Resurrection: Myth or Reality? Summary and Reviews

Resurrection: Myth or Reality?
by John Shelby Spong

Resurrection: Myth or Reality?
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Book Summary Information

Author: John Shelby Spong
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1995-02-18
ISBN: 0060674296
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: HarperOne

Book Reviews of Resurrection: Myth or Reality?

Book Review: Too difficult to be relevant
Summary: 4 Stars

I am persuaded by much of what Bishop Spong argues in this book and I was genuinely moved by the penultimate chapter when he speculates on the purely spiritual experience that Peter must have had that formed the cornerstone of Christian faith and that later led to the New Testament mythological formulations of the empty tomb, angels, physical appearances, etc., that according to Spong collectively tried to point to that original experience. What bothers me about this book is that his argument is so demanding and dependent on technical scholarship that the actual truth behind Christianity that he attempts to uncover is, in this day and age, too inaccessible to inspire the masses of humanity. I mean, why should we have to master something as arcane as Midrash in order to get at the underlying truth of Christianity?

Yet Spong's argument remains strong. What this tells me is that the nature of God is such that He is unable to provide us with a definitive revelation that will be valid for all times and places. This is not news to students of general religious studies, but it will be a hard pill to swallow for Christians. All of this "searching for the historical Jesus" stuff that Spong is deeply committed to is probably necessary, but not to salvage Christianity or to inject it with new life. It is necessary to force this issue, that Christianity has had its day, and our religious conscience needs to come up with new conceptions of God that are more in tune with what we know about the nature of history and the nature of the universe. It boggles the mind how tenacious writers like Spong are in holding on to something that has so obviously faded into obsolescence.

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