Writing from his prison cell in Nazi Germany in 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German theologian, sketched a vision of what he called "Religionless Christianity." In this book, John Shelby Spong puts flesh onto the bare bones of Bonhoeffer's radical thought. The result is a strikingly new and different portrait of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jesus for the non-religious.
Spong challenges much of the traditional understanding, from the tale of Jesus' miraculous birth to the account of his cosmic ascension into the sky. He questions the historicity of the ideas that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that he had twelve disciples, or that the miracle stories were ever meant to be descriptions of supernatural events. He also speaks directly to those critics of Christianity who call God a "delusion" and who describe how Christianity has become evil and destructive.
Spong invites his readers to look at Jesus through the lens of both the Jewish scriptures and the liturgical life of the first century synagogue. He proposes a new way of understanding the divinity of Christ as the ultimate dimension of a fulfilled humanity. Jesus for the Non-Religious may be the book that finally brings the pious and the secular into a meaningful dialogue, opening the door to a living Christianity in the post-Christian world.
Read by Alan Sklar
Preface, prologue, and epilogue read by the Author
The intense devotion of the former Episcopal bishop of Newark to his subject is apparent. In his prologue, the author's voice expresses the intimacy of his commitment to Jesus, as well as his struggle for a personal appreciation of Him amid the Christian church's institutional appropriation of Him. Alan Sklar takes over in Part 1 as narrator. He conveys the appropriate sense of drama and emphasis, as well as excellent Hebrew pronunciation, with a tempered edge the author seems to lack. The result is a more lucid, albeit equally passionate, presentation that both theologians and the lay listeners will find compelling. Music at the beginning and end of each CD enhances the text. L.V.B. 2008 Audies Finalist (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000. As a leading spokesperson for an open, scholarly, and progressive Christianity, Bishop Spong has taught at Harvard and at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He is the author of many books, including A New Christianity for a New World and Why Christianity Must Change or Die.
