John Shelby Spong “Celebrating Post-Theistic Christian Faith” Episode 10 (transcript of audio) of The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity EvolutionaryChristianity.com Michael Dowd (host): Welcome to Episode 10 of “The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity: Conversations at the Leading Edge of Faith.” I’m Michael Dowd, and I’m your host for this series, which can be accessed via EvolutionaryChristianity.com, where you too can add your voice to the conversation. Today, John Shelby Spong is our featured guest. Jack Spong is the retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, and a prophetic theologian whose books have sold more than a million copies. He’s the author of some 20 books, including Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism and Why Christianity Must Change or Die. Here we discuss “Celebrating PostTheistic Christian Faith.” As you’ll hear, Jack has a passionate commitment to the tradition, and a passionate love of scripture, but also a keen sense of what God’s been revealing through science that the ancients could not have possibly understood or known. (Editor’s note: Rev. Dowd also interviewed Bishop Spong in May of 2010, the first in his Evolving Faith podcast series, which can be found here: “Redeeming Christianity in the 21st Century”.) Host: Hello John Shelby Spong, and thank you for joining this conversation series on evolutionary Christianity. John: Thank you, Michael. It’s good to be with you. Host: It’s good to be with you, too. I enjoyed our last conversation—close to a year ago now —and I’ve been looking forward to this one because we’re bringing in so many radically diverse thought leaders on this topic of how a science-based evolutionary understanding of reality has made a difference in their life, how they not only tolerate an evolutionary worldview, but most of us wholeheartedly embrace it. I’d like to ask you at the beginning to share a bit of your own story, as a bestselling author and someone who has been involved in stirring things up for quite some time within the Christian context. So, for those listeners who may not be familiar with you and your work, I’d like to ask you to speak about your own background, your own testimonial. How did you come into this perspective that you now have? What were the main mileposts along the way? John: I’ll be glad to do that. I was raised in an evangelical Episcopal church in the Bible Belt of the South in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I was taught that men were by nature superior to
John Shelby Spong, “Celebra2ng Post‐Theis2c Faith”
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