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Eternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell

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OK, let's set the record straight: I'm a progressive Christian - I've read (and enjoyed) even Gretta Vosper's book (With or Without God) - and I've read most of Spong's bestsellers. I've always LOVED Jack Spong as a preacher and have been privileged to hear him speak in person a half a dozen times. As an author, I would have to say that he has his moments (Here I Stand, Why Christianity Must Change or Die and A New Christianity for a New World are excellent) but, in general, if I rate his speaking as an A+, some of his books get an A but often only a B or C.

The very cool thing about Spong's books is that they track his own personal growth in knowledge and, dare I say, enlightenment (for lack of a better term). This gives his books a personal touch which, for me, allows me to see the depth dimension of his being - something which many authors keep well hidden. Recent books by folks like Elaine Pagels (Beyond Belief) and Bart Ehrman (Misquoting Jesus) reveal the personal spiritual sides of the authors and I appreciate that greatly. It's not like you're reading some dispassionate objective dissertation - it makes the material live and breathe.

With that as background, if you're still reading, here's the review:

In his latest book, Eternal Life: A New Vision, Jack Spong's life work dedicated to finding meaning in the Christian tradition blossoms fully and completely by transcending it (but not abandoning it). In some of his early books, he shows the flaws apparent (should I say "obvious") in human-made Christian institutions and doctrine, yet, offers little to give us hope or meaning in their absence. Eventually, in other books, Spong leads us into the understanding that to be fully human (live fully, love wastefully, be all that you can be) is to catch a glimpse of what it means to be divine. In ETERNAL LIFE, he finally (as if the universe was waiting for him to figure it out - wink) pulls it all together and offers a vision which transcends religion itself and encourages us to enter into a new way of being - in relationship with each other and the universe - thereby experiencing eternity NOW.

You'll have to read the book to get the details, but I was VERY impressed with the way he tied together all his previous thinking and made this leap to, what I consider, a new level of consciousness and awareness. Don't let this talk about transcendence, consciousness and awareness make you think that Spong has gone "NEW AGE". LOL. Far from it. It's a personal, well-reasoned and easy to understand story of his own emerging thought and how we might do something similar in our lives.

One thing which surprised me about the book is that he ends up in a place that Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme are at as well, WITHOUT referring to them at all. I have great respect for all three authors and am glad that they are reaching a sort of conjunction in their thinking.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone interested in Spong, progressive Christianity and the emerging universal consciousness.

I am a great fan of Bishop John Shelby Spong, retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark. I have read four of his books and have been receiving his weekly essay via the Internet for years. Although I am not a Christian, I find it inspiring to read his idea of transforming Christianity to make it wholly conform to scientific knowledge. Spong is all but a humanist, as he describes himself as "God-intoxicated," with a completely different idea of God from the usual father figure.

I confess that I have been puzzled by Spong's repeated definition of God as "the source of life, the source of love, and 'the ground of all being,' which he adopted from his spiritual guide, Paul Tillich. I had hoped that this book would shed further light on this definition. Here, Spong finally reveals that he is a mystic, and that this hallowed tradition of mysticism has seen God through inner experience, not external revelation. He asserts that God is not the theistic, creative, all-controlling deity of the Bible, but rather a divine aspect of our own nature as human beings. Jesus, he says, was fully human, and did not come down to earth as an incarnate God to "save" humankind from original sin (which does not exist, because of evolution). Spong disavows all the miraculous and supernatural explanations of God and Jesus, and believes that the Gospel writers were not trying to be literal in their descriptions of the life of
Jesus. Instead, they were explaining in their limited vocabulary the God-experience like-minded people saw in Jesus.

Spong's main thesis is that human self-consciousness, superseding the consciousness of other animals, left us with fear and anxiety when it was experienced by early man. Because of the knowledge of his frailty and impending mortality, man invented religion to allay these fears. Spong recounts the steps through which religion has grown, starting with animism, going through goddess worship for fertility, ascending to multiple gods of both sexes, and finally resulting in the one patriarchal God of Judaism, Chrisitanity, and Islam. Spong goes "beyond religion," asserting that this form of worship was suitable for the childhood of the human species. Now, the contributions of Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein have rendered the theistic God obsolete.

