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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

“At its very core the story of Easter has nothing to do with angelic announcements or empty tombs. It has nothing to do with time periods, whether three days, forty days, or fifty days. It has nothing to do with resuscitated bodies that appear and disappear or that finally exit this world in a heavenly ascension.”

World Stories Body Religion Three This World Periods Empty Disappear Core Fifty Heavenly Forty Easter Tombs Exit Angelic Announcements Ascension Time Periods

Book:Resurrection: Myth or Reality?

Source: Resurrection: Myth or Reality?

“We were born in a Jewish world, as part of a Jewish faith tradition. We had to translate ourselves into the neo-Platonic thinking Greek world; that took us about 400 years. Then, finally a man named Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, recast Christianity in terms of neo-Platonic thought.”

Thinking Men World Years Term Born Christianity Tradition Greek Translate Bishops Platonic Augustine Hippo Jewish Faith

Author:John Shelby Spong

“What happened in the Western world was that Plato ceased to be the way people thought. Aristotle was rediscovered, and the modern, educated world moved toward Aristotelian thinking.”

People Thinking World Way Happened Modern Moved Western Educated Plato Western World

Author:John Shelby Spong

“It's the 21st century, and somebody has to rise from within this faith tradition and retranslate it for the post-modern world... The Earth is not the center of the universe, therefore, God is not a being who lives above the sky, who splits the Red Sea from time to time, or creates a miracle, or whatever.”

World Earth Universe Sea Sky Modern Century Red Tradition Miracle Posts Splits 21st Century Modern World Center Of The Universe Red Sea

Author:John Shelby Spong

“It's not going to be a straight upward progression, but there's no doubt that consciousness is growing. Prejudices die regularly in the Western world. We don't burn witches anymore.”

World Dies Consciousness Doubt Growing Prejudice Western No Doubt Witch Progression Western World Straight Up

Author:John Shelby Spong

“In fact, in 1724 the Western world learned that women were co-creators of life that's when it was discovered that women had an egg cell.”

World Facts Western Creator Cells Eggs Western World

Author:John Shelby Spong

“The church had to find a way to protect Jesus' perfection so that he could do the work of salvation which, in their frame of reference, only God could do, because God had to come into this world from outside this world to rescue the fallen creation.”

World Way Jesus Church Creation This World Protect Perfection Salvation Fallen Rescue Frame Of Reference

Author:John Shelby Spong

“The demolishment of the power of organized Christianity in the Western world to finally realize the emancipation of women and give them the vote in 1920. Women couldn't even own property in their own names until the last quarter of the 19th century in America.”

World Giving Lasts America Names Realizing Christianity Century Vote Property Western Organized Quarters 19th Century Emancipation Western World

Author:John Shelby Spong

“Men didn't like to empty bedpans, so we made women nurses. Then men didn't like to do the administrative stuff, so women were allowed to become secretaries. That's the way they entered the work force. Then we began to educate them because they had to be educated. But it wasn't until after World War II that most of the great universities of this country became coeducational.”

Men World Way Made War Country Force Stuff Empty University Educated War Of The Worlds Educate World War Ii Nurse World War I Secretary Administrative

Author:John Shelby Spong

“Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, says, "From the rising of the sun to its setting, God's name shall be great among the Gentiles." This encompasses the whole world. Suddenly it's not the Jews against the Gentiles, or my tribe against your tribe.”

World Book Whole Lasts Names Sun Jew Whole World Setting Settings Rising Tribes Testament Old Testament Gentiles

Author:John Shelby Spong

“I know that Arnold Toynby, the great historian, said he had always hoped the religions of the world would evolve until they began to bring the very best of each tradition into one tradition. He hoped that Christianity would be the one religion that finally incorporated the values of Hinduism and Buddhism, and enriched itself with them.”

Knows World Said Would Be Values Christianity Buddhism Tradition Evolve Historian Hinduism Hinduism And Buddhism

Author:John Shelby Spong

“Nobody in the scientific or medical world thinks that homosexuality is something that people choose. It's something we are. Now, I didn't choose to be heterosexual. I just woke up when I was about twelve years old and girls didn't look obnoxious to me any longer, but I didn't make a choice about the matter. I just responded to my own hormones.”

People Thinking World Years Looks Matter Choices Girl My Own Medical Twelve Homosexuality Hormones Obnoxious

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

“I began to read [Bible] as a critic, an in-house critic. So I got to a place where when I got to the university, I just couldn't reconcile that book and some of its points of view with stuff I was learning in my academic career. And so then you have a choice: either you give up your academic career and close your mind and become a constant fundamentalist, or you give up your religion and become a citizen of the modern world and get a modern education, or just spend the rest of your life balancing the two things together, forcing them into a dialogue.”

“You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.”

People Ifs World Want Percent Stability Starving Dieting

Author:John Shelby Spong

“You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you don't have any freedom left, or you're going to build a world that doesn't create terrorists - and that means a whole different way of 'getting along.'”

World Way Mean Different States Whole Left Police Terrorist Different Ways Police State Getting Along

Author:John Shelby Spong

“The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world.”

People World Trying Enough Bigs Found Church Audience Members Association Alumni

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

“I do not think of God theistically, that is, as a being, supernatural in power, who dwells beyond the limits of my world. I rather experience God as the source of life willing me to live fully, the source of love calling me to love wastefully and to borrow a phrase from the theologian, Paul Tillich, as the Ground of being, calling me to be all that I can be.”

Thinking World Love I Can Willing Source Calling Limits Mindfulness Phrases Theologian Source Of Life

Author:John Shelby Spong