Re Claiming The Bible For A Non Religious World

For over 200 years, scholars have been debating, analyzing and exploring one of the most important books ever written—The Bible—and overturning much of what we know about this sacred library of books. However, a large group of people who actually use this book, mainly lay Christians, aren’t aware of this larger, deeper conversation. It is for these people that Spong writes Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, a primer on the history and significance of the Bible. In this informal and accessible survey, Spong moves book by book through the Scriptures, introducing their themes and messages by examining the sweep of history in which these books were originally written. What has history taught us? How should we read these stories today? What does it mean for how we live our lives? And why do people tenaciously hold on to so many myths associated with The Bible? There is a vast audience of religiously hungry people eager to explore a meaningful journey into the Bible, and Spong is leading the way with this book.

The Pope Describes the Ancient Traditional Jesus; Bishop Spong Brings Us a Jesus Modern People Can Be Inspired By

By the early second century the Christian Church was predominantly Gentile, having separated from its Jewish roots and base. It lost most all understanding of Jewish culture. Very few in the church could read Hebrew, and as significantly, its Scriptures were in Greek, which contributed to its growing ignorance of the intricacies of Jewish word play. They could not and did not retain the richness, the interconnectedness, and the brilliance of the Hebrew writing, and thereby misinterpreted much of what they cherished. Today, many, if not most, Christians also lack the basic knowhow needed to adequately appreciate our Jewish-written Scriptures. This little 150 page book will not heal what ails us, but in a light, sometimes fun, other times serious way, it will help, and that is needed. It may even erase a few of the lines that separate our two great communities–Jewish and Christian–and remind us of our shared humanity and Faith. Creative, insightful, humorous, sensitive, challenging, thought provoking . . . . What other words are used to describe this book and its author? See pages iv and v.

The FIRST EVER Orthodox Study Bible presents the Bible of the early church and the church of the early Bible. Orthodox Christianity is the face of ancient Christianity to the modern world and embraces the second largest body of Christians in the world. In this first-of-its-kind study Bible, the Bible is presented with commentary from the ancient Christian perspective that speaks to those Christians who seek a deeper experience of the roots of their faith. Features Include: Old Testament newly translated from the Greek text of the Septuagint, including the Deuterocanon New Testament from the New King James Version Commentary drawn from the early Church Christians Easy-to-Locate liturgical readings Book Introductions and Outlines Index to Annotations Index to Study Articles Full-color Maps

How new is atheism? In Battling the Gods, Tim Whitmarsh journeys into the ancient Mediterranean to recover the stories of those who first refused the divinities. Long before the Enlightenment sowed the seeds of disbelief in a deeply Christian Europe, atheism was a matter of serious public debate in the Greek world. But history is written by those who prevail, and the Age of Faith mostly suppressed the lively free-thinking voices of antiquity. Tim Whitmarsh brings to life the fascinating ideas of Diagoras of Melos, perhaps the first self-professed atheist; Democritus, the first materialist; and Epicurus and his followers. He shows how the early Christians came to define themselves against atheism, and so suppress the philosophy of disbelief. Battling the Gods is the first book on the origins of the secular values at the heart of the modern state. Authoritative and bold, provocative and humane, it reveals how atheism and doubt, far from being modern phenomena, have intrigued the human imagination for thousands of years.

Front-ranking theologians speak out on the crisis of biblical authority and interpretation in the church, focusing in particular on the adequacy of the historical-critical method of hermeneutics. The essays in this volume address from various perspectives the notorious gap between the historical­ critical approach to the study of the Bible and the church's liturgical and dogmatic transmission of biblical faith. The authors, following the central theme suggested by Brevard S. Childs's "canonical method" of biblical interpretation, argue that the historical-critical method does not suffice of itself apart from faith and the church.

In Texts, Rocks, and Talk biblical scholar and teacher John Lanci suggests that many have lost the ability to focus on the essentials, to experience a Jesus Christ alive and powerful in our midst. He responds by inviting readers on a journey back to the Bible. Lanci conveys the experience of interpreting the Bible, inviting readers to witness the interpretation of one particular passage from the Hebrew Bible and one from the New Testment from start to finish. Along the way he covers some of the same ground that biblical introductions present, as he explains what interpreters do and why they do it. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of the need to interpret texts and greater confidence in their ability to enter into the conversation that sacred texts provide. They will also have a greater confidence in the possibility that their Christian community can open itself up to that divine conversation. Texts, Rocks, and Talk can serve as an introduction to the Bible textbook for college undergraduates, parish discussion groups, or individuals who do not have a lot of theological background but are interested in finding their way into the Bible. The chapters are relatively short and clearly written, with questions for reflection and discussion. Chapters in Preliminaries are "Why Take It on the Road?" "What the Bible Is Not, " and "A Preview of Coming Attractions: What the Bible Is." Chapters in The Song of Songs are "Sex on the Page, " "Healthy Suspicion: A Walking Staff for Our Journey, " "What is the Book?" "Lo and the Rocks, " "Lifestyles of the Dead and Buried: What Archaeology Is and What It Is Not, " "Making the Heart Forget: The Love Songs of Ancient Egypt, " and "The Egyptian LoveSongs and the Song of Songs." The chapter in An Interlude is "An Interlude with Jesus and Christ." Chapters in First Corinthians are "Our Brother Paul, " "We Raise an Eyebrow in Surprise: Paul, the Corinthians, and a Letter, " "The Rhetoric of a Text, " "What Kind of Fool Is God?" "A Little History, a Little Wisdom, a Little Mystery, " "The Rigamorale of Roman Power and Corinthian Rocks, " "The No-Relax Tour Continues into Darker Realms, " and "The Great Reversal." Chapters in Talk: Counterimagining the Wor are "Three Umbrellas and a Sea Change, " "Counterimagining the World, " "We Confront the Passion of God, " "In Praise of Christian Flesh, " and "The Journey, Not the Arrival, Matters." Includes an Introduction, Epilogue, and Notes, Citations, Suggestions for Further Readings.

A global and pioneering leader of progressive Christianity and the bestselling author of Why Christianity Must Change or Die and Eternal Life explains why a literal reading of the Gospels is actually heretical, and how this mistaken notion only entered the church once Gentiles had pushed out all the Jewish followers of Jesus. A man who has consciously and deliberately walked the path of Christ, John Shelby Spong has lived his entire life inside the Christian Church. In this profound and considered work, he offers a radical new way to look at the gospels today as he shows just how deeply Jewish the Christian Gospels are and how much they reflect the Jewish scriptures, history, and patterns of worship. Pulling back the layers of a long-standing Gentile ignorance, he reveals how the church’s literal reading of the Bible is so far removed from these original Jewish authors’ intent that it is an act of heresy. Using the Gospel of Matthew as a guide, Spong explores the Bible’s literary and liturgical roots—its grounding in Jewish culture, symbols, icons, and storytelling tradition—to explain how the events of Jesus’ life, including the virgin birth, the miracles, the details of the passion story, and the resurrection and ascension, would have been understood by both the Jewish authors of the various gospels and by the Jewish audiences for which they were originally written. Spong makes clear that it was only after the church became fully Gentile that readers of the Gospels took these stories to be factual, distorting their original meaning. In Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, Spong illuminates the gospels as never before and provides a better blueprint for the future than where the church’s leaden and heretical reading of the story of Jesus has led us—one that allows the faithful to live inside the Christian story in the modern world.