Retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong expects some readers to be “scandalized” by the conclusions in his latest book, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic (HarperOne). After all, he writes that the Gospel of John wasn’t meant to be taken literally and that many of the characters in the much-loved verses are fictional.
“The biggest mistake is to read it literally,” Spong said. “It’s not history or biography.”
Spong said the fourth Gospel is more of an artistic work written by someone trying to interpret the life of Jesus from a Jewish perspective, than a factual account. He calls it a “deeply Jewish book.” He also believes it was written over a span of several years by more than one writer.
The retired bishop, who has studied and written about the Bible extensively, said he never found the Gospel of John appealing, especially the book’s portrayal of Jesus.
“It’s as if he can’t wait to get on the cross,” Spong said. “I couldn’t connect with this Jesus. His humanity seemed to be lost.”
He also couldn’t get past the elements that seemed too fantastic to believe, such as the story of Jesus turning water into wine or raising Lazarus from the dead.
“He doesn’t just raise someone from the dead but someone who had been dead for four days. His body is already decomposing, so that was just sort of too ridiculous to be real,” Spong said. “This fantastic element, I never found a way to appreciate it.”
So he avoided the fourth Gospel as much as possible, he said, but eventually was drawn to it after reading other books suggesting that John was a mystical book.After a five-year study of the text, Spong said he realized that if the story was told from a mystical perspective, then the signs and miracles weren’t meant to be taken literally. Stories like that of Jesus walking on water “are narratives leading to a new perspective. They are not literal accounts of how a supernatural deity has invaded human history in order to change it miraculously,” Spong said.
Spong said the moment of Jesus’ glory in the Gospel of John isn’t his resurrection. It’s his crucifixion, making it a transformative story of love.
“You find God when you are free to give your life away without any bitterness,” Spong said. “To me it’s about falling in love.”
Spong, who served as bishop of Newark, N.J., for 24 years, taught at Harvard University, Drew University, the University of the Pacific and the Berkeley Graduate Theological Union and has lectured at schools around the world. His best-selling books include Why Christianity Must Change or Die, Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World and Jesus for the Non-Religious.
Although he has written about the Bible and Jesus frequently, for much of his life he has also wrestled with his own faith. But the 82-year-old said at this point in his life, he’s more deeply committed to his Christian faith than ever, which might surprise his critics.
“I’ll quote a retired bishop who said to me, ‘The older I get the more deeply I believe,’” Spong said. “That’s sort of where I am.”
While he might stir up conventional thinking, he loves the Bible. Studying it has been his life’s work.
“I’ve studied the Bible every day of my life and I love it but I’ve long since stopped being literal about it,” he said.
Religion, Pages 12 on 08/10/2013