존 쉘비 스퐁(John Shelby Spong) 주교의 책 <요한복음 해설서>
아름다운 합일의 길 요한복음 - 어느 유대인 신비주의자의 이야기
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2019.03.20. 00:33soft103a(soft****)
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오늘 어느 출판사 대표와 점심을 같이 했습니다. 그 분 말씀이 요즘 신문에 내는 책 광고는 전혀 효력이 없다고 하더군요. 그래도 광고 효과가 있는 곳이 페이스북이라고 했습니다.
그래서 존 쉘비 스퐁(John Shelby Spong) 주교의 책 요한복음 해설서가 많이 읽혔으면 하는 마음에 그가 쓴 요한복음 해설서의 개략을 말씀드려보고 싶었습니다.
이 책을 한국말로 번역한 변영권 목사님이 계시지만 좀처럼 언급이 없으셔서 제가 두어마디 하고 싶은 마음이 들었습니다. 아시겠지만 스퐁 주교는 미국 뉴저지 주 성공회 주교로서 많은 책을 썼고 그 중 많은 책이 한국어로 번역되었습니다. 그는 은퇴 후에도 하버드 대학교에서 강의도 하고 여기 저기 강연도 하고 책도 계속 쓰고 있습니다. 그가 82세 이후에 쓴 요한복음 주석서와 마태복음 주석서는 제가 정말로 좋아하는 책 중에 들어갑니다. 마태복음 주석서는 변영권 목사님이 지금 번역중인 것으로 압니다.
요한복음 주석서는 원서 제목이 The Forth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic입니다. 한국어로는 아름다운 합일의 길 요한복음 - 어느 유대인 신비주의자의 이야기(한국기독교연구소 | 2018년 6월)로 나왔습니다.
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Spong 주교 자신도 자기가 책에서 주장하는 바가 전통적인 교인들, 심지어 교회를 졸업한 사람들에게도 걸림이 될 것이라고 경고하고 있습니다. 그러나 여기 페친 되시는 분들은 신학계에 이런 주장도 있다고 하는 것 쯤을 알아두시는 것이 좋으리라 생각합니다. 물론 이미 알고 계시는 분도 계시리라 믿습니다만....
저는 지금 한국 번역본을 가지고 있지 않아서 영어로 된 것을 좀 자유스럽게 의역하려 합니다. (영어본 10쪽에 나옵니다.)
1. 요한복음은 약 30년에 걸쳐 각기 다른 저자들에 의해 각기 다른 층으로 된 기록이다.
2. 그러므로 요한복음에는 어떤 의미로든 문자적으로 “하느님의 말씀”이라 여겨질 수 있는 것이 포함되어 있을 수 없다.
3. 요한복음에 예수님의 말씀이라고 한 말씀의 어느 것도 역사적 예수가 직접 말한 말이라고 볼 수가 없다.
4. 요한복음에 표적(signs)라고 불리는 기적, 예수님이 행했다는 그 기적은 실제로 일어난 적이 없다.
5. 요한복음에 등장하는 거의 대부분의 인물들은 저자의 문학적이거나 가상적인 창작으로서 실제로 살았던 인물들이 아니었다.
6. 외계의 신이 인간의 육신을 입었다고 하는 언어, 이것이 대부분의 사람들이 그리스도교를 이해하는 방식, 그리고 이 복음서를 읽는 방식을 꼴지우고 있지만, 이것은 이 복음서 저자가 의도했던 것과 상관이 없는 것이다.
이상입니다. 놀랍더라도 이 책의 즐독 부탁 드립니다.
저는 지금 한국 번역본을 가지고 있지 않아서 영어로 된 것을 좀 자유스럽게 의역하려 합니다. (영어본 10쪽에 나옵니다.)
1. 요한복음은 약 30년에 걸쳐 각기 다른 저자들에 의해 각기 다른 층으로 된 기록이다.
2. 그러므로 요한복음에는 어떤 의미로든 문자적으로 “하느님의 말씀”이라 여겨질 수 있는 것이 포함되어 있을 수 없다.
3. 요한복음에 예수님의 말씀이라고 한 말씀의 어느 것도 역사적 예수가 직접 말한 말이라고 볼 수가 없다.
4. 요한복음에 표적(signs)라고 불리는 기적, 예수님이 행했다는 그 기적은 실제로 일어난 적이 없다.
5. 요한복음에 등장하는 거의 대부분의 인물들은 저자의 문학적이거나 가상적인 창작으로서 실제로 살았던 인물들이 아니었다.
6. 외계의 신이 인간의 육신을 입었다고 하는 언어, 이것이 대부분의 사람들이 그리스도교를 이해하는 방식, 그리고 이 복음서를 읽는 방식을 꼴지우고 있지만, 이것은 이 복음서 저자가 의도했던 것과 상관이 없는 것이다.
이상입니다. 놀랍더라도 이 책의 즐독 부탁 드립니다.
==========
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John Shelby Spong
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The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic 2013
by John Shelby Spong (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 224 customer reviews
John Shelby Spong, bestselling author and popular proponent of a modern, scholarly and authentic Christianity, argues that this last gospel to be written was misinterpreted by the framers of the fourth-century creeds to be a literal account of the life of Jesus when in fact it is a literary, interpretive retelling of the events in Jesus' life through the medium of fictional characters, from Nicodemus and Lazarus to the "Beloved Disciple." The Fourth Gospel was designed first to place Jesus into the context of the Jewish scriptures, then to place him into the worship patterns of the synagogue and finally to allow him to be viewed through the lens of a popular form of first-century Jewish mysticism.
The result of this intriguing study is not only to recapture the original message of this gospel, but also to provide us today with a radical new dimension to the claim that in the humanity of Jesus the reality of God has been met and engaged.
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
*Starred Review*
The Gospel of John differs from Mark, Matthew, and Luke in terms of style, tone, and many of the events described. Further, the gospels tendency to negatively call out “the Jews” has led, in many ways, to anti-Semitism. So it’s surprising that Spong, a former bishop and educator who has written persuasively about the need for a nontheistic Christianity, would choose to devote a book to John.
And in fact, Spong writes about his difficulties coming to terms with John’s message. But, in his eighty-second year, Spong feels he at last understands John, seeing it now in a new light, as the writing of a Jewish mystic. He moves readers deliberately through the pages of the gospel, explaining by example how he’s come to his conclusions.
