Biblical Literalism : A Gentile Heresy

Biblical Literalism : A Gentile Heresy
ISBN: 9780062362308
Publication Date: 16 February 2016

In this profound work, bestselling author and the former Episcopal Bishop of Newark John Shelby Spong offers a radical new way to look at the gospels today. Pulling back the layers of misunderstanding created over the centuries by Gentile ignorance of things Jewish, he reveals how a literal reading of the Bible is so far removed from the original intent of the Jewish authors of the gospels that it has become an act of heresy. Using the gospel of Matthew as a guide, Spong explores the New Testament's literary and liturgical roots its grounding in Jewish culture, symbols, icons, and storytelling tradition to explain how the events of Jesus life, including the virgin birth, the miracles, the details of the passion story, and the resurrection and ascension, would have been understood by both the Jewish authors of the various gospels and by the Jewish audiences for which they were originally written.

Spong makes clear that it was only after the church became fully Gentile that readers of the gospels took these to be events of history, thus distorting their essential meaning.In Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, Spong annotates the gospel of Matthew and so provides a blueprint for the church s future one that allows the faithful to live inside the Christian story while still embracing the modern world. Why Fundamentalist Christians Are Heretics John Shelby Spong is a pioneering leader of progressive Christianity, a weekly columnist, and America s bestselling non-fundamentalist religious author. In this groundbreaking book he explains why a literal reading of the New Testament not only distorts the original message of these books, but also renders them unintelligible to the citizens of the twenty-first century.

This exciting book recovers the original meaning behind Matthew s gospel with profound implicati...