>However, it’s my understanding that Spong denies fairly important

>events such as the resurrection of Jesus and tries to “spiritualise”

>them. Now, without having read any of his material, it may be the

>case that he can explore the meaning of the resurrection in a way

>which is useful and interesting from this perspective.

If you read some of his books, you will be able to answer your own

question.

“Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism” is a very good place to

start, and then you could follow up with his Christmas book “Born of

woman”, or his Easter book “Ressurection: myth or reality”. If you

are interested in sex, “Living in Sin?” is also a good read. “Into the

whirlwind” goes most deeply into Spong’s own journey of faith and

vision for the future.

>But without the actual substance of historical real events, where does that

leave

>him (and us?) Why not go the whole way and say that Jesus never really

existed

>at all (for example)!

If you read “This Hebrew Lord”, you will find Spong both asking and

answering this question. It is his first widely published book, and

IMHO his best.

I am not an apologist for Spong. As I said in an earlier post, I

disagree with some of his ideas. I have read all his books, and heard

him speak on three occasions. When I met him a couple of years ago I

found him disappointingly conservative in matters of Church and

Sexuality, but I could not fail to be impressed by the breadth of his

reading, his zeal for the Gospel, and the kindness and gentle respect

he shows for those who attack him.

Chris Ho-Stuart has brought the discussion of “My Gospel = THE Gospel”

(to coin a phrase) over from another thread. I would like to just

point out that this can work both ways. I have seen and heard many

confident denunciations of Spong’s writing, and his faith, character,

motivations, sexuality, … from people who cheerfully admit that they

have neither heard him speak nor read any of his publications. The

funniest one I ever heard was from someone who condemned him because

of the title of one of his books! Surely, it behoves us to read what a

person has written, and struggle to understand it, before we

confidently proclaim “Spong is wrong”. Otherwise, we are speaking from

nothing but ignorance and prejudice.

Nigel B. Mitchell