John, he maintains, was written after the Johanine community had been expelled from the synagogue. Consequently, John’s purpose in writing is to use Jewish symbolism to explain Jesus and his movement to those who would not or could not accept him. Spong himself says that many of the ideas here—let’s boil it down to God is love—aren’t new. But Spong is writing for a lay audience, and he does so magnificently. His thoughts are bracing, his writing exciting, and his conclusions thought provoking. Those who love reading about religion in general and Christianity in particular may want to go through this volume more than once. --Ilene Cooper
Review
“We now approach our scriptures with a literalism that is unparalleled in the history of religion. This new and imaginative book by John Shelby Spong will liberate many people from this unnecessary complication of the religious life.” (Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“Spong is writing for a lay audience, and he does so magnificently. His thoughts are bracing, his writing exciting, and his conclusions thought provoking. Those who love reading about religion in general and Christianity in particular may want to go through this volume more than once.” (Booklist (starred review))
“No one has done more to articulate a vibrant, post-mythic vision of Christianity than John Shelby Spong. Bishop Spong’s masterful interpretation is destined to become a classic.” (Michael Dowd, Author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World)
“Bishop Spong’s in-depth struggles with and work on the Gospel of John have resulted in a book that challenges dominant assumptions and interpretations. This book will help anyone who cares to think about faith in open, dynamic, hospitable, and inclusive ways.” (Tat-siong Benny Liew, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean; Professor of New Testament Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA)
“Leave it to Bishop Spong to uncover a message of universal hope that is deeply rooted in Jewish mysticism. Spong’s synthesis of Johannine scholarship will lead both clergy and lay readers to a new appreciation of the surprising origins and message of the Fourth Gospel.” (David Felten & Jeff Procter-Murphy, authors of Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity)
“Spong is always readable and informative, but this book reads like a cross between a detective story and an adventure saga that is founded on excellent scholarship. I could not put it down.” (Fred C. Plumer, President of Progressive Christianity.Org)
“Spong invites readers on a stimulating and challenging journey to read the gospel of John afresh and to consider Christianity from a new perspective. This is a must read for every Christian who has tried to make sense of this gospel.” (Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan, Dean and Professor of Hebrew Bible, The Theological School, Drew University)
“Spong stands on solid scholarship. . . . More important than the negatives to the profoundly persuasive author is the unburnished positive: . . . The Fourth Gospel calls on the faithful to believe that Jesus achieved ‘the mystical oneness with the God who is the source of life.’” (Publishers Weekly)
“In his 24th book, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, the always provocative Bishop John Shelby Spong takes on the Gospel of John, opening new windows of insight and challenging the ways the fourth gospel has usually been understood.” (Publishers Weekly)
Read lessSee all Editorial Reviews
Product details
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: HarperOne; First Edition edition (June 11, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062011308
ISBN-13: 978-0062011305
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars 224 customer reviews
More about the author
› Visit Amazon's John Shelby Spong Page
Follow
Biography
John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey for twenty-four years before his retirement in 2000. He is one of the leading spokespersons for liberal Christianity and has been featured on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, FOX News Live, and Extra. This book is based on the William Belden Noble lectures Spong delivered at Harvard.
----------
Top Reviews
fusiafinch
5.0 out of 5 starsA compelling treatise!!June 15, 2013
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
No matter what your opinion about John Shelby Spong's ideas and theology, he sure writes in such a compelling and entertaining way that it's hard to put the book down! This book gives a brand new and fresh insight into the Gospel of John that will be especially attractive to those who have given up on Christianity. Spong's insights offer a new way to interpret the Christian story that will be compelling to many of us in the "Church Alumni Association, and give us a way to believe in the transformative message of the Christian story again.
Spong goes way beyond his primary thesis that the Gospel of John is not to be read literally, but symbolically. He supports his arguments with excellent Biblical scholarship that also incorporates ideas from his earlier books into this treatise. He not only presents many of the characters in John as symbolic literary creations or developments, but also finds new insights into history and theology by doing so. This book is compelling reading which will inspire those who have left the church because of the Church's adherence to dogmatic literalism. But the book will also disturb those who base their faith on the literal historical reading of the text. Either way, the book is never boring!
I have only one criticism. Spong makes a clear argument in favor of the resurrection of Jesus as a non-literal, non-physical event. But he also implies an objective reality to resurrection that is clearly more than the disciples subjective experience. But he does not elaborate too much on what that objective event could be. He mentions that resurrection "means something" but does not speculate further on what that "something" is. He does mention entering into a "universal consciousness" or "entering into the life of God" and I would have loved to hear his personal speculation about this. I know it would be speculative, but I hope he addresses this more in his other writings. But this criticism does not diminish the profound insights found in the rest of the book.
Some pages of this book dazzled me with insights that I have never even thought of before. He also offers new ideas about traditional biblical characters that create whole new meanings for the Biblical text. For that alone, I recommend this book.
89 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
C. M Mills
TOP 500 REVIEWER
4.0 out of 5 starsA good exegesis of the gospel of John by the liberal John Shelby Spong will help enlighten readers on hope in Jesus ChristAugust 8, 2014
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I am a Presbyterian minister who believes that Jesus DID APPEAR IN THE FLESH to his disciples following the resurrection..I also believe that John Shelby Spong has done the faith community a service in this splendid new book on John. Among many fascinating notes observed by Spong who spent five years studying John in detail the following proved the most salient to me:"
1. Spong clarifies the differences between John and the synoptic gospel. For instance, John has no parables, miracles and shows Christ appearing in Jerusalem on several occasions. The Last Supper occurs prior to Passover in the account in John.
2. Jesus is the triumphant Lord whose enthronement culminates on the cross. Spong believes that Jesus shows us how to transcend human barriers to exert complete and full freedom. John is adverse to atonement theology.
3. The first twelve chapters of John are ":the Book of Signs": Light and Darkness, Death and Life are all themes in the gospel. We see how various New Testament characters respond to Christ';s call to enter His reign of life and love. Peter accepts the Lord while Judas refuses I.
4. Mary the mother of Jesus represents Judaism. As Spong focuses on the major figures in the gospel he asserts that they are fictional symbols crafted by John and do not reflect real persons.
5. John was the last gospel written and its provenance is probably in Ephesus. Much of the gospel deals with the conflict between Judaism and the emerging Christian community which had been expelled from the synagogue.
6. Jesus speaks in long discourses which Spong says were composed by John., He believes there are no authentic words of Jesus recorded in John
7. Spong supports the Jesus Seminar which seeks to discover the actual words of Jesus. This is a highly controversial group!
8. Spong believes we need to eschew biblical literalism and explore the symbolism of the gospel of John.
9. Spong believes John is a deeply Jewish book influenced by mysticism.
Whether you agree with Spong's radical conclusions or not the book is a good study of John. Worthwhile.
14 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Ernest G. Barr
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review
“We now approach our scriptures with a literalism that is unparalleled in the history of religion. This new and imaginative book by John Shelby Spong will liberate many people from this unnecessary complication of the religious life.” (Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam)
“Spong is writing for a lay audience, and he does so magnificently. His thoughts are bracing, his writing exciting, and his conclusions thought provoking. Those who love reading about religion in general and Christianity in particular may want to go through this volume more than once.” (Booklist (starred review))
“No one has done more to articulate a vibrant, post-mythic vision of Christianity than John Shelby Spong. Bishop Spong’s masterful interpretation is destined to become a classic.” (Michael Dowd, Author of Thank God for Evolution: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World)
“Bishop Spong’s in-depth struggles with and work on the Gospel of John have resulted in a book that challenges dominant assumptions and interpretations. This book will help anyone who cares to think about faith in open, dynamic, hospitable, and inclusive ways.” (Tat-siong Benny Liew, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean; Professor of New Testament Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA)
“Leave it to Bishop Spong to uncover a message of universal hope that is deeply rooted in Jewish mysticism. Spong’s synthesis of Johannine scholarship will lead both clergy and lay readers to a new appreciation of the surprising origins and message of the Fourth Gospel.” (David Felten & Jeff Procter-Murphy, authors of Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity)
“Spong is always readable and informative, but this book reads like a cross between a detective story and an adventure saga that is founded on excellent scholarship. I could not put it down.” (Fred C. Plumer, President of Progressive Christianity.Org)
“Spong invites readers on a stimulating and challenging journey to read the gospel of John afresh and to consider Christianity from a new perspective. This is a must read for every Christian who has tried to make sense of this gospel.” (Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan, Dean and Professor of Hebrew Bible, The Theological School, Drew University)
“Spong stands on solid scholarship. . . . More important than the negatives to the profoundly persuasive author is the unburnished positive: . . . The Fourth Gospel calls on the faithful to believe that Jesus achieved ‘the mystical oneness with the God who is the source of life.’” (Publishers Weekly)
“In his 24th book, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, the always provocative Bishop John Shelby Spong takes on the Gospel of John, opening new windows of insight and challenging the ways the fourth gospel has usually been understood.” (Publishers Weekly)
Read lessSee all Editorial Reviews
Product details
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: HarperOne; First Edition edition (June 11, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062011308
ISBN-13: 978-0062011305
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars 224 customer reviews
More about the author
› Visit Amazon's John Shelby Spong Page
Follow
Biography
John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey for twenty-four years before his retirement in 2000. He is one of the leading spokespersons for liberal Christianity and has been featured on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, FOX News Live, and Extra. This book is based on the William Belden Noble lectures Spong delivered at Harvard.
