Quotes from John Shelby Spong

You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you don't have any freedom left, or you're going to build a world that doesn't create terrorists - and that means a whole different way of 'getting along.'

Almost any poll of regular churchgoers will reveal that their favorite book in the New Testament is the Gospel of John. It is the book that is most often used at Christian funerals.

Terrorism is a real despair. These are people for whom life has been so negative that they're willing to die if they can take down some of their enemies.

...death is ultimately a dimension of life through which we journey into timelessness.

The cross reveals that we're called to a deeper, fuller experience of what it means to be alive and open to new dimensions of life which our religious boundaries - creeds, atonement theologies - have kept us from experiencing.

Our English language really says if you're not a theist, the only alternative is to be an atheist. What I'm trying to do is develop a language that will enable us to talk about God beyond the, what I think, are sterile categories of theism and atheism.

Perhaps the most telling witness against the claim of accurate history for the Bible comes when we read the earliest narrative of the crucifixion found in Mark's gospel and discover that it is not based on eyewitness testimony at all.

The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history.

Toward the end of his life, [Arnold] Toynby said the Christianity he saw developing was brittle, imperialistic and incapable of reforming itself.

I go where I'm invited. And all I can tell you is if we accepted every invitation we had, I'd be away every day of my life.

My sense is if the Episcopal Church can't stand challenge within its own ranks, then it is not a church I would want to be a member of anyway.

If I were a child of Tibet or of Arabia, I suspect the path I'd walk would be the Buddhist path or the Muslim path. And I don't mind saying that I don't invalidate any of those paths.

Religion is a mixed blessing.

The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world.

I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God.

It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different.

All religion seems to need to prove that it's the only truth. And that's where it turns demonic. Because that's when you get religious wars and persecutions and burning heretics at the stake.

You learn that you either are going to have a police state where you don't have any freedom left, or you're going to build a world that doesn't create terrorists - and that means a whole different way of 'getting along.'

As he becomes self-conscious, he's no longer part of nature.

It is the nature of human life to feed our ever-present security needs by displaying fear in the presence of anyone who is "different.

The version of Christianity that is dying today is rooted in the grossly misunderstood concept of atonement

God is. Because God is, I live, I love, I am. Does that mean that God exists? I do not know what that question means. I experience God; I cannot explain God. I trust my experience.

The words of Peter then became the new mantra for the Christian movement: "Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him" (10:34–35).

I also learned that most clergy are either unable or unwilling to engage the great theological issues of the day because of their perception that to do so will "disturb the faith and beliefs" of their people.