Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality [Hardcover]

John Shelby Spong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 2000

John Shelby Spong emerged from a childhood beset with racism, sexism, homophobia, and family dysfunction, determined to discover a Christian faith relevant to the modern world. By making a stand for inclusion rather than exclusion, opportunity over discrimination, and intelligent questioning instead of blind faith, he has become a beloved champion to Christians both inside and outside the fold. Using his gift for storytelling, Bishop Spong reveals how he has challenged Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, the positions of John Paul II and the Roman Catholic hierarchy, as well as the leadership of his own church Spong retires in late January 2000 to take a teaching position at Harvard University. Here I Stand is the complete story of his lifelong quest to make Christianity open to all who seek to follow the way of Jesus.
-- Why Christianity Must Change or Die is a Publishers Weekly bestseller and has sold more than 65,000 copies in cloth and paper.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Here I Stand is the autobiography of John Shelby Spong, the Episcopal bishop who is a lightning rod for controversy. Spong has for decades been working to popularize an inclusive version of Christianity that avoids racism, sexism, and homophobia; as a result, he has engaged leading conservatives (such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson) in very public conflicts. Here I Stand, predictably, gives a blow-by-blow of Spong's high-profile battles. More surprisingly, Spong also shares some very intimate details about his life that help to explain the sources of his theology. His southern childhood is related in a manner that is every bit as painful and comic as a Flannery O'Connor story. And the story of his first marriage, to a woman whose mental illness persisted for 15 years, is handled with sensitivity and grace. Despite his occasional rhetorical excesses, Spong's book is clearly written in love--with God, with the Church, and with the world. "I walk inside the wonder of this God in every experience of life," he writes at the book's end. We are fortunate that Spong's autobiography so expertly conveys this wonder.

From Publishers Weekly

Longtime devotees of Spong, the controversial Episcopal Bishop from Newark, N.J., will be familiar with some of the material in his new memoir, as his earlier books (Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, etc.) are peppered with autobiographical asides, but they will still relish this full-bodied, racy chronicle of Spong's political and theological journey. Liberal crusader Spong reveals that his concern for the oppressed began in his native Charlotte, N.C., while growing up in an "overtly pious home [where] racism was an operative assumption." Early on, he rejected the racism of the Jim Crow South and of the Church. Spong devotes the core of this memoir, however, to the battle that has earned him national prominence--the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals in the Episcopal Church. Spong has nothing but condescension for those who don't share his views, especially the theologically conservative bishops from the Third World. (Many African bishops disagree with Spong's stance on human sexuality, but rather than engage them, Spong suggests that they have blindly embraced the "fundamentalism" pedaled by English missionaries.) Spong's naysayers will want to steer clear of this book, which will strike them as just another restatement of his heresy, but his followers will appreciate the characteristically lively prose. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; First Edition first Printing edition (January 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060675381
• ISBN-13: 978-0060675387
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.9 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,621,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey for twenty-four years before his retirement in 2000. He is one of the leading spokespersons for liberal Christianity and has been featured on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, FOX News Live, and Extra. This book is based on the William Belden Noble lectures Spong delivered at Harvard.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank God for Spong!, February 22, 2000

By 

Kenneth Donaldson Pite "wavewalker" (Lytton, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality (Hardcover)

Last year I read John Shelby Spong's book, "Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile" and was moved. I had thought that about the most I could expect from the Anglican tradition was a good cup of coffee after the service and yet here was an Episcopal bishop whose book fed me intellectually and, rarest of all, spiritually. In December I learned that his autobiography was to be published and bought it as soon as possible. I thoroughly enjoyed "Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love and Equality".

The book moves along at a fast pace, blending the facts of his life with the stories that give them meaning. And the stories are fascinating. We read of the experiences that shaped him as a child, as a youth, as a young man. The racial conflicts he sought to ease in his early years as a priest. His stimulating approaches to preaching and education. His acceptance of gay and lesbian people and his support of them even at personal cost. And throughout the book, insightful looks into the workings of the Episcopal Church in America and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

I like the way he looks at himself, indeed it is his frank portrayal of his own weaknesses and mistakes that makes his descriptions of the weaknesses and mistakes of others believable.

Spong closes his book by saying, in part, "But above all else, I was throughout my life and am still today deeply convinced of the reality of God. Indeed, I am more deeply convinced of this reality at this moment than I have ever been before. I walk inside the wonder of this God in every experience of life. I have become more of a mystic than I ever thought possible for a rationalist like me. I still meet this God in the life of the one I call Lord and Christ, who is supremely important to my spiritual journey".

A wonderful man, a great book.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "... and the truth shall set you free.", February 22, 2000

By 

Dallon Weathers (Columbia, SC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality (Hardcover)

In HERE I STAND, Jack Spong shares with his readers the development in his theology as he lives into his Christian faith as one who thinks and is open to the experiences of the world in which he lives. I have read all of Jack Spong's books and it was enlightening to experience the what,how and why as each book and its reason for being unfolded.

From his rearing in the conservative South to a leader of a broader more liberal Christian understanding, the reader becomes a fellow traveler with Jack Spong as he finds himself on the cutting edge of theology as it is lived out in the post modern world. Jack Spong was and is unafraid to question his faith and its very foundational concepts and in doing so has opened the gospel (good news) to thousands, if not millions, of those in exile who seek a spiritual relationship with the God of all. HERE I STAND gives the reader the opportunity to share this journey toward truth and freedom.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Further Insight, May 3, 2000

By 

Robert Flournoy "rwf3" (Franklin, Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality (Hardcover)

When I read "Rescuing The Bible From Fundamentalism"(J.Spong) many years ago, it was as if a giant weight had been liftedfrom my emotional shoulders. I never doubted the existence of God,and, was always enthralled by his mysterious, beautiful presence in the natural world around us, and, I attributed, with no reservation, mankind's spiritual goodness to the hand of God. I also knew, in my heart, that the journey to him that the church demanded, was an embarassment. What I learned in church and Sunday School was totally irreconcileable with my intellect and spiritual instincts. Even as a child, I knew that Jewish mythology played no more part in our quest for God than did that of the ancient Greeks. Zeus saving his chosen warriors with thunder bolts was about as believable as Moses parting an ocean with his staff. The examples were endless, and, very troubling to my nascent intellect. Rev Spong's writings have been the catalyst for me to peacefully seek God in my heart and mind while sitting on my deck, rather than in a pew, although I would welcome this undertaking in a church that genuinely sought to unite its' members with God, rather than remind them of their inadequacies. Understanding the man better, thanks to this biography, cements my first responses to his earlier writings.