----------
Top Reviews
fusiafinch
5.0 out of 5 starsA compelling treatise!!June 15, 2013
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
No matter what your opinion about John Shelby Spong's ideas and theology, he sure writes in such a compelling and entertaining way that it's hard to put the book down! This book gives a brand new and fresh insight into the Gospel of John that will be especially attractive to those who have given up on Christianity. Spong's insights offer a new way to interpret the Christian story that will be compelling to many of us in the "Church Alumni Association, and give us a way to believe in the transformative message of the Christian story again.
Spong goes way beyond his primary thesis that the Gospel of John is not to be read literally, but symbolically. He supports his arguments with excellent Biblical scholarship that also incorporates ideas from his earlier books into this treatise. He not only presents many of the characters in John as symbolic literary creations or developments, but also finds new insights into history and theology by doing so. This book is compelling reading which will inspire those who have left the church because of the Church's adherence to dogmatic literalism. But the book will also disturb those who base their faith on the literal historical reading of the text. Either way, the book is never boring!
I have only one criticism. Spong makes a clear argument in favor of the resurrection of Jesus as a non-literal, non-physical event. But he also implies an objective reality to resurrection that is clearly more than the disciples subjective experience. But he does not elaborate too much on what that objective event could be. He mentions that resurrection "means something" but does not speculate further on what that "something" is. He does mention entering into a "universal consciousness" or "entering into the life of God" and I would have loved to hear his personal speculation about this. I know it would be speculative, but I hope he addresses this more in his other writings. But this criticism does not diminish the profound insights found in the rest of the book.
Some pages of this book dazzled me with insights that I have never even thought of before. He also offers new ideas about traditional biblical characters that create whole new meanings for the Biblical text. For that alone, I recommend this book.
89 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
C. M Mills
TOP 500 REVIEWER
4.0 out of 5 starsA good exegesis of the gospel of John by the liberal John Shelby Spong will help enlighten readers on hope in Jesus ChristAugust 8, 2014
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I am a Presbyterian minister who believes that Jesus DID APPEAR IN THE FLESH to his disciples following the resurrection..I also believe that John Shelby Spong has done the faith community a service in this splendid new book on John. Among many fascinating notes observed by Spong who spent five years studying John in detail the following proved the most salient to me:"
1. Spong clarifies the differences between John and the synoptic gospel. For instance, John has no parables, miracles and shows Christ appearing in Jerusalem on several occasions. The Last Supper occurs prior to Passover in the account in John.
2. Jesus is the triumphant Lord whose enthronement culminates on the cross. Spong believes that Jesus shows us how to transcend human barriers to exert complete and full freedom. John is adverse to atonement theology.
3. The first twelve chapters of John are ":the Book of Signs": Light and Darkness, Death and Life are all themes in the gospel. We see how various New Testament characters respond to Christ';s call to enter His reign of life and love. Peter accepts the Lord while Judas refuses I.
4. Mary the mother of Jesus represents Judaism. As Spong focuses on the major figures in the gospel he asserts that they are fictional symbols crafted by John and do not reflect real persons.
5. John was the last gospel written and its provenance is probably in Ephesus. Much of the gospel deals with the conflict between Judaism and the emerging Christian community which had been expelled from the synagogue.
6. Jesus speaks in long discourses which Spong says were composed by John., He believes there are no authentic words of Jesus recorded in John
7. Spong supports the Jesus Seminar which seeks to discover the actual words of Jesus. This is a highly controversial group!
8. Spong believes we need to eschew biblical literalism and explore the symbolism of the gospel of John.
9. Spong believes John is a deeply Jewish book influenced by mysticism.
Whether you agree with Spong's radical conclusions or not the book is a good study of John. Worthwhile.
14 people found this helpful
HelpfulComment Report abuse
Ernest G. Barr
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Eye Opener for Readers of the Fourth GospelAugust 13, 2013
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
This is among the best books retired Bishop Spong has written. I don't claim that lightly; while I haven't read them all, I have read twelve and in this one Spong does a masterful job of unraveling the obscured messages that the author (actually three writers) have written in the Gospel of John. The writers, Jewish mystics, use stories and characters that are not historically verifiable, however, they convey truths that cannot be discerned by literal interpretation.
An example is the story of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, who came at night (suggests "religious night"). The phrase,"born again" confused Nicodemus. Spong suggests that the meaning is, "You must enter a transformative experience. You must see with insight...You must open yourself to a totally new perspective."
Throughout the book there are fresh interpretations of familiar word or concepts. For example: there is no such thing as "the faith". "Faith is not believing in creeds, doctrines, or dogmas; faith is trusting the divine presence to be in every moment of every tomorrow." Faith is about more than believing--it is living!
"For John there was no fall into sin and thus no time when the human and the divine were separated: One literally permeated the other." Jesus, therefore, did not "die for your sins." Neither was he the victim whom God punished in our place. The death of Jesus was not punishment. Jesus gave his life away in love."
These are just a few of the gems that await. While Spong usually leaves the reader a bit unsettled, it is my contention that it is through that turmoil the thoughtful, seeking reader grows in the Christian faith.
Ernest G. Barr
========
Rev. Luther C. Pierce
3.0 out of 5 starsTypical Spong, he takes an almost destructive interpretation of ...April 14, 2015
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Typical Spong, he takes an almost destructive interpretation of a biblical message and then ends up with some very helpful spiritual comment and advice. Read it with care unless you, too, are way out left on biblical scholarship.
3 people found this helpful
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Jun 22, 2013Lee Harmon rated it it was amazing
Spong has never warmed to the historicity of the Fourth Gospel. In fact, he never warmed to that gospel much at all, until the last few years, when he decide to make a study of it. I’m glad he finally did; I thoroughly enjoyed reading Spong’s analysis.
He begins his book by admitting that the older he gets, the more he believes, but the fewer beliefs he holds. I quoted Spong in my own book about John’s Gospel (published just three months ago) as saying “I do not believe I can make a case for a si ...more
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Jul 07, 2013Donnal Walter rated it it was amazing
Shelves: christianity, mysticism
Except for when I am traveling by air, I read few books these days, but a few weeks ago I received The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic by John Shelby Spong. It was intended for my bedside table along side half-a-dozen other volumes awaiting my attention. I decided, however, to read the Preface, which turned out to be Chapter 1, and by then I was hooked. I read the book in two days. Absolutely spellbinding. No, it was more than (or other than) captivating, it was liberating. For the first time in a long time I can clearly state why I am still a Christian.
Unlike Bishop Spong, I have always been partial to the Gospel of John, but like Spong I have found this gospel troubling, albeit for different reasons. For example, changing water into wine has always seemed impossible to me, as unlikely as either Jesus or Lazarus literally being raised from the dead. These would not be miracles in my mind, they would represent a complete repudiation of my entire worldview. This is not to say that my worldview is closed or static (and physicist Lee Smolin has recently expanded my views), but a literal interpretation of these stories is simply incomprehensible to me. For the learned bishop to state, therefore, "that literalism can never be applied to this book and the author(s) tell us, on almost every page, that a literal approach to the reading of this book is worthy only of ridicule," is a breath of fresh air to me. Amen. Whew. Finally.
