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Books Spong aims to launch a new reformation
HERE I STAND: MY
STRUGGLE FOR A CHRISTIANITY OF INTEGRITY, LOVE & EQUALITY By John
Shelby Spong HarperSanFrancisco, 448 pages, $25
hardcover |
RICHARD W. KROPF
Written by Americas most controversial bishop, this
autobiography should be required reading for any liberal Christian, especially
if ones agenda includes any hope of reform in ones own church.
Spong, recently retired from leadership of the Episcopal diocese of
[Newark], N.J., details all the struggles in which he has engaged
throughout his clerical career, whether it be against racial, ethnic or sexual
discrimination or against the kind of biblical fundamentalism or ecclesiastical
traditionalism that he sees as the last gasp of a Christianity that, as the
title of his previous 1998 book announced, either must change or
die.
Raised in the low church Episcopalian tradition in
Charlotte, N.C., Spongs seminary exposure to the thought of theologians
like Tillich and Bonhoeffer soon steered him toward a more intellectual
understanding of the faith, which he quickly began to promote in his first
parish assignment near Duke University in Durham. This was followed by pastoral
stints in Tarboro, N.C., Lynchburg, Va., and in Richmond, Va., all places where
Spong deftly confronted racism, sexism, and, finally, as a by-product of his
public dialogue with a local rabbi, found himself launched on a writing career
that has resulted in 17 published books. Most of them reflect the profound
influence exercised upon him by Anglican Bishop J.A.T. Robinsons 1963
book, Honest To God.
Spong, much like Robinson, became dedicated to carrying out
Rudolph Bultmanns program of a radical regrounding of faith through
demythologization of the Bible. All this, along with his innovative
pastoral strategies, began to upset traditionalists of all stripes.
Nevertheless, such notoriety attracted enough attention that Spong
was eventually elected to become bishop of [Newark]. As a voting
member of the House of Bishops, he not only lobbied for the ordination of women
to the priesthood, but soon after, being convinced by a scientist that
homosexuality is not chosen but is in a sense inherited, he became embroiled in
the struggle for gay and lesbian rights within his church. His boldest move,
and that which earned him the most grief, was his ordination of an openly gay
man who, after pledging fidelity to his life-partner, soon repudiated monogamy
as a Christian ideal that need not apply to gays. Not deterred by that
unfortunate experience, even while weathering more personal grief in the loss
of his first wife, Spong has continued to fight for full recognition of gays
and lesbians and their right to an active sex life not only within
Christianity, but even within the ranks of the clergy.
All this has brought him into open conflict with a major part of
his own church, not just within the United States but even more with Anglican
bishops from other countries, not to mention making him the target of
denunciations by evangelicals, traditionalist Catholics and the Eastern
Orthodox. But ecumenical concerns, which Spong considers all but hopeless due
to most Christians refusal to face up to the tough issues, do not seem to
deter him much. Instead, as Spong is about to begin a new career as a lecturer
at Harvard Divinity School, he seems more than ever determined to launch what
he calls A New Reformation beginning with a new way of defining God
beyond theism and ranging through all the other issues he has so
provocatively addressed. No doubt well be hearing more from him soon.
Meanwhile, wed do well to draw some lessons from Spongs
experience.
First: Implicit in Spongs book is the message that faith, as
a loving or even bold trust in God, is not the same as the beliefs that may be
associated with it. Nor does the commitment to the community of faith rule out
strong criticism of those beliefs. In fact, such faith may demand it. Those who
do not understand these fundamental differences are apt to be severely
threatened by any challenge to their sense of security and will seek to drive
those who question their beliefs from communion with the rest. As Spong makes
clear, we must be prepared to stand and fight.
Second: Although those who seek to reform the church may attempt
to pick their causes very carefully, such a strategy may not always work. As
Spong discovered, the mixture of theology and sexuality is bound to grab the
publics interest, outrage conservatives and alarm most liberals who
habitually seek reconciliation rather than confrontation. Yet, the problem is
unavoidable, for once theology becomes informed by science, how can we be
liberal in our theology and yet still hold on to prejudices that ignore the
facts of life?
Third: Although we Roman Catholics might consider all of this a
tempest in a teapot when we compare the difference in the numbers between
Spongs church and ours, still, what happens in this ecclesiastical
heirloom of the British Empire, on which the sun never set, bears
close watching. In some ways we may very well see in the internal struggles of
the Anglican-Episcopal Communion a microcosm of and preview of our own future
struggles, many of which have yet barely been addressed. Like the proverbial
canary in the cage, if this worldwide communion of churches of the Anglican
tradition can hold together despite these sharp differences, there may yet be
hope for ecumenism and the realization of a much more comprehensive or truly
Catholic church.
Fr. Richard W. Kropf writes from his cabin hermitage in
northern Michigan. His Web site can be accessed at
http://stelamar.cjb.net; his e-mail address is
rwkropf@crosswinds.net
National Catholic Reporter, April 7, 2000
[corrected 04/21/2000]
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