One netfriend commented

If we are to extend this latitude to Spong, we should also extend it to the Biblical writers. Something Spong doesn’t seem prepared to do.

Another:

But I think that’s exactly what Spong *does* do, because he looks at the biblical accounts and says “the science implied by the language they use is wrong, as we know, but that doesn’t negate the need to find a meaning within those accounts that fits with our knowledge and cultural experience”. And it’s that latitude and preparedness to step away from the literality of the biblical account that so frightens and alienates the established church.

And another:

The problem is that Spong himself seems to live in a scientifically outdated world. Forget about Newton; Einstein’s the man, or Stephen Hawking. The eschatological concepts of first century Biblical writers, with their notion of another time-space impinging on this one, are easily accommodated by our present knowledge of physics. It was thus no surprise to me to find that former physicist John Polkinghorne has no problem with resurrection, but Spong does.