For me to say any more about the particulars of this book would be to sell it short, but I would like to say a little more about its style and my personal response. I have read a number of other books by Spong, and while I have generally found them to be intellectually stimulating and spiritually uplifting, at the same time I have had the uneasy feeling that his scholarship may not always be as rigorous as I might have hoped. Not being a scholar in these topics myself I cannot be any more explicit than that. I've been sympathetic to his writings, but uncertain about how much authority to ascribe to them.
This book is different, not because I am any more of a scholar in this area than any of the others and not because the scholarship behind this book is any more compelling than that of the others. It is different because of the way it speaks directly to my own experience. It has the ring of truth on every page. It is a poem that speaks deeply to my soul. It is a poem on many levels. The Book of John is so poetic, and the way Spong opens its meaning is nothing short of a poem. For example, to read Jesus' farewell discourses to his diciples as John's encouragements to the (mystical) community at the end of the century is beautiful, and by the time Spong finishes it all fits together as a unified whole. (For what it's worth, the scholarship also seems more robust this time around, but honestly I am in no position to judge.)
My review may be criticized as little more than a subjective response to finding an argument to shore up a personal worldview that may or may not be valid. I have no way to objectify Bishop Spong's conclusions or my own empathetic response, but when page after page my every response is "yes, exactly" something must be said for the inter-subjectivity that is at play.
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Nov 12, 2013Fred Kohn rated it it was amazing
Shelves: christian-nonfiction
After reading this book, my opinion of it hovered between three and four stars. But one should never read a book such as this without immediately checking its assertions against the scripture it is discussing. After rereading John's gospel, I couldn't help but enthusiastically rate this book as a five star book.
One who expects this book to be solely exegetical will surely be disappointed with it: there is a lot of bishop Spong's personal theology injected into this book. Some of his minor theories I found to be simply wild speculation But the major ones are backed up with a lot of sound research. I was quite surprised to hear that there is nothing in John of original sin, and hence nothing of the need for atonement. In my rereading of John, I found that this is indeed the case. Instead, John explains his theory of the crucifixion in these verses: "Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, 'You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.' He did not say that on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one." (John 11:49-52) Thus the purpose of the crucifixion for John is to bring about unity- a theme reiterated throughout that gospel and even put upon the lips of Jesus: "If I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to Myself." (John 12:32) A possible connection that I personally find fascinating is that this all may be an echo of an earlier communion formula in The Didache:
We thank Thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom; for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever.
If atonement is not in sight in John, then the famous and misused quotation of Jesus: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) needs to be rethought. This scripture is usually understood as "Christianity is the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Christianity," complete with its atonement theology and all that jazz. Thanks to Shelby Spong I haverethought John 14:6, but as this review has gone on way too long anyway, I'll just let you all read this book and decide for yourself what it means.(less)
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Sep 11, 2014Joel Hubbard rated it did not like it
The Right Reverend John Shelby Sponge has shown himself to be, once again, both a lunatic and a ravening wolf in this remarkable book of his entitled "The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic."
To begin, I stopped reading his book on page 80 as he is trying to persuade us (unsuccessfully) that Our Lord's mother was nothing but a literary creation invented for the purpose of telling the "christ"-experience in order to write this rather short review. Here are my assumptions formed from The Right Reverend "Lunatic"'s book:
One: He would have us believe that in order to read the Gospel of John as it was originally written and read -- without a theistic, "Nicene", "literalistic" view, as he cautions us -- we must, for the lack of a better word, "regress" back into Judaism, or more specifically, back into Jewish mysticism.
The Christ of the Christian religion never came to Earth -- rejecting the weak argument that He was a "god-in-the-sky"; the early Christians, Jew and Gentile, never thought like that -- to preach a modernistic Middle-eastern, Buddhism-like "faith" that was completely foreign to both the Juaistic and Hellenistic religions of the day. He came for the express purpose of sacrifice upon the Cross, to redeem the fallen race of humankind from our futile shortcomings and failures (*leh gasp!*), and transform us into His holy and royal Bride the Church Universal.
Two: He contradicts himself many, many times, as in another book (Jesus for the Non-Religious). He says he believes in Jesus, also calls Him the "son of God", whatever that means, also believes that He was a literal Jesus of history, whomever that is, and also believes that the Christian faith, whatever that means to him, is the way Jesus has given us (there may be others) so that we can go to God-hood.
Then, he turns right around and says, smack in your face, that he does not believe in Jesus -- the traditional Jesus, preferring to use instead a John Shelby Sponge patented "Jesus" --; that he does not believe him to be the "son of God" -- to Sponge, that is the divine nature present within us all, without the silly notions of "sin", "the devil", and "hell" because those represent a dualistic universe and are incompatible to "modern" civilization --; that he does not believe that he was a literal Jesus of history (literal as in the Jesus Christ of the ancient Nicene, Apostles, and Athanasian Creeds, also the entire canonical New Testament, and is the Savior promised by the Jewish scriptures, also known as the Old Testament); and also does notbelieve that the Christian faith is the fulfillment of every religious expression in the world since the Fall of Man. Have I left anything out?
Three, and finally: Sponge is but a product of his times, where scholarly atheism is the only prerequisite to authentication in biblical circles and that they are the only ones worth listening to. I've noticed that on the back cover of his book there are many, many names of atheistic or agnostic authors who're pretty much from the same mold; who're hardly expected to be unbiased in his favor, because, most certainly, they have admitted that they do not believe Christianity, her Founder or the One who sent Him to Earth.
Like all fads and heresies which have distressed the Church since from the time of Christ Himself (starting with the same Jews whom Sponge suggests we become in order to be "christian"), this one shall fade away into the dusts of time like Gnosticism and Arianism -- of which this heresy seems, most probably to this reviewer's mind, a compendium of the two --, and the true faith will go marching on "with the Cross of Jesus, going on before!" (Onward Christian Soldiers, a 19th century hymn)
This here is my two cents.
--
EDIT: After thoroughly reading (and finishing) through "The Fourth Gospel:Tales of a Jewish Mystic", I have come to the conclusion that, if The Right Reverend reverses his stance on the Christian faith -- and no longer attempts to deconstruct the so-called "Jesus-myth" which he (and many others of his stamp like him) believe limits the "Jesus experience" and expression of our enlightened and emancipated civilization -- John Shelby Sponge would be, after C.S. Lewis himself, one of our best apologists. I admire his wit and brilliance in drawing parallels between and juxtaposing the Scriptures with the Four Gospels; but, because of his hardened, unbelieving heart (and I think he refuses to believe), he will, unfortunately, be relegated to the dustbin of history. (less)
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Jun 28, 2013Marfita rated it it was ok
Shelves: religion-atheism
Hoo-boy!
I had never read anything by Spong before so I thought I'd try this one, which I purchased along side of Ehrman's book, Did Jesus exist?. I seem to have the same problem with John that he did. Spong avoided this gospel and attacked any antisemitism or other weirdness he thought was caused by it. After 36 years of also avoiding Bultman's commentary on it, he finally sat down to wrestle with it and this is the result.
In a nutshell: this gospel is in no way literal, it's all mystical ... stuff, such as symbolism, metaphor, invented characters, litotes (okay, maybe not litotes). Spong has finally reconciled this book with his own view of Christianity - and good on him! Somehow he is able to believe in the greatness and wonder of God's love without a creed nailing it down. Once you have a creed, he asserts, you draw a line in the sand and it will inevitably lead to violence.
