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Top 120 John Shelby Spong Quotes (2025 Update)
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John Shelby Spong Quote: “To read the gospels properly, I now believe, requires a knowledge of Jewish culture, Jewish symbols, Jewish icons and the tradition of Jewish storytelling. It requires an understanding of what the Jews called “midrash.” Only those people who were completely unaware of these things could ever have come to think that the gospels were meant to be read literally.”

101. “To read the gospels properly, I now believe, requires a knowledge of Jewish culture, Jewish symbols, Jewish icons and the tradition of Jewish storytelling. It requires an understanding of what the Jews called “midrash.” Only those people who were completely unaware of these things could ever have come to think that the gospels were meant to be read literally.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “I want the traditional family upheld, but I don’t want it upheld to the detriment of other people.”

102. “I want the traditional family upheld, but I don’t want it upheld to the detriment of other people.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “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.”

103. “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.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “There’s no way a human being can escape his or her human-ness to be able to imagine God. We can talk about how we’ve experienced God, not what or who God is.”

104. “There’s no way a human being can escape his or her human-ness to be able to imagine God. We can talk about how we’ve experienced God, not what or who God is.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “Word of God” or to treat the words of the Bible as if they were words spoken by the mouth of God is to me not just irresponsible, it is also to be illiterate.”

105. “Word of God” or to treat the words of the Bible as if they were words spoken by the mouth of God is to me not just irresponsible, it is also to be illiterate.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “Hallowed be thy name” means that the ultimate, the mystical, the ineffable can never be captured in human words. Perhaps we need to learn from the Jews that if one speaks the name of God, one is pretending that one is able to know and to define God, which is the beginning of human idolatry. That is when we begin to create God in our own image, while pretending it is the other way around. Perhaps.”

106. “Hallowed be thy name” means that the ultimate, the mystical, the ineffable can never be captured in human words. Perhaps we need to learn from the Jews that if one speaks the name of God, one is pretending that one is able to know and to define God, which is the beginning of human idolatry. That is when we begin to create God in our own image, while pretending it is the other way around. Perhaps.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “Apologetic explanations do not develop unless there is a reality that has to be explained and defended. Jesus was undeniably a figure of history.”

107. “Apologetic explanations do not develop unless there is a reality that has to be explained and defended. Jesus was undeniably a figure of history.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “Healing, for Jung, comes with the embrace of our shadow, the acceptance of our evil. Evil too is part of God, Jung suggested, because it too is a part of Being.”

108. “Healing, for Jung, comes with the embrace of our shadow, the acceptance of our evil. Evil too is part of God, Jung suggested, because it too is a part of Being.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “In Yom Kippur, the status of being unclean fades before the divine presence. Yet if one cannot distinguish between God and Satan, if one calls evil good, if one’s religion places limits on the love of God, if one claims that being God’s chosen means that all others are God’s rejected, then there can be no atonement, and Yom Kippur is a failure.”

109. “In Yom Kippur, the status of being unclean fades before the divine presence. Yet if one cannot distinguish between God and Satan, if one calls evil good, if one’s religion places limits on the love of God, if one claims that being God’s chosen means that all others are God’s rejected, then there can be no atonement, and Yom Kippur is a failure.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “We’re either going to be driven to a whole new sense of radical interdependence where we are, in the Bible’s words, our neighbor’s keeper, or destroy ourselves.”

110. “We’re either going to be driven to a whole new sense of radical interdependence where we are, in the Bible’s words, our neighbor’s keeper, or destroy ourselves.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “The task of religion is not to turn us into proper believers; it is to deepen the personal within us, to embrace the power of life, to expand our consciousness, in order that we might see things that eyes do not normally see.”

111. “The task of religion is not to turn us into proper believers; it is to deepen the personal within us, to embrace the power of life, to expand our consciousness, in order that we might see things that eyes do not normally see.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years.”

112. “The priesthood in many ways is the ultimate closet in Western civilization, where gay people particularly have hidden for the past two thousand years.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “I have become convinced that we must put an end to atonement theology or there will be no future for the Christian faith. This.”

113. “I have become convinced that we must put an end to atonement theology or there will be no future for the Christian faith. This.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “The Hebrew scriptures say it’s okay to enslave anybody except your fellow Jews. It says you should enslave only your neighbors. I say to people that means Mexicans and Canadians are a bit at risk if we want to be literal about the Bible.”

114. “The Hebrew scriptures say it’s okay to enslave anybody except your fellow Jews. It says you should enslave only your neighbors. I say to people that means Mexicans and Canadians are a bit at risk if we want to be literal about the Bible.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “You can’t have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.”

115. “You can’t have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “What happened in the Western world was that Plato ceased to be the way people thought. Aristotle was rediscovered, and the modern, educated world moved toward Aristotelian thinking.”

116. “What happened in the Western world was that Plato ceased to be the way people thought. Aristotle was rediscovered, and the modern, educated world moved toward Aristotelian thinking.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “John sees Jesus symbolically as the serpent lifted up on his cross, drawing the venom out of human life, restoring wholeness. It is a powerful image. John.”

117. “John sees Jesus symbolically as the serpent lifted up on his cross, drawing the venom out of human life, restoring wholeness. It is a powerful image. John.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “Erich Fromm, a German-American psychologist and author, reminds us that “people never think their way into new ways of acting, they always act their way into new ways of thinking.”

118. “Erich Fromm, a German-American psychologist and author, reminds us that “people never think their way into new ways of acting, they always act their way into new ways of thinking.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “I think we have to recover our spiritual nature. The way we have interpreted Christianity does not do that.”

119. “I think we have to recover our spiritual nature. The way we have interpreted Christianity does not do that.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “It’s just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish.”

120. “It’s just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “Paul drew, however, little more than hostility from those identified as the Orthodox party, for whom any change threatened their security.”

121. “Paul drew, however, little more than hostility from those identified as the Orthodox party, for whom any change threatened their security.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “The version of Christianity that is dying today is rooted in the grossly misunderstood concept of atonement.”

122. “The version of Christianity that is dying today is rooted in the grossly misunderstood concept of atonement.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “As he becomes self-conscious, he’s no longer part of nature.”

123. “As he becomes self-conscious, he’s no longer part of nature.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “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.”

124. “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.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “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.”

125. “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.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “So the first step that those of us who wish to explore the meaning of resurrection must take is to recognize that the founding moment of the Christian story is not about either an empty tomb or the resuscitation of a deceased body. Its original proclamation asserted that in some manner God had raised Jesus into being part of who God is. Jesus was raised by God into God.”

126. “So the first step that those of us who wish to explore the meaning of resurrection must take is to recognize that the founding moment of the Christian story is not about either an empty tomb or the resuscitation of a deceased body. Its original proclamation asserted that in some manner God had raised Jesus into being part of who God is. Jesus was raised by God into God.”

— John Shelby Spong

John Shelby Spong Quote: “What we have done is to literalize the DeMille film while thinking that we are literalizing the biblical story!”

127. “What we have done is to literalize the DeMille film while thinking that we are literalizing the biblical story!”

— John Shelby Spong

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