Jesus for the Non-Religious
Author: John Shelby Spong
Amazon info
Thought provoking and fairly compelling - but not enough to make me take up a belief in Jesus, even a human one. Bishop Spong main argument is that accepting the miraculous events in the bible as historical fact would require disbelieving in a 21st century understanding of the world - a disbelief that he is not willing to make. So far, pretty obvious. However, simply rejecting the teachings of Jesus would result in the abyss of meaninglessness. To which I say, jump on into the abyss, the water's great :). But Spong requires meaning and he finds it in the a reinterpretation of the scriptures that he believes is more accurate. In essence the miraculous language used by the followers in Jesus, was their attempt to describe the complete transcendence that occurred upon his influence and teaching. They lacked a language to use to describe something so remarkable, so they used allegorical miracles. Spong's well researched book backs up these claims and presents an image of a human Jesus who taught love, peace, universal acceptance - truly revolutionary ideas - and ideas that today can still inspire. But I still like my life in the abyss :).
I think that this book would appeal to any person who wants to believe in "something" but can't turn off their brains as required by standard religions. It is also fascinating to those who read about the early years of the Christian Church. I am curious as to how "religious people" would see it. They should definitely start with the final chapters of the book (a new interpretation of Jesus, rather than the first 2/3 which remove all the traditional pillars of religion - no virgin birth, no resurrection, Jesus was not born in Bethlehem, etc.).
My main complaint about the book is that it is necessarily sketchy about the time ~30AD to ~70AD, which is the critical time that the understanding of Jesus was changing from a human Jesus into a divine Jesus - but Spong's theories do seem to fit the available data. I would be more impressed if he perhaps managed to bring in some of the non-traditional gospels that have recently been discovered - as those may be particularly relevant to his argument.
Hard to wrong with this book - even if just for the educational experience and a well argued, optimistically oriented, viewpoint.
Recommended to all - even the evangelicals.