The backstory of the book of John is that it was written by Jews excommunicated from the synagogue for insisting that Jesus was messiah. This explains the onus placed on "The Jews" for the crucifixion. Spong says "The Jews" is a code word for the hierarchy of the synagogue. And, of course, Pilate is given special velvet glove treatment to curry favor with the Roman overlords. But, rest assured! this is a Jewish book by Jews for Jews loaded with Jewish liturgical symbolism and mysticism.
Footnotes are few, and most of them just refer the reader to the bibliography for "information" (usually one of his other books, on sale at bookshops everywhere, but sometimes the works of others), and are designed to keep him on topic and not wander off on something else that's just terribly interesting.
Spong intentionally annoys the literalists early in the game by listing all the things that Just Plain Never Happened and people that Never Existed.
A few interesting crumbs I gleaned from the corpus:
There's no town Magdala, so why is Mary Magdalene, Mary Magdalene? [Obvious answer: there are two other Marys easily identified by their relationships, Mary-mother-of-Jesus and Mary-sister-to-Martha.]
Why was the crippled man crippled specifically for 38 years? Answer: No one knows. Oh, well.
Who was the Beloved Disciple who gets to lie with his head on Jesus' bosom (symposium-style, for dinner) blocking Peter from asking questions? Well, after tantalizing us with the idea that the risen Lazarus was beloved by Jesus, [Spoiler Alert] Spong tells us it isn't anyone. The Beloved Disciple is a made-up character that represents the person that "gets it." It is merely a device which I read as a placeholder for the reader/listener. You are the beloved disciple. There is room for you in that spot. What a nice thought! [This reminds me of the entrance to the children's room in our library. On either side are characters from The Wizard of Oz, but not Dorothy. That's because (sighs and rolls eyes) the child entering the children's room becomes Dorothy. The early Christians listening to this book being read become the Beloved Disciple. Gosh, High Concept drives me nuts.]
Isn't it amazing that Spong somehow retains his belief in God and the open-ended non-creed of "Jesus Is Messiah" despite the Fourth Gospel (Is it called that the same way one refers to "Macbeth" as "The Scottish play"?) being made up almost totally of whole cloth? He hopes to lure us non-believers back this way. It hasn't really done that for me, but it has made me pity the literalists even more. How sad that they wait for the God that they control with their picayune creeds to come and solve all their problems and punish those they envy or hate when He never went anywhere to come back from. Jesus keeps saying, You're looking at Him, He's in me.
This God is as big as the universe and as light as the space between atoms. In trying to define Him, they make Him look ridiculous* instead of a source of the superpower of love, love for everyone and everything, that will set them free here and now.
At least according to John as interpreted by Spong.
*If God is all-powerful, can He make a rock that He Himself can't lift?
If Jesus is God, then God sacrificed His own Self to save humanity from His own judgment. Wouldn't it be easier to just forgive them directly?
Or is Jesus just His son that He filled with His Holy Spirit, which is also Him? (less)
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Dec 31, 2018Greg rated it it was amazing
Much like John's Gospel itself, Spong's meditative investigation of the 4th gospel is intriguing, often beautiful and, in equal parts, frustrating.
John's gospel has long been recognized as a work significantly different in content, style, and presentation of Jesus than those by Mark, Matthew, and Luke -- identified, because of their numerous similarities, as the Synoptic accounts.
Mark's was the earliest, perhaps even written before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70. Matthew and Luke follow, composed somewhere in the next couple of decades, and clearly use Mark's account as the basis for their own, while also adding elements not found in Mark, some from a source known to them both, and others from sources unique to themselves. It is only in Matthew and Luke's gospels that we find accounts of Jesus' birth and they also add post-resurrection information not found in Mark.
John's version is very different for a couple of apparent reasons: 1) His was the only account apparently written after the expulsion of Jewish Jesus-followers from Jewish synagogues; and 2) he was writing to, and from within, a mystically inclined community that was likely itself but a small minority within Jesus-followers, an increasing number of whom were now Gentiles who had little or no acquaintance with Judaism and its long historical and scriptural history.
Spong writes that he can discern at least two different authors in the gospel and notes that other scholars think there might have been even more. There is evidence in our extant text of editing, including possible rearrangement of segments. The lovely tale of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, for instance, is not found in the earliest texts of John, and actually has more of a Lukan "feel" to it. Also, at one point in Jesus' very long "farewell discourse" on the occasion of the last supper he (Jesus) says, "Come, let us rise and go from here," yet the text then goes on with another segment of the discourse.
Spong's central thesis is that the mystic author (or authors) has written an account of Jesus that is largely symbolic, that is, filled with symbols, figures and images crafted to echo in Jewish memory of their beloved Scriptures and of some of their most memorable heroes and events, including Moses, Joseph the son of Jacob, Elijah, and the Exodus liberation. Furthermore, most of his key characters are "inventions," if not entirely drawn from fictive cloth -- and he includes Jesus' alleged father Joseph, the important figure of Lazarus, and even John's famous "beloved apostle" in this category -- then vastly expanded from what is known about them elsewhere, and here he means Jesus' mother and other figures like the apostle Peter.
The result is an often beautiful, if sometimes quite puzzling, interpretation.
Mary, for example, is, from Spong's viewpoint, John's symbol of Jesus' people -- the Jews, from whom Jesus came, in whom Jesus believed, and to whom he tried to communicate the fulness of life in God. (God, Spong notes here as he has elsewhere, is not some "being in the sky, removed from us or outside our world" but, rather, is -- and always has been -- in "everything" because God is the essence of creation itself. Therefore, each of us is "permeated by God" even if we choose to behave in non-Godlike ways; Spong affirms John's view that "God is love.")
In any case, this Mary is one who, despite having given birth to Jesus, remains filled with doubt, and perhaps some misgivings, because of him. (Spong corectly notes how little Mary appears in any of the gospels, a point worth noting because the attention subsequently given to her by Catholicism in particular is hard to reconcile with the insignificant role she actually plays in the gospel accounts.) So, in John, this Mary, while clearly knowing that her son possesses mysterious powers -- recall the first "sign" reported in John's gospel, the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, an act done at his mother's request -- she appears uncertain about the direction his teaching is taking him. In a sense, Spong writes, she "stands aside" from Jesus, apart, but not severed, from him.
And the unnamed "beloved apostle," Spong believes, represents those persons who have come to understand Jesus' message of "life=fullness of living love." When, therefore, John pictures the two of them -- Mary and the beloved disciple -- standing at the foot of Jesus' cross (a "fact" not mentioned in the Synoptic accounts), he is attempting to say that the Jesus-followers who truly "got it" are to take unto themselves -- for protection and honor -- Jesus' people, the Jews, until such time as his people could come to understand his message about the essence of God as well.
Despite the horrific way John's use of "the Jews" in his gospel as a shorthand reference to those among the Jewish community who were opposed to Jesus has been used to justify anti-Semitic acts over two thousand years, Spong argues that John's actual message is that Jesus-followers -- very much including the now majority Gentiles among them -- were not to abandon but to embrace the Jewish people!
Spong may be "right on" with all of this, and I do encourage those among you who are persistent inquirers about "the truth of Jesus" to read his book for yourself.
However, there are aspects of his work -- this book and in his others -- that I find puzzling, even a tad unsettling.
For one thing, I think he has fallen into the kind of trap all of us can get into when we think that "aha, I've got the missing piece," or, "I've found the interpretive key." That is, we fit the "evidence" into our framework, and whatever does not "fit" is ignored or dismissed.
For example, when Spong writes about how Matthew's and Luke's versions differ from Mark's, he attributes those variances solely to the incorporation of "myths" that have grown up among the various Christian communities in the years since Mark wrote his account, even thought he notes that both Matthew and Luke had sources available to them that Mark did not. While I agree with him that both Matthew's and Luke's birth narratives are likely highly imaginative (that is, non-literal), I am much less certain about other aspects of their gospels that largely agree with Mark's content.