Bishop Spong's description of the evolution of religion, interspersed with his own life experiences, make up the most informative part of the book. But when he starts to describe his own view that he and other human beings will live eternally "beyond heaven and hell," he loses me. I think it is just another delusion manufactured by Spong, through his relentless study of the important aspects of science and human nature, and his boundless love of spirituality. He says that there is no present, only the current moment becoming an endless future. Because we can imagine things outside time and space, both the past and the future, we are really timeless beings. Our consciousness will become the consciousness of all the universe, just as Jesus modeled for us.

Spong tells us that the love he has given and received from his family, friends, and acquaintances is the most cherished aspect of his personal "divinity." Most of all, the love of both his wives was the greatest gift he has received. Since God is "the source of love," he is assured that his consciousness will live forever, and he welcomes death when it must come. In his last chapter, Spong says that we human beings are entitled to choose euthanasia when death becomes inevitable, because of the medical prolongation of life not available to previous generations.

The book is eloquent and beautiful, if not wholly rational,and is typical of Spong and his enormous life achievements.

If you are looking for indisputable proof that humans survive their death, you will not find it here. If you are seeking support for the traditional viewpoints of institutional religion, especially fundamentalist Christianity, don't look here either. What John Spong does offer his readers is what he has offered throughout all his books, an often deeply personal, totally honest, thoroughly researched, exploration of the subject from how he now sees it on his own journey. Although it will undoubtedly make some angry, and disappoint others, this is a haunting, breautiful book that penetrates to the deepest depths of that ultimate question, if we die shall we live again. It is a book that draws you in and invites you to experience in your own time and way at least some of what the author has experienced. Spong has wrestled with the ultimate questions much the way Jacob wrestled with the angel. He searches, he challenges, and he offers no easy answers. Like Jacob, readers may come away with a dislocated hip, but they will be blessed, and in the words of Albert Schweitzer, "in their own way they will come to know who He is>"

If you enjoy wrestling with the big questions in life, and recognize the value of wisdom and experience--especially when coupled with sixty years of scholarly study of theology and philosophy; diligent pursuit of ever-elusive truth through reason; intellectual honesty; insatiable curiosity; and an astute mind and loving heart--then you owe it to yourself to read "Eternal Life: A New Vision," the culmination of Bishop John Shelby Spong's seventy-nine-year journey of inquiry. "Eternal Life" goes beyond religion, beyond heaven and hell, and explores a very different interpretation of the Christian story and history, and what that Christian "experience" can mean to a modern mind--specifically in terms of life, death, and life after death.

This latest--and last--book by Bishop John Shelby Spong is difficult to review in some ways; it is not easily characterized by simple technical questions about scripture or Biblical interpretation. Rather, "Eternal Life" covers the biggest and toughest of questions.

A few relevant disclaimers: 1) This reviewer is a non-theist, and no longer believes in god. 2) Many skeptics and non-believers break ranks with Spong insofar as he persists in using "God language" like "salvation," "eternal," and "redemption". Such breaks are evidenced by the Bishop's participation in some formal debates with atheists. Still, it seems that if we discard our symbols and metaphors we might arguably just as well discard all attempts at articulating the human experience--including art, myth, literature, and all of language. As Spong frequently points out, language is but symbol. It is therefore worth pointing out that the naturalist, skeptical, and materialist reader may want to be patient with Spong's use of loaded symbolic terms. If we open our minds to alternative definitions that do not insult our modern advances in thinking, we just may find some beautiful ideas to which we can assent. 3) Finally, this reviewer is an admitted fan of John Spong, as evidenced by the inclusion and fictionalization of an extensive discussion with him--with kind permission--in the reviewer's novel that illustrates how uncritical acceptance of any belief can divide, diminish, and literally endanger our humanity ("A Secret of the Universe: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Discovery of an Eternal Truth").

Disclaimers notwithstanding, it is worth clarifying that Bishop Spong's "Eternal Life" is indeed a new vision that boldly chastises and discards traditional religion, yet somehow illuminates what the great mythologist and comparative religion scholar Joseph Campbell called "the power of myth" to facilitate our understanding of our experiences--in ways even strict materialists can access.

Einstein said "the only source of knowledge is experience," and it is experiencing the realm of human emotion and the interconnectedness of living things into which Spong calls us, using this symbolic language of old. Herein lies the beauty of "Eternal Life: A New Vision"; its wisdom is accessible to the progressive Christian and the skeptic alike. If some of us who consider ourselves atheists wish to move beyond that simple statement about what we don't believe, and focus on the affirmative, there is much that can be learned from Bishop Spong's views of what it means to be alive, what it means to be human, and how even ancient mythologies can inform our experience of love, loss, mystery, wonder, and awe.

