I ... look at Jesus and see a humanity open to all that God is--open to life, open to love and open… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I think we have to recover our spiritual nature. The way we have interpreted Christianity does not do that. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
We're either going to be driven to a whole new sense of radical interdependence where we are, in the Bible's words, our… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The way that I see Christianity is that its role is to enhance the life of every person. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Toward the end of his life, [Arnold] Toynby said the Christianity he saw developing was brittle, imperialistic and incapable of reforming itself. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. That is a paradigm… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I think I could make the case for any kind of organized religion, but I'm not an expert in those, so let… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
There are some great values in Christianity, but I think the values are located more deeply in our humanity than they are… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
We live in a very pluralistic society today. There are Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, atheists, Roman Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Christians like me.… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The time has come for us to think of Christianity in a different way. Instead of thinking of God entering human life… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I think I can tell you how I experience God. I experience God as the power of life calling me to live,… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I do assert that one prepares for eternity not by being religious and keeping the rules, but by living fully, loving wastefully,… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The thing that intrigues me about Matthew is that I don't believe anybody would read it if they aren't Jewish and understand… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
As for the status of Western Christianity, we are in a place where our task is to redefine the primary symbols of… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The biblical texts that we Christians have used for centuries to justify our hostility toward the Jews need to be banished forever… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Anybody who's a mythology ... there's always a fear. That's why we don't like people whose skin color is different, whose eye… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Biblical higher criticism is preserved in the particular enclave of academic Christian scholarship and is thought to be too unfruitful to share… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I want to see Christianity enhance our humanity instead of rescue us from some fall. I don't want us to be depending… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Theism, as a way of conceiving God, has become demonstrably inadequate, and the God of theism not only is dying but is… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
One of my great experiences in life was to be interviewed on a late-night talk show by a guy named Tom Snyder.… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The trouble with Christianity was that by about 150, there were hardly any Jews left in the Christian church, and so from… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
You can't go to church without praying ten or fifteen times for God to have mercy on you. You can't sing "Amazing… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
[Jew] didn't believe anything good could come out of a Jewish study. So, what has happened is anti-Semitism has cost the Jews… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I look at American Christianity and I'm almost in despair. I don't want to be identified with it. The Christian vote in… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
In the first gospel, Mark, the risen Christ appears physically to no one, but by the time we come to the last… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Matthew is the only gospel that uses the Sermon on the Mount, for example, because that's the new Moses making a new… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Christians tried to separate themselves from the Jewish crowd so they wouldn't be the recipients of the persecution of the Romans.… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Almost any poll of regular churchgoers will reveal that their favorite book in the New Testament is the Gospel of John. It… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The demolishment of the power of organized Christianity in the Western world to finally realize the emancipation of women and give them… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions,… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
We were born in a Jewish world, as part of a Jewish faith tradition. We had to translate ourselves into the neo-Platonic… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I know that Arnold Toynby, the great historian, said he had always hoped the religions of the world would evolve until they… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Now, the fourth gospel says that the moment that Jesus is glorified is the moment he's put to death on the cross,… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I never really liked the Gospel of John because I never could find the humanity of Jesus in it. I thought it… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Every institution places its ultimate weight on preserving its own life. That is why the Church emphasizes loving God over loving one's… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The way that I see Christianity is that its role is to enhance the life of every person. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Sins of Scripture is an interesting title; most people don't put sins and scripture together in the same title. It jars people. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
“When a human life is open to all that humanity can be, humanity and divinity flow together as one. It was and is a… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
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… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
My basis of morality is this: does this action enhance life, or does it denigrate life? Does it build up or does it tear… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
I want the traditional family upheld, but I don't want it upheld to the detriment of other people. — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
We live in a very pluralistic society today. There are Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, atheists, Roman Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Christians like me. There are… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Bible was written between 3,000 and 2,000 years ago, and it's filled with the knowledge that people had in that period of time,… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
We are in a survival mentality, and that's hard-wired into our humanity, because we are the winners of an evolutionary struggle of millions and… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
Some people think prayer stops bullets or rockets or land mines. It doesn't. That's magic, that's not God. Sometimes, you're just in the wrong… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
The Hebrew scriptures say it's okay to enslave anybody except your fellow Jews. It says you should enslave only your neighbors. I say to… — John Shelby Spong Copy Share Image
![“Toward the end of his life, [Arnold] Toynby said the Christianity he saw developing was brittle, imperialistic and incapable of reforming itself.” quote by John Shelby Spong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fd3/john-shelby-spong-1488_christianity_toward-the-end-of-his-life-arnold-toynby_1347062.jpg)
![“[Jew] didn't believe anything good could come out of a Jewish study. So, what has happened is anti-Semitism has cost the Jews their lives and their property. It's also cost the Christians the ability to read the old gospels, which are deeply, deeply Jewish, and to bring that out is a pretty…” quote by John Shelby Spong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2ac/john-shelby-spong-1488_ability_jew-didn-t-believe-anything-good-could-c_1896190.jpg)