As I have written elsewhere, I found Dr. Timothy Luke Johnson's course on the gospels for the Teaching Company enlightening for several reasons, and chief among them was his stressing that we must remember that this was a pre-literate society, that is, one in which the vast majority of the populace were not literate. As a consequence, they retained memories of significant people and events through the utilization of memory skills that have largely atrophied in our own time, given the plethora of books and electronic data retrieval devices. Johnson argues that the gospels, in fact, are composed of a series of "memory units" passed down from original eye-witnesses to others that accurately retain the most important -- or, to those individuals, most striking -- words and deeds of Jesus.
(Even today, those of us who were alive when JFK was assassinated, or when the Columbia shuttle blew up on its way to orbit, can recall with immense detail where we were and how we felt when we learned of those things. Heck, I still remember shaking hands with JFK when he was campaigning for office in 1960, even though most of the details of that event have become blurry -- the others who were with me, the faces of those nearest me, etc. Certainly, an encounter with Jesus would have triggered a like memory response!)
I accept that, over the relatively few decades between Jesus' death and the gospels assuming written form, some details might have been slightly expanded as well as forgotten. But the deliberate creation or incorporation of myth? I hesitate to affirm that.
Furthermore, as Spong relates in some detail his thesis of how John is using symbol to convey meaning it becomes very difficult to discern where -- or even if when -- his account of a portion of John's gospel morphs from symbol/myth to remembered fact or conversation. Is ALL of John's gospel a symbol? Are there any "real" events or words remembered or recounted?
This, of course, is the very question that has deeply bugged many over the centuries who have found Jesus' teachings powerfully beautiful but who have balked at some of the more miraculous or theological implications. A few hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson famously published his edited version of the gospels in which he attempted to identify Jesus' words and deeds apart from material he deemed more suspicious.
And so we continue to do this even today! (As, I confess, do I.)
But since Dr. Spong's book is so well-written, and his interpretation so worth pondering, I do recommend it to any and all serious students of Jesus.
More than 2,000 years after his death, there clearly remains many things about this extraordinary man that intrigue and attract us still! (less)
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Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
This is among the best books retired Bishop Spong has written. I don't claim that lightly; while I haven't read them all, I have read twelve and in this one Spong does a masterful job of unraveling the obscured messages that the author (actually three writers) have written in the Gospel of John. The writers, Jewish mystics, use stories and characters that are not historically verifiable, however, they convey truths that cannot be discerned by literal interpretation.
An example is the story of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, who came at night (suggests "religious night"). The phrase,"born again" confused Nicodemus. Spong suggests that the meaning is, "You must enter a transformative experience. You must see with insight...You must open yourself to a totally new perspective."
Throughout the book there are fresh interpretations of familiar word or concepts. For example: there is no such thing as "the faith". "Faith is not believing in creeds, doctrines, or dogmas; faith is trusting the divine presence to be in every moment of every tomorrow." Faith is about more than believing--it is living!
"For John there was no fall into sin and thus no time when the human and the divine were separated: One literally permeated the other." Jesus, therefore, did not "die for your sins." Neither was he the victim whom God punished in our place. The death of Jesus was not punishment. Jesus gave his life away in love."
These are just a few of the gems that await. While Spong usually leaves the reader a bit unsettled, it is my contention that it is through that turmoil the thoughtful, seeking reader grows in the Christian faith.
Ernest G. Barr
========
Rev. Luther C. Pierce
3.0 out of 5 starsTypical Spong, he takes an almost destructive interpretation of ...April 14, 2015
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Typical Spong, he takes an almost destructive interpretation of a biblical message and then ends up with some very helpful spiritual comment and advice. Read it with care unless you, too, are way out left on biblical scholarship.
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Jun 22, 2013Lee Harmon rated it it was amazing
Spong has never warmed to the historicity of the Fourth Gospel. In fact, he never warmed to that gospel much at all, until the last few years, when he decide to make a study of it. I’m glad he finally did; I thoroughly enjoyed reading Spong’s analysis.
He begins his book by admitting that the older he gets, the more he believes, but the fewer beliefs he holds. I quoted Spong in my own book about John’s Gospel (published just three months ago) as saying “I do not believe I can make a case for a si ...more
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Jul 07, 2013Donnal Walter rated it it was amazing
Shelves: christianity, mysticism
Except for when I am traveling by air, I read few books these days, but a few weeks ago I received The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic by John Shelby Spong. It was intended for my bedside table along side half-a-dozen other volumes awaiting my attention. I decided, however, to read the Preface, which turned out to be Chapter 1, and by then I was hooked. I read the book in two days. Absolutely spellbinding. No, it was more than (or other than) captivating, it was liberating. For the first time in a long time I can clearly state why I am still a Christian.
Unlike Bishop Spong, I have always been partial to the Gospel of John, but like Spong I have found this gospel troubling, albeit for different reasons. For example, changing water into wine has always seemed impossible to me, as unlikely as either Jesus or Lazarus literally being raised from the dead. These would not be miracles in my mind, they would represent a complete repudiation of my entire worldview. This is not to say that my worldview is closed or static (and physicist Lee Smolin has recently expanded my views), but a literal interpretation of these stories is simply incomprehensible to me. For the learned bishop to state, therefore, "that literalism can never be applied to this book and the author(s) tell us, on almost every page, that a literal approach to the reading of this book is worthy only of ridicule," is a breath of fresh air to me. Amen. Whew. Finally.
For me to say any more about the particulars of this book would be to sell it short, but I would like to say a little more about its style and my personal response. I have read a number of other books by Spong, and while I have generally found them to be intellectually stimulating and spiritually uplifting, at the same time I have had the uneasy feeling that his scholarship may not always be as rigorous as I might have hoped. Not being a scholar in these topics myself I cannot be any more explicit than that. I've been sympathetic to his writings, but uncertain about how much authority to ascribe to them.
This book is different, not because I am any more of a scholar in this area than any of the others and not because the scholarship behind this book is any more compelling than that of the others. It is different because of the way it speaks directly to my own experience. It has the ring of truth on every page. It is a poem that speaks deeply to my soul. It is a poem on many levels. The Book of John is so poetic, and the way Spong opens its meaning is nothing short of a poem. For example, to read Jesus' farewell discourses to his diciples as John's encouragements to the (mystical) community at the end of the century is beautiful, and by the time Spong finishes it all fits together as a unified whole. (For what it's worth, the scholarship also seems more robust this time around, but honestly I am in no position to judge.)
My review may be criticized as little more than a subjective response to finding an argument to shore up a personal worldview that may or may not be valid. I have no way to objectify Bishop Spong's conclusions or my own empathetic response, but when page after page my every response is "yes, exactly" something must be said for the inter-subjectivity that is at play.
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Nov 12, 2013Fred Kohn rated it it was amazing
Shelves: christian-nonfiction
After reading this book, my opinion of it hovered between three and four stars. But one should never read a book such as this without immediately checking its assertions against the scripture it is discussing. After rereading John's gospel, I couldn't help but enthusiastically rate this book as a five star book.
One who expects this book to be solely exegetical will surely be disappointed with it: there is a lot of bishop Spong's personal theology injected into this book. Some of his minor theories I found to be simply wild speculation But the major ones are backed up with a lot of sound research. I was quite surprised to hear that there is nothing in John of original sin, and hence nothing of the need for atonement. In my rereading of John, I found that this is indeed the case. Instead, John explains his theory of the crucifixion in these verses: "Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, 'You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.' He did not say that on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one." (John 11:49-52) Thus the purpose of the crucifixion for John is to bring about unity- a theme reiterated throughout that gospel and even put upon the lips of Jesus: "If I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to Myself." (John 12:32) A possible connection that I personally find fascinating is that this all may be an echo of an earlier communion formula in The Didache:
We thank Thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom; for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever.