Readers who can accept new interpretations and definitions of old symbols and allegories will glean much from Spong's shared journey of experiences--concepts that are consistent with science and modern understandings of how the real world works, consistent with the mythological truth of sacred texts, and that still call us to be more fully human and to "live fully, to love wastefully, to be all that you can be and to dedicate yourselves to building a world in which everyone has a better opportunity to do the same" (p212). If we do that, Spong argues, we can experience the connectedness he associates with "god"--which lies within us! He says, "The divine we have always sought turns out to be a dimension of the human." We can experience the "eternal" through this life--touch it, if you will. While the book embraces death and darkness as our call to meaning and light in this life, Spong is staunchly insistent that it is through this life that we experience this new, almost scientific or quantum view of "divinity," connectedness, and interrelatedness. (Thankfully, he makes no attempt to co-opt quantum physics into yet another new-age, woo-woo religion, as do many who seek simply to provide the next opiate to the people---or to sell get-rich-quick books on Oprah.)

While Spong's answer to the unanswerable question of life after death is an assertive "yes, it exists," that "yes" comes carefully nuanced in modern arguments for a somewhat mystical interconnectivity. As Carl Sagan would remind us we are all made of "star stuff." That alone is evidence of connection. But memories literally transcend time, and we recall and still live in the love of those who are dead--which makes them live on in a real way. Still, Spong is unwilling to make the seemingly distasteful assertions of years past, that we'll actually physically be reunited with loved ones in some anthropomorphic post-life experience. Indeed Spong's are a new set of definitions for old ideas, and a new way of looking at life after death, so any reader expecting affirmation of traditional afterlife fantasies of milk and honey will be disappointed.

Clearly we can't expect that Spong has discovered heretofore unknown secret knowledge of the afterlife, and revealed it in this book; but what Spong gives us is far more than just an accounting of his own spiritual and intellectual journey through life, and it's inevitable suffering and discarded theodicy-plagued solutions. It is also more than metaphor for his spiritual journey, which he sees as parallel to that of the evolution of humanity's search for answers on a macro scale.

Bishop Spong argues that if we are willing to listen, we can find that through death life is illuminated, transformed, inter-connected, and indeed, transcendent beyond what we seemingly see. This is a mental stretch for many of us, but one can argue it need not conflict with even a purely materialistic view of the world, where memories are but electrical impulses stored in neurons, and matter is all there is. So for skeptics and believers alike, it is worth our effort to look beyond what could be a false dichotomy of either supernatural nonsense or blindness to our full human experience, and stand wrapped in awe at what is. Reading "Eternal Life" will help any curious mind to do just that--celebrate what is, and embrace life more fully in the process.

I write this review as a fan of John Shelby Spong. I have read nearly all of his books, excepting some of his more obscured coauthored titles, and I am intrigued by much of his scholarship. I also had the unfortunate experience of growing up in a fundamentalist Christian household. I drank from the poisonous well of American Protestant anti-intellectualism, narrow-mindedness, and hatred for nearly twenty years. When I read Spong for the first time nearly a year ago, it felt like scales fell off my eyes. The Bible became relevant. Jesus jumped out of the sky and onto the earth. After finishing Jesus for the Non-Religious, I bought all of Spongs works and devoured them with a fanatic zeal, so happy was I to read someone who saw the Bible from a different perspective.

This being said, I was expecting more from this book. Spong has overlooked some aspects of life and has made some serious errors, but I will begin with what he has done admirably.

Spong quickly traces the history of humanity, religion, and the afterlife for the majority of his book. Interspersed in the text are stories from Spong's life, which might not mean much to someone unfamiliar with Spong, but he deftly uses this to encourage each of us to formulate similar stories for ourselves. This book is very emotionally engaging. It is obvious that Spong has put much time and reflection into his work, and it shows.

During his cursory analysis of religious manipulation and Biblical exegesis, Spong shines. He presents a trenchant (although sadly underdeveloped) critique of the traditional religious methods of emotional abuse, manipulation, and parochial literalism that most religious people could have never imagined.

Despite these qualities, Spong has still made some errors. The first chronologically is his misapplication of scientific findings. Spong's dysteleological view of evolution leads him to believe that we are accidental beings. Coupled with his insistence that God is entirely internal, he arrives at the conclusion that God is "non-personal". Spong does have the ability to engage in a kind of sophistry from time to time, and clarification is needed.

