Title: Eternal Life: A New Vision
Author: John Shelby Spong
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
RRP: AUD$35.00
ISBN: 9780732290627
Ex-Episcopal Bishop of Newark, retired in 2000, John Shelby Spong has, he says, written probably his “last” book (the latest of five “final” books so far). And this one will no doubt enrage conservative Christians as much if not more than any of his other 20 or so. For he has been described as “the leading Christian liberal and pioneer for human rights” and well known for his controversial ideas.
As one who has tried to follow a Zen Buddhist path for some years I find his thinking unremarkable—apart from his abiding faith in the concept of a God within: I would have to confess to agnosticism that a deity exists at all.
Yet I found his writing engaging and persuasive. Engaging because he communicates in a friendly, down-to-earth way, and persuasive because he is passionate and speaks from the heart, not the book.
His argument is that God is to be found within each of us, not an external deity (the “white-whiskered old man in the sky” who knows us and keeps a register of our misdeeds and whose wrath is manifestly revenge for disobeying him). Spong describes this concept as being childishly dependent, and argues that by now we have (or should have) moved far beyond the God of the Old Testament.
Spong’s appeal is for a return to spiritual mysticism, whereby we look deeper inside ourselves and find ways to live eternally.
He also argues for the legal right to physician-assisted compassionate dying, a “life-affirming” choice, not a suicide, when the end is unbearable. In this, he and I are of the same mind.
If you’re looking for some contemporary thinking on Christianity, Spong is an obvious candidate, and I recommend heartily that you read Eternal Life: A New Vision.
Reviewed by Alan Wheatley
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I suggest that Spong’s view is not a ‘new’ vision. It agrees with the Catholic priest Fr. Bede Griffiths and, depending upon your reading orientation, many quotes attributed to Jesus in the Gospels. For example,
The kingdom of heaven is within.
What you have done to the least of you, you have done to me.
When you see me, you see the father who sent me.
I and the father are one.
Love god and love your neighbor as yourself.
The concept of the eternal, living god is also incorporated in the Hindu Upanishads as well as in the later writings of Shankara.
The religion, Advaita Vidanta, also holds to these ideas.
Colin
I went through a sort of spiritual search a few years ago and after reading a couple of books, one by Alistair/Alisdair McGrath and another by Karen Armstrong, was really no more convinced of a spiritual entity than when I started.
A bit later I read Bishop Spong’s 2001 book, Here I Stand, in which he nailed his beliefs or arguments to the church door as well so to speak. In that and a couple of others I read, he made strong cases for discounting a lot of what is taken, as, well, gospel. And I enjoyed his writing. Yes I got the impression he was more concerned not so much with an external sort of spiritual diety as an inner one.
But I remained a non-believer. Not a ranting atheist, or one who blames religion for everything, or one who derides people’s beliefs, but moreover a person who believes that god remains, a human construct. I believe the whole process, ritual and practice is both irrational and illogical but that, if I can be said to have one, is just my belief.
Your comment about Zen was interesting Alan. When I was a lot younger, I read Jack Kerouac a bit. A lot of young guys did. Yeah, he was probably what we’d call a druggie now and his life ended tragically but some of his work was great.
There is one piece where he is working as a fire spotter in a National Park somewhere and he describes his time during the season; his contact with the clouds, the sky, changes in weather and the birds and animals. I suspect from the writing he wasn’t exactly drug free at the time but it was writing that has stuck with me. Real in the moment, inner being stuff.
I think it was in either On the Road or Dharma Bums. I suspect the latter. A lot of his stuff elsewhere is stream of consciousness stuff which drags a bit and is hard to read. But his time on the mountain when he was heavily into Zen, is classic Kerouac.
Ian, I agree mostly with your posting. You say that “God remains a human construct.” Exactly. The Hindu scriptures say that we apprehend God as sat-chit-ananda: being, consciousness and peace. Can anyone argue with this approach? In other words, as you say, God remains a human construct. Those writings go on to say more. They say that God is the underlying, eternal reality of all of the universe. In other words, if it aint eternal, it aint God. Furthermore, any physicist can tell you that we know nothing of the underlying reality. All science tells us are the laws of cause and effect. We don’t know what anything ‘is.’
The so-called religion that embraces these ideas is called Advaita Vedanta, the religion of millions of Indians and of Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood (two Brits who lived in Los Angeles where they built a Vedanta temple). I could say more; but, I will leave it here.
Colin