If atonement is not in sight in John, then the famous and misused quotation of Jesus: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) needs to be rethought. This scripture is usually understood as "Christianity is the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Christianity," complete with its atonement theology and all that jazz. Thanks to Shelby Spong I haverethought John 14:6, but as this review has gone on way too long anyway, I'll just let you all read this book and decide for yourself what it means.(less)
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Sep 11, 2014Joel Hubbard rated it did not like it
The Right Reverend John Shelby Sponge has shown himself to be, once again, both a lunatic and a ravening wolf in this remarkable book of his entitled "The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic."
To begin, I stopped reading his book on page 80 as he is trying to persuade us (unsuccessfully) that Our Lord's mother was nothing but a literary creation invented for the purpose of telling the "christ"-experience in order to write this rather short review. Here are my assumptions formed from The Right Reverend "Lunatic"'s book:
One: He would have us believe that in order to read the Gospel of John as it was originally written and read -- without a theistic, "Nicene", "literalistic" view, as he cautions us -- we must, for the lack of a better word, "regress" back into Judaism, or more specifically, back into Jewish mysticism.
The Christ of the Christian religion never came to Earth -- rejecting the weak argument that He was a "god-in-the-sky"; the early Christians, Jew and Gentile, never thought like that -- to preach a modernistic Middle-eastern, Buddhism-like "faith" that was completely foreign to both the Juaistic and Hellenistic religions of the day. He came for the express purpose of sacrifice upon the Cross, to redeem the fallen race of humankind from our futile shortcomings and failures (*leh gasp!*), and transform us into His holy and royal Bride the Church Universal.
Two: He contradicts himself many, many times, as in another book (Jesus for the Non-Religious). He says he believes in Jesus, also calls Him the "son of God", whatever that means, also believes that He was a literal Jesus of history, whomever that is, and also believes that the Christian faith, whatever that means to him, is the way Jesus has given us (there may be others) so that we can go to God-hood.
Then, he turns right around and says, smack in your face, that he does not believe in Jesus -- the traditional Jesus, preferring to use instead a John Shelby Sponge patented "Jesus" --; that he does not believe him to be the "son of God" -- to Sponge, that is the divine nature present within us all, without the silly notions of "sin", "the devil", and "hell" because those represent a dualistic universe and are incompatible to "modern" civilization --; that he does not believe that he was a literal Jesus of history (literal as in the Jesus Christ of the ancient Nicene, Apostles, and Athanasian Creeds, also the entire canonical New Testament, and is the Savior promised by the Jewish scriptures, also known as the Old Testament); and also does notbelieve that the Christian faith is the fulfillment of every religious expression in the world since the Fall of Man. Have I left anything out?
Three, and finally: Sponge is but a product of his times, where scholarly atheism is the only prerequisite to authentication in biblical circles and that they are the only ones worth listening to. I've noticed that on the back cover of his book there are many, many names of atheistic or agnostic authors who're pretty much from the same mold; who're hardly expected to be unbiased in his favor, because, most certainly, they have admitted that they do not believe Christianity, her Founder or the One who sent Him to Earth.
Like all fads and heresies which have distressed the Church since from the time of Christ Himself (starting with the same Jews whom Sponge suggests we become in order to be "christian"), this one shall fade away into the dusts of time like Gnosticism and Arianism -- of which this heresy seems, most probably to this reviewer's mind, a compendium of the two --, and the true faith will go marching on "with the Cross of Jesus, going on before!" (Onward Christian Soldiers, a 19th century hymn)
This here is my two cents.
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EDIT: After thoroughly reading (and finishing) through "The Fourth Gospel:Tales of a Jewish Mystic", I have come to the conclusion that, if The Right Reverend reverses his stance on the Christian faith -- and no longer attempts to deconstruct the so-called "Jesus-myth" which he (and many others of his stamp like him) believe limits the "Jesus experience" and expression of our enlightened and emancipated civilization -- John Shelby Sponge would be, after C.S. Lewis himself, one of our best apologists. I admire his wit and brilliance in drawing parallels between and juxtaposing the Scriptures with the Four Gospels; but, because of his hardened, unbelieving heart (and I think he refuses to believe), he will, unfortunately, be relegated to the dustbin of history. (less)
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Jun 28, 2013Marfita rated it it was ok
Shelves: religion-atheism
Hoo-boy!
I had never read anything by Spong before so I thought I'd try this one, which I purchased along side of Ehrman's book, Did Jesus exist?. I seem to have the same problem with John that he did. Spong avoided this gospel and attacked any antisemitism or other weirdness he thought was caused by it. After 36 years of also avoiding Bultman's commentary on it, he finally sat down to wrestle with it and this is the result.
In a nutshell: this gospel is in no way literal, it's all mystical ... stuff, such as symbolism, metaphor, invented characters, litotes (okay, maybe not litotes). Spong has finally reconciled this book with his own view of Christianity - and good on him! Somehow he is able to believe in the greatness and wonder of God's love without a creed nailing it down. Once you have a creed, he asserts, you draw a line in the sand and it will inevitably lead to violence.
The backstory of the book of John is that it was written by Jews excommunicated from the synagogue for insisting that Jesus was messiah. This explains the onus placed on "The Jews" for the crucifixion. Spong says "The Jews" is a code word for the hierarchy of the synagogue. And, of course, Pilate is given special velvet glove treatment to curry favor with the Roman overlords. But, rest assured! this is a Jewish book by Jews for Jews loaded with Jewish liturgical symbolism and mysticism.
Footnotes are few, and most of them just refer the reader to the bibliography for "information" (usually one of his other books, on sale at bookshops everywhere, but sometimes the works of others), and are designed to keep him on topic and not wander off on something else that's just terribly interesting.
Spong intentionally annoys the literalists early in the game by listing all the things that Just Plain Never Happened and people that Never Existed.
A few interesting crumbs I gleaned from the corpus:
There's no town Magdala, so why is Mary Magdalene, Mary Magdalene? [Obvious answer: there are two other Marys easily identified by their relationships, Mary-mother-of-Jesus and Mary-sister-to-Martha.]
Why was the crippled man crippled specifically for 38 years? Answer: No one knows. Oh, well.
Who was the Beloved Disciple who gets to lie with his head on Jesus' bosom (symposium-style, for dinner) blocking Peter from asking questions? Well, after tantalizing us with the idea that the risen Lazarus was beloved by Jesus, [Spoiler Alert] Spong tells us it isn't anyone. The Beloved Disciple is a made-up character that represents the person that "gets it." It is merely a device which I read as a placeholder for the reader/listener. You are the beloved disciple. There is room for you in that spot. What a nice thought! [This reminds me of the entrance to the children's room in our library. On either side are characters from The Wizard of Oz, but not Dorothy. That's because (sighs and rolls eyes) the child entering the children's room becomes Dorothy. The early Christians listening to this book being read become the Beloved Disciple. Gosh, High Concept drives me nuts.]
Isn't it amazing that Spong somehow retains his belief in God and the open-ended non-creed of "Jesus Is Messiah" despite the Fourth Gospel (Is it called that the same way one refers to "Macbeth" as "The Scottish play"?) being made up almost totally of whole cloth? He hopes to lure us non-believers back this way. It hasn't really done that for me, but it has made me pity the literalists even more. How sad that they wait for the God that they control with their picayune creeds to come and solve all their problems and punish those they envy or hate when He never went anywhere to come back from. Jesus keeps saying, You're looking at Him, He's in me.