Primarily, the universe does display an order and complexity that Spong himself acknowledges. This is not in the form of intellectually dishonest and embarrassing "Creation Science", but rather in matter itself and in the physical conditions of the universe. Evolution, although utilizing random processes, is quite complex and ordered. Everything that exists is dependent on the sustained presence of the four forces (strong and weak nuclear bonds, electromagnetism, and gravity) that pervade the universe. This information, coupled Spong's view of the universe that is infused with a divine presence, would lead one to believe that God himself is external - all that exists attests to his handiwork and presence. But rather than saying that God speaks to our souls and invites us into communion with an external power, Spong insists that God is not external (in which case, I fear, God may be a figment of our imaginations!).

Spong tries to skirt this by saying that God is "non-personal" as opposed to "impersonal". A break with Deistic terminology, perhaps, but not with Deistic reasoning. It is absurd to insist, as fundamentalists do, that God is telling people around the world different things through dreams, prophecies, and gut feelings, but if God is does not speak through the Bible (not as a literal "fax from heaven", but as the spiritual journey of our fathers and mothers in faith), reflection upon creation, or contemplative prayer, then how, besides subjective feelings of "love", are we to communicate with God? Spong also disastrously does not elaborate on love, a recurring theme throughout the book.

Finally, Spong takes a dismissive attitude toward Christianity. It is as if Spong has managed to transcend religious literalism, repeatedly enhance our understanding of the Bible, and elucidate the life of the human par-excellance, Jesus, only to try and explain Christian spirituality as a bankrupt system. Rather than interpret the timeless truths of our ancestors of faith, Spong relies on modern science, psychology, and a distressingly large amount of references to Sigmund Freud (just ask your local psychology student what the consensus on Freud is), putting the eternal truths of life on the alter of capricious scientific materialism.

Spong and I share a hero in Paul Tillich, the famous 20th century theologian, who in his book Dynamics of Faith, explains how Christ has been elevated to the level of a symbol. The mysteries of the universe are certainly not bound by the human person of Jesus Christ, and even less so in the words of the Bible, although it is through Him that the divine logos is revealed, and the temporal realm and divine realm met (as Spong has said elsewhere). But it is unfulfilling both intellectually and spiritually for me to reject that which has been passed down to me as merely a man made system. In short, why has it become so unhip to feel secure? Was I wrong to love my mother as a child and feel secure when she held me? Am I wrong to delight in the Creator of the universe, to whom Spong has introduced me to not as a distant servant, but as a brother, father, and fellow sufferer? Should we throw out the critical element of the Jesus experience that is being born again just because fundamentalists have hijacked it? Spong things we should.

Spong's argument falls on its own sword when he asserts that there is an afterlife, but furnishes not a shred of evidence. As Spong becomes increasingly esoteric near the end of his book, I can only hope that in his advanced stage of life, he is privy to an insight that I have not yet realized, although I fear that Spong has only encouraged the likes of Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins by de-emphasizing the shared journey and values of Christians in favor of quasi-mystic solipsisms. Faith is both individual and corporate, and grounded in an external Reality, reassuring us that we are not merely delusional or biased. I am happy that Spong has reached a point in his life where he can look back with no regrets, but upon finishing this book, I feel that Spong has left his readers with little more than empty slogans and warm fuzzy feelings.

I would say there were two stages to my religious life.
The first stage involved trying to save my Dad because he was obviously going to Hell as a non-believer.
The second stage was going to Spong lectures with my Dad.
It turned out I was the one who needed saving.
My father passed away this year, making death a theme, a book such as this beyond appropriate, and all those memories of celebrating Spong lectures with my Dad so precious that the debt I own to John Spong haunts me. My only solace is in knowing I share that debt with legions.
As always, what Spong does is the hard work and the research to bring all humanity has to offer to glean the best understanding of an issue possible and then make it accessible to us.
This may well be the fine last book, but Spong has always seemed to be, from God, the gift that keeps on giving.
It is a deeply personal book as it had to be. Spong talks about his own mortality as he must.
I don't want to let him go.
As I reflected on clinging to him it became a meditation on the Bible verse after Jesus death where he tells Mary, "Don't cling to me."
Perhaps I understand that verse for the first time. It was a new vision.

