The Sins of Scripture is not the first book by John Shelby Spong I have read. It all began for me with Living in Sin: A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality, then it was Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture, and finally his book, Born of A Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Virgin Birth and the Role of Women in a Male Dominated Church. These are only a few of the books Spong, who retired as Bishop of Newark in 2000, has written. His provocative and challenging titles, and content, have sparked controversy throughout the Christian world, particularly fundamentalist and conservative evangelical Christianity. However, I believe it is important for Christians of all varieties to at least give the former Bishop a hearing. For Christians to read and study only those writings, theologians, and biblical interpreters with which we agree serves only to stagnate our life and faith as followers of Jesus. There needs to be a lot of “rethinking” going on but Spong can be difficult to work through if you are committed to the concept of a literal, perfect Bible that flowed straight from the hand of God and are not willing to re-think this idea.
In The Sins of Scripture, Spong takes on the biblical texts that we have often misused in our world to justify injustice, hatred, the mistreatment of the planet, child abuse, sexism, Anti-Semitism, and violence (among many other things). He explores, in depth, those passages which have been misused throughout history. For Spong, however, it is not just a matter of these texts being misinterpreted, but that the text themselves do not truly reflect “God’s Word.” Spong challenges this understanding of Biblical texts because no matter how you re-interpret or re-think these passages, their very presence in the Bible suggest that there is a fundamental problem with understanding the Bible as God’s Word – especially in a literal sense. Spong would suggest that Christianity’s stubborn attachment to this idea of the Bible being “God’s Word” and therefore perfect will either have to change or the religion of Christianity as we know it now will die. Spong argues that these questionable texts reflect the prejudices of the writers who wrote from their own cultural perspectives which involved a limited understanding of the realities of science, human biology, and human relationships. Spong says, “The use of the Bible to justify our prejudices must be abandoned” (p. 297).
For many, Spong’s understanding and interpretation of the Bible means that he has no respect for it but this is not the case in Spong’s view. He believes that Christians being more honest about the biblical text and being able to critique it, keeping in mind how it came to be formed in the first place, is the best way to respect its original and intended purposes. One of Spong’s most telling lines comes on page 217 of the book where he says, “Its darkest and most brutal side becomes visible at the moment when the adherents of any religious system identify their understanding of God with God.“ It is important that we do not arrogantly assume that our interpretation of Christianity’s sacred writings is indeed God’s intention. Not only should we “test the spirits” as the Bible suggests, we should also hold the biblical account of things to the test as well. Some would argue that this is “testing God,” however, Spong would probably say that to suggest that these “terrible texts,” as he calls them, are of God is a misrepresentation of God. Spong concludes his book with:
We have entered into the consciousness of God. That is what it means to discover that we are now God’s dwelling place. There is no supernatural deity beyond the sky working miracles. There is only a God-infused humanity through whom the Source of Life, the Source of Love and the Ground of Being lives. We are the God-bearers of the world. We must rise to our new vocation and be God for one another.
Many Christians will have a tough time reading Spong’s book, if for no other reason, because he questions and dismisses any God that lives outside of the human self. He would suggest that it is this self that understands and creates the God in whom we want to believe. Whether you agree with Spong or not, he makes an important contribution to the dialogue about the development of Christianity in the present and it’s future. He opens wide the gates of discussion on the important matter of understanding the scriptures. He has indeed taught me a great deal and I greatly respect his gumption and willingness to boldly state what many people today believe but feel the need to hide because they fear being judged, exposed, criticized, or even fired from their ministry positions or church leadership positions.
If you are squeamish about people criticizing the biblical text and about reading things you don’t agree with, you might steer away from reading this book. For fundamentalist of any faith tradition and conservative evangelicals, Spong’s ideas would be especially troubling but I believe what he has to say should be heard and discussed with reason and civility.
