The Sins of Scripture (31 page)
Read The Sins of Scripture Online
Authors: John Shelby Spong
10.
The institution was Woodlawn School outside Charlotte, NC, a grades 1–8 school that counted among its alumni evangelist Billy Graham. Graham describes similar memories of this school in his autobiography,
Just As I Am
. See bibliography for details.
11.
Alex Haley,
Roots
. See bibliography for details.
12.
Suzanne Fonay Wemple,
Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500–900
. See bibliography for details.
13.
Both Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have used this language in their attacks on the women’s liberation movement. Robertson seems particularly eager to suggest that “women’s lib” is lesbian-dominated and therefore antifamily.
14.
Karen Armstrong, a former nun, has emerged in the last twenty years as one of the most profound commentators on religion in the world today. See bibliography for details on her books.
15.
Thomas à Kempis,
Imitation of Christ,
p. 62. See bibliography for details.
16.
John A. T. Robinson,
The Human Face of God
, p. 233. See bibliography for details.
17.
William Boyd Carpenter, text set to the tune
St. Petersburg.
Hymn 435 in the Episcopal hymnal, 1940. See bibliography for details.
18.
Johann Heerman, text set to the tune
Herzliebster Jesu.
Hymn 71 in the Episcopal hymnal, 1940. See bibliography for details.
19.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
Science and Christ,
p. 64. See bibliography for details.
20.
Matthew Fox,
Original Blessing
. See bibliography for details.
21.
My next book has as its working title
Jesus for the Nonreligious
. I will address these themes there,
Deo volente.
22.
John A. T. Robinson,
The Human Face of God
, p. 43. Robinson gets this reference from Friedrich Schleiermacher’s book
The Christian Faith
. See bibliography for details.
23.
The title of John A. T. Robinson’s book on Christology. See bibliography for details.
Section 6
1.
September 1998 press release, Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Kansas; Fred Phelps, pastor.
2.
Jesse Jackson in his quest for the presidential nomination in 1988.
3.
Patrick Buchanan in 1992 in his presidential campaign.
4.
Mahathir Mohamed, Malaysia’s prime minister from 1981 to 2003. This particular comment was made in late 1997.
5.
John Cornwall,
Hitler’s Pope.
See bibliography for details.
6.
Samuel Sandmel,
Anti-Semitism in the New Testament?
p. 166. See bibliography for details.
7.
As noted in the previous section, Isaiah 40–55, or Second Isaiah, is the work of an unknown prophet that was attached to the scroll of Isaiah. Zechariah 9–14 is also the work of an unknown prophet, written at least a century after Zechariah 1–8 and attached to the scroll of Zechariah.
8.
Adolf Hitler,
Mein Kampf,
p. 302. See bibliography for details.
9.
I have some genuine doubts about the Q hypothesis. That is why I have framed the words in this chapter with qualifiers such as “is assumed to be,” “has led to the assumption,” and “if this is accurate.” For those who want to pursue what I believe is the most significant challenge to the Q hypothesis, I commend the preface to Michael D. Goulder’s commentary on Luke, which is entitled:
Luke: A New Paradigm.
(See bibliography for details.) However, I must say that the vast majority of American New Testament scholars are committed to the Q hypothesis and assume the historicity and the reality of this early book.
10.
Quote from Karen Armstrong,
Holy Wars,
p. 510. See bibliography for details.
11.
The entire Joseph story is found in chapters 37–50 of the book of Genesis.
12.
There was a brief revival of the Jewish state in 135 CE, but it was only momentary.
Section 7
1.
David Tacey,
The Spirituality Revolution,
p. 11. See bibliography for details.
2.
Mircea Eliade,
The Sacred and the Profane,
p. 204. See bibliography for details.
3.
Kenneth Scott Latourette,
The History of the Christian Faith
. See bibliography for details.
4.
Reginald Heber, 1819. Hymn 254 in the Episcopal hymnal, 1940. See bibliography for details.
5.
George Washington Doane, 1848. Hymn 259 in the Episcopal hymnal, 1940. See bibliography for details.
6.
Percy Dearmer, 1929. Hymn 262 in the Episcopal hymnal, 1940. See bibliography for details.
7.
It was a Finnish theologian named Hannu Saloranta who helped me to see these two texts as staking out radically different perspectives. The second text remains appropriate for the world in which I live.
8.
Martin Buber,
The Legend of Baal-Shem,
p. xi. See bibliography for details.
9.
A column by Asra Q. Nomani on the op-ed page of the
New York Times,
May 6, 2004.
10.
It is of interest to me that the Jesus Seminar color-codes all three of these synoptic sayings gray, which means that “Jesus did not say this but the ideas contained in it are close to his own.” I would make Mark’s version pink, which means “Jesus probably said something like this,” and I would make Matthew’s version black, which means “Jesus did not say this.”
Section 8
1.
Book of Common Prayer (1979), p. 236.
2.
James Muilenburg,
The Way of Israel: Biblical Faith and Ethics,
p. 75. See bibliography for details.
3.
Text by D. Butler, taken from the Swedish Lutheran Hymnal published by Vanguard Press.
4.
I treat this brief hint much more thoroughly in my book
Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes.
See bibliography for details.
5.
I treat Paul’s view of resurrection in much greater detail in my book
Resurrection: Myth or Reality?
See bibliography for details.
6.
I treat the full meaning of the miraculous birth traditions in my book
Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Virgin Birth and the Place of Women in a Male-Dominated Church.
See bibliography for details.
7.
Edwin Markham, the poem “Outwitted.”
8.
Malachi simply means “my messenger.”
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