BIBLICAL LITERALISM: A GENTILE HERESY by John Shelby Spong
A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew's Gospel
HarperOne 2016
In this new book, Spong dissects the Gospel of Matthew to uncover what the Jewish writers were really trying to do in their gospel narrative, and oddly enough, building megachurches and promising safety and security in exchange for right belief isn’t anywhere to be found.
What is there, however, is a powerful message that runs counter to the idea that faith offers nothing but a sweet and secure life. Instead, the biblical writers are inviting readers into the mystery of a life that is frequently messy and often downright brutal. That, Spong says, is the real Good News.
Quote by Spong:
"Galileo rendered God homeless and Isaac Newton rendered God unemployed so wherever we thought God was and whatever we thought God did, we can no longer think that way. To say nothing of moving on to Charles Darwin when we used to think we were a little lower than the angels and now we have to face the fact we’re a little higher than the apes..."