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

Eternal Life: A New Vision, beyond religion, beyond theism, beyond heaven and hell by John Shelby Spong, HarperCollins, 2009, 288 ff.

An account of spirituality by a Christian realist
By Howard Jones

John Shelby Spong was formerly the Bishop of the Episcopal Church Diocese of Newark, New Jersey. In a country in which we hear much from Creationist, fundamentalist and born-again Christians, Bishop Spong is that relative rarity - a liberal Christian. This book was written when he was nearly an octogenarian, so he has a whole lifetime's experience of the Church to reflect on. He had already written over twenty books on religious themes.

Unlike many mediums who claim to have knowledge of the afterlife from their spirit guides, Spong believes such knowledge is impossible - until we get there ourselves. His aim is to reshape Christianity in such a way that it has full regard for the developments in science over the last few centuries, because that is the only form in which it can survive. He wraps his ideas into a story that is essentially autobiographical. He does not attempt to moderate the fundamentalist or convert the atheist: he is concerned with addressing those Christians whose faith has been shaken by the claims of the extremists and scientists alike.

Bishop Spong is obviously trying to find an interpretation of the Christian religion that is more rational, without destroying the essential elements of the faith. In keeping with much New Age philosophy he realises that the God of western religion is no longer tenable: `There is no supernatural God who lives above the sky or beyond the universe.' This is the God of western religion. This statement also implies that talk of Jesus as the Son of God incarnate is equally specious. Spong sees religion as performing the vital human task of protecting us against the emotional traumas of our existence, but accepts that it does so through myth. While Darwin's theory of evolution is not verifiable in the way that Newton's laws of motion are, it is still the most likely and comprehensive story of the development of living species - certainly more rational than the account in Genesis. Surprisingly for a cleric, Spong endorses the contemporary biological view of the origin of life as accidental. He therefore also dismisses any idea of the conditions on Earth being shaped by a deity to promote human development - the anthropic principle as it is called.

Ideas of the virgin birth and God-wrought miracles were never more than myths, he says. He believes that scripture was created for specific peoples at particular times and places in human history and was never intended as incontestable God-given truth: `Truth is not religion's ultimate agenda; security is. That insight alone makes sense out of the many rationally absurd claims that religions and religious people make.' Indeed, Spong talks of the bankruptcy of religion: `Secularism is on the rise everywhere', not because the West is morally bankrupt but because it has the intelligence to embrace the rationalism of science.

The afterlife is not a realm of reward and punishment but is a state of further spiritual development: `heaven' and `hell' are merely `religion's weapons of choice in this life' as reward and punishment. The book explores many more of the fundamental questions of human existence. For example, Spong asks: ` can God really be anything other than a figment of our imagination, created in our own image . . .?' Spong wonders if our fear of death, which we inflict on animals and plants constantly to provide us with food and shelter, or for the advancement of medicine, is a major reason why religious people reject the idea of our evolution as part of the animal world - to provide some distance between us and them. Does religion encourage us to hide from reality with its fantasies?

How refreshing and uplifting it is to read the views of a man clearly devoted to his faith but who sees no need for the antagonism between his religion and science or rational thought. This is a highly recommendable book to the open-minded reader interested in the science and religion, or faith and reason debate. Spong continues where the English former bishop, John Robinson, left off.

Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, U.K.; and The World as Spirit published by Fairhill Publishing, Whitland, West Wales, 2011.

What the Bible Really Teaches: About Crucifixion, Resurrection, Salvation, the Second Coming and Eternal Life, by Keith Ward
Honest to God, by John A.T. Robinson (SCM Classics)
The Perennial Philosophy, by Aldous Huxley
God in Us: A Case for Christian Humanism, by John Shelby Spong
God in Us: A Case for Christian Humanism, by Anthony Freeman

In my opinion this is Bishop Spong's best book which,unfortunately,he says will be his last.As a searcher for a more relevant spirituality,I have not been disappointed.I have read it twice straight through mainly on the bus going to work,which isn't an easy thing to do but I found it so gripping I didn't hear other people's mobile phones or loud conversations.Briefly,it is the story of Bishop Spong's lifelong faith journey.This journey has taken him through and beyond religion to a much more meaningful understanding of human life with its unique self conscious awareness. He explains so clearly the role religion has played so far in shaping human belief in God,death and the afterlife and shows how so much religious language and out of date thinking about these deep mysteries makes little sense in our contemporary scientific world and must be re-articulated in a more time relevant way.Spong strives to do exactly this in the final chapters of this book.He gives me hope.

I found his criticism of traditional Christian beliefs and church rituals interesting, particularly as I am a non-church goer but someone seeking a sensible meaning. But his "new vision" is rather uncertain - which I suppose makes sense in that really no-one can know what comes after death. Worth reading but don't expect a really new illuminating viewpoint.