world. They don't fit in to the religious milieu of their communities. It doesn't make any sense to them. They read some of my columns and they know that there's somebody in the world at least as crazy as they are, and so they write and say is there anybody else?”

People Knows World Feels Writing Persons Community Religious Week Crazy Fit Letters Texas Columns Mississippi Milieu

Author:John Shelby Spong

“All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. And that's where it turns demonic. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.”

Needs War Seems Religion Turns Religious Prove Burning Stakes Persecution Heretic Demonic Religious Wars

Author:John Shelby Spong

“Jesus becomes the captive of the hysterically religious, the chronically fearful, the insecure and even the neurotic among us, or he becomes little more than a fading memory, the symbol of an age that is no more and a nostalgic reminder of our believing past. To me, neither option is worth pursuing.”

Believe Littles Age Past Jesus Religious Memories Symbols Fearful Insecure Reminders Neurotic Nostalgic Captives Fading

Book:Jesus for the Non-Religious

Source: Jesus for the Non-Religious