This God is as big as the universe and as light as the space between atoms. In trying to define Him, they make Him look ridiculous* instead of a source of the superpower of love, love for everyone and everything, that will set them free here and now.
At least according to John as interpreted by Spong.
*If God is all-powerful, can He make a rock that He Himself can't lift?
If Jesus is God, then God sacrificed His own Self to save humanity from His own judgment. Wouldn't it be easier to just forgive them directly?
Or is Jesus just His son that He filled with His Holy Spirit, which is also Him? (less)
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Dec 31, 2018Greg rated it it was amazing
Much like John's Gospel itself, Spong's meditative investigation of the 4th gospel is intriguing, often beautiful and, in equal parts, frustrating.
John's gospel has long been recognized as a work significantly different in content, style, and presentation of Jesus than those by Mark, Matthew, and Luke -- identified, because of their numerous similarities, as the Synoptic accounts.
Mark's was the earliest, perhaps even written before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70. Matthew and Luke follow, composed somewhere in the next couple of decades, and clearly use Mark's account as the basis for their own, while also adding elements not found in Mark, some from a source known to them both, and others from sources unique to themselves. It is only in Matthew and Luke's gospels that we find accounts of Jesus' birth and they also add post-resurrection information not found in Mark.
John's version is very different for a couple of apparent reasons: 1) His was the only account apparently written after the expulsion of Jewish Jesus-followers from Jewish synagogues; and 2) he was writing to, and from within, a mystically inclined community that was likely itself but a small minority within Jesus-followers, an increasing number of whom were now Gentiles who had little or no acquaintance with Judaism and its long historical and scriptural history.
Spong writes that he can discern at least two different authors in the gospel and notes that other scholars think there might have been even more. There is evidence in our extant text of editing, including possible rearrangement of segments. The lovely tale of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, for instance, is not found in the earliest texts of John, and actually has more of a Lukan "feel" to it. Also, at one point in Jesus' very long "farewell discourse" on the occasion of the last supper he (Jesus) says, "Come, let us rise and go from here," yet the text then goes on with another segment of the discourse.
Spong's central thesis is that the mystic author (or authors) has written an account of Jesus that is largely symbolic, that is, filled with symbols, figures and images crafted to echo in Jewish memory of their beloved Scriptures and of some of their most memorable heroes and events, including Moses, Joseph the son of Jacob, Elijah, and the Exodus liberation. Furthermore, most of his key characters are "inventions," if not entirely drawn from fictive cloth -- and he includes Jesus' alleged father Joseph, the important figure of Lazarus, and even John's famous "beloved apostle" in this category -- then vastly expanded from what is known about them elsewhere, and here he means Jesus' mother and other figures like the apostle Peter.
The result is an often beautiful, if sometimes quite puzzling, interpretation.
Mary, for example, is, from Spong's viewpoint, John's symbol of Jesus' people -- the Jews, from whom Jesus came, in whom Jesus believed, and to whom he tried to communicate the fulness of life in God. (God, Spong notes here as he has elsewhere, is not some "being in the sky, removed from us or outside our world" but, rather, is -- and always has been -- in "everything" because God is the essence of creation itself. Therefore, each of us is "permeated by God" even if we choose to behave in non-Godlike ways; Spong affirms John's view that "God is love.")
In any case, this Mary is one who, despite having given birth to Jesus, remains filled with doubt, and perhaps some misgivings, because of him. (Spong corectly notes how little Mary appears in any of the gospels, a point worth noting because the attention subsequently given to her by Catholicism in particular is hard to reconcile with the insignificant role she actually plays in the gospel accounts.) So, in John, this Mary, while clearly knowing that her son possesses mysterious powers -- recall the first "sign" reported in John's gospel, the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, an act done at his mother's request -- she appears uncertain about the direction his teaching is taking him. In a sense, Spong writes, she "stands aside" from Jesus, apart, but not severed, from him.
And the unnamed "beloved apostle," Spong believes, represents those persons who have come to understand Jesus' message of "life=fullness of living love." When, therefore, John pictures the two of them -- Mary and the beloved disciple -- standing at the foot of Jesus' cross (a "fact" not mentioned in the Synoptic accounts), he is attempting to say that the Jesus-followers who truly "got it" are to take unto themselves -- for protection and honor -- Jesus' people, the Jews, until such time as his people could come to understand his message about the essence of God as well.
Despite the horrific way John's use of "the Jews" in his gospel as a shorthand reference to those among the Jewish community who were opposed to Jesus has been used to justify anti-Semitic acts over two thousand years, Spong argues that John's actual message is that Jesus-followers -- very much including the now majority Gentiles among them -- were not to abandon but to embrace the Jewish people!
Spong may be "right on" with all of this, and I do encourage those among you who are persistent inquirers about "the truth of Jesus" to read his book for yourself.
However, there are aspects of his work -- this book and in his others -- that I find puzzling, even a tad unsettling.
For one thing, I think he has fallen into the kind of trap all of us can get into when we think that "aha, I've got the missing piece," or, "I've found the interpretive key." That is, we fit the "evidence" into our framework, and whatever does not "fit" is ignored or dismissed.
For example, when Spong writes about how Matthew's and Luke's versions differ from Mark's, he attributes those variances solely to the incorporation of "myths" that have grown up among the various Christian communities in the years since Mark wrote his account, even thought he notes that both Matthew and Luke had sources available to them that Mark did not. While I agree with him that both Matthew's and Luke's birth narratives are likely highly imaginative (that is, non-literal), I am much less certain about other aspects of their gospels that largely agree with Mark's content.
As I have written elsewhere, I found Dr. Timothy Luke Johnson's course on the gospels for the Teaching Company enlightening for several reasons, and chief among them was his stressing that we must remember that this was a pre-literate society, that is, one in which the vast majority of the populace were not literate. As a consequence, they retained memories of significant people and events through the utilization of memory skills that have largely atrophied in our own time, given the plethora of books and electronic data retrieval devices. Johnson argues that the gospels, in fact, are composed of a series of "memory units" passed down from original eye-witnesses to others that accurately retain the most important -- or, to those individuals, most striking -- words and deeds of Jesus.
(Even today, those of us who were alive when JFK was assassinated, or when the Columbia shuttle blew up on its way to orbit, can recall with immense detail where we were and how we felt when we learned of those things. Heck, I still remember shaking hands with JFK when he was campaigning for office in 1960, even though most of the details of that event have become blurry -- the others who were with me, the faces of those nearest me, etc. Certainly, an encounter with Jesus would have triggered a like memory response!)
I accept that, over the relatively few decades between Jesus' death and the gospels assuming written form, some details might have been slightly expanded as well as forgotten. But the deliberate creation or incorporation of myth? I hesitate to affirm that.
Furthermore, as Spong relates in some detail his thesis of how John is using symbol to convey meaning it becomes very difficult to discern where -- or even if when -- his account of a portion of John's gospel morphs from symbol/myth to remembered fact or conversation. Is ALL of John's gospel a symbol? Are there any "real" events or words remembered or recounted?
This, of course, is the very question that has deeply bugged many over the centuries who have found Jesus' teachings powerfully beautiful but who have balked at some of the more miraculous or theological implications. A few hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson famously published his edited version of the gospels in which he attempted to identify Jesus' words and deeds apart from material he deemed more suspicious.
And so we continue to do this even today! (As, I confess, do I.)
But since Dr. Spong's book is so well-written, and his interpretation so worth pondering, I do recommend it to any and all serious students of Jesus.
More than 2,000 years after his death, there clearly remains many things about this extraordinary man that intrigue and attract us still! (less)
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