John Bidwell

Bishop Spong invites us to put away the childish religion of our churches, which is atavistic and tribal, and search for a more mature understanding of ourselves, our world, and the divine. A difficult task, but he is the man for the job. The book contains much that is already familiar to his many readers, but it inspires and urges the reader on to a new level of appreciation of the necessity of his personal end, and in so doing the book gives a new vision and asserts the wonder and infinite joy of life. I wish he had said more about the enigmatic Fourth Gospel; he leaves only the hope that he will be able to produce yet another book, giving us his insights into the most mystical of the gospels. His last chapter, on "life ending decisions," is deeply moving.

Having read an earlier book by Mr. Spong, which I found ultimately disappointing, this book seems very much a continuation of his previously stated positions. In general, Mr. Spong seems to espouse a watered-down kind of Christianity, perhaps for the worthy goal of constructing a "bigger tent," so to speak, i.e., a religious view consistent with the views of other less traditional Christians, including those with less faith and a more limited interest in religion. However, is the net result improvement or decline? This book seems to be going further in that direction, to construct a tent big enough even for atheists, of which I think it would be fair to categorize Mr. Spong. Unfortunately, the pews are increasingly empty and the faithful seek salvation elsewhere.

Of course, Mr. Spong is well entitled to his personal views. In fact, it is clear that he has deeply thought about the subject of God and death, and has considerable experience in related spiritual matters. That is reflected in his book and is probably its most favorable aspect. On the other hand, it is the foolish elitist arrogance that is the most unfavorable aspect of the book. In other words, he doesn't just explain his view, but must base it on criticism of more traditional Christianity, which he likes to call fundamentalist, as compared to his atheistic "Christianity." I suppose that is the nature of atheism to some extent, a belief based on non-belief.

As mentioned, however, there are some strengths to the book. Spong's atheism is not at all like that of materialistic atheists, for example, the "new atheists" or followers of scientism. On the other hand, Spong seems to make common cause with them in attacking traditional religion, making passing but favorable comments about Dawkins and Harris in the book. The saving grace, in my opinion, is Spong's appreciation, at least, of the new level of human consciousness brought to us by Jesus. Thus, Spong seems to adopt a middle position between non-spiritual atheists and secular "Christians."

The part I really "don't get" is that Mr. Spong ends up stating his firm belief in a personal after-life, while at the same time not believing in God as an "other" as compared to human consciousness alone. Hence, the question is how and why is there the reality of immortality without the reality of God? As a metaphysical system, it strikes me as very insufficient. (At least with process theology, there is a melding of God and human consciousness, in which God is part of the universe, though not outside the universe and omnipotent.)

So, in sum, Mr. Spong's view seems to be to have faith in personal immortality and, at the same time, not to have faith in God. I certainly respect his view, but I do not think it will resonate with many people and for good reason. As a personal statement of Mr. Spong's belief, I found the book marginally interesting and having an element of originality, but too much is left out, too much is denied.

John Shelby Spong couldn't get any better, he does it with this new book. In "Eternal Life: A New Vision" the reader is shown the way faith and religion can be a healing, growing, experience rather than a constrictive and fearful one. Bishop Spong shows us that God is literally the basis of our experience whether we know it or not. God is not one who must be flattered, bribed, cajoled, or begged into loving His creation. He always has and always will.

Rather than fearing a bloodthirsty god who wipes out peoples with plagues, fires, famines, floods, or even issues outright orders to kill, we are invited to experience God just as we are and then to grow into the people we are made to be. In a world that has been plagued by toxic religion and theology this can be a frightening or enlightening experience depending on your point of view. It is frightening if you believe in the sometimes schizophrenic god of the Old and New Testaments. It is enlightening if you view those attributes of God as an ancient people seeking desparately to make sense of the new world in which they found themselves.

Among a great percentage of people this book will excoriated as heresy. But to those who are not afraid to think deeply with an open heart, this book can be life-changing in the sense that you may meet the God you always knew was there, instead of the one who is used for the political and social agenda of those whose interest it is to keep you afraid. Bishop Spong shows quite convincingly that the Kingdom of God is truly within.

In what he thinks probably his final book, Bishop Spong takes us along the path of his lifelong search for an honest and real structure of belief in immortality. He has a clear vision of how belief in a life beyond death has evolved over human history, and proceeds to share with us his own personal evolution from child-like belief to a well thought out and inspiring insight into what eternal life really means. Not for those seeking easy answers, he tells it as he sees it, and concludes with a wisdom and a spirituality gained from hard, honest thinking.