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Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy
- A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew's Gospel
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A man who has consciously and deliberately walked the path of Christ, John Shelby Spong has lived his entire life inside the Christian Church. In this profound and considered work, he offers a radical new way to look at the gospels today as he shows just how deeply Jewish the Christian Gospels are and how much they reflect the Jewish scriptures, history, and patterns of worship.
Pulling back the layers of a long-standing Gentile ignorance, he reveals how the church's literal reading of the Bible is so far removed from these original Jewish authors' intent that it is an act of heresy.
Using the Gospel of Matthew as a guide, Spong explores the Bible's literary and liturgical roots to explain how the events of Jesus' life, including the virgin birth, the miracles, the details of the passion story, and the resurrection and ascension, would have been understood by both the Jewish authors of the various gospels and by the Jewish audiences for which they were originally written.
In Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, Spong illuminates the gospels as never before and provides a better blueprint for the future than where the church's leaden and heretical reading of the story of Jesus has led us - one that allows the faithful to live inside the Christian story in the modern world.
What listeners say about Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- John
- 08-30-18
understanding the jewish thoughts in the Gospels
If you are a Fundamentalist then you'll mark this book with a one star. If you employ your reasoning skills with an open mind to the in-depth studies and work of this Bishop, whose life for 40 years was dedicated to God, you'll see he loves Jesus but he knows what the jewish authors intended in their writings. It's shocking to some but Jesus is built up by Old Testament promises of a jewish Messiah. As Gentiles, we failed terribly in the understanding of the gospels. What this book outlines is backed by scholarly academic researchers. Keeping our faith is a very important human need but we must seek explanations for things we don't fully understand. I have found that if you acquire an easy answer to a biblical question then it is probably false. Try to compare and contrast the explanations cited in this book to other sources in your library- not what you recall from Sunday School or sermons. Even after accomplishing all this, you may find another path for your understanding of God. Bishop Spong provided me with a wonderful understanding of scripture.
7 people found this helpful
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- T. J. Gregory
- 12-09-18
Opened My Eyes to the Bible
All my life I have been looking for answers to my questions regarding the Bible. I had always read it literally and not taking into account the Jewish traditions of the Biblical times and that it was written in a way in which the Jews would understand according to their knowledge and traditions. This book is packed with everything I need to understand the book of Matthew and at the same time gain a unique perspective on the Bible in its entirety. I am not a Biblical scholar so I had a little bit of a rough go at first but it paid off to not give up on trying to understand it all. Now I have clear answers and will listen to this book over and over to gain more insight. This book is packed full of knowledge by it’s genius author, and I appreciate him writing this at 84 years old. That’s amazing! He has a lot of Christian love and caring for humanity to work so hard to get this information out to us. I cannot say enough about how this book has helped me. This book is also perfect for Millennials who just don’t quite connect to the literal stories in the Bible. There IS a reason you are skeptical. Now I understand the Bible better on a sane level, and can still be a Christian. At least a more intelligent one Christian. This book is not a casual read but is a great read! The best!
5 people found this helpful
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- CL
- 02-10-22
Preachy
I was disappointed that this book wasn't simply a presentation of scholarship. I was looking forward to learning some interesting ideas I had not heard and I did get that. wow, there's some good material here, some I disagree with. But it was the smug overly preachy parts that I disliked about this book. Just the information please, leave your politics and personal grievances with modern society off the page. And maybe the title should have tipped me to the possibility of this. Anyway, mostly good on information content but it's getting dinged for the preachy-ness.
1 person found this helpful
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- Green mama
- 10-17-19
Wonderful book
Another wonderful book by John Shelby Spong. Another book I am recommending to my friends.
1 person found this helpful
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- Gil
- 12-02-21
Fuzzy Facts
The author has premises that are not supported by archeology. His ideas are based on a discredited 1970s-1980s movement. It is easy to see that his scholarship is simply lazy.
His thoughts though about the de-judaizing of the NT are largely correct
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- Kimberly Miller
- 10-03-21
level minded
amazing view. brings a reasonable mind to what is usually an unreasonable subject. in general I think everyone should give this one a read. maybe people will get on the same page and stop being so hateful
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- Billy The Kid Hall
- 06-28-21
Christian not by faith nor power...just by words
The fact the openly admits that the Word of God is fallible and not literal states everything about this book and man. He is a progressive, leftist, and Spiritually powerless man of study. He is dangerous by diminishing and at times muting the wisdom, power, holiness, righteousness, judgement and incorruptibleness of GOD. STAY AWAY!!!
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- donna waggoner
- 12-29-18
Extreme Liberal
I wish I had known he was liberal. I was completely disappointed by this book.
1 person found this helpful
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- Edward E. Grensky
- 08-19-18
A NEW TYPE Christianity for sure.
After the Bio of John Shelby Spong, a list of the differences stated goes against every teaching and self-study I have ever heard of. I stopped listening to the book right after that, this author does not agree with the literal interpretation of most if not all of what I understand to be true by faith.
2 people found this helpful