This Hebrew Lord
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This Hebrew Lord by John Shelby Spong Published by The Seabury Press, New York, 1974. This material was prepared for Religon Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.
This book is the story of a struggle that was both personal and theological in which Bishop Spong proposes to translate the power in Jesus of Nazareth into the categories of our day.
Preface This book is not a Christology but a personal witness, a dialogue in which Bishop Spong wishes to reveal himself to the reader with whom he hopes there will be an interaction.
Part 1: Developing Hebrew Eyes Chapter 1: A Necessary Personal Word I first sought to be a cold and penetrating rationalist, seeking to pull back the layers of religious accretion that hid this Jesus from me; but somewhere in the process I discovered that I had become a kind of Hebrew mystic, and my awe and my reverence had been replaced by worship. Inside that worship, the titles Saviour, Lord, Son of the Living God became words I now can say. The joy of that affirmation was more than worth the tortuous process through which I had journeyed.
Chapter 2: Learning to Think Biblically The Hebrews were the most God-intoxicated people the world has ever known, but they were never a religious people in our sense of the word. It is difficult to find in the Old Testament a pious otherworldly Hebrew. Very few can be located in history, the possible exception being the Hasidim. Rather, the Hebrews were life-centered, life-affirming, live-loving people who worshipped the God of life, creation, and history. They found joy in life. Religion has tended to repress joy. Hebrew worship celebrated the God of life. Contemporary religious worshipers seem to feel that joy or laughter is inappropriate in worship.
Chapter 3: The Transition into Religion If religion has to do with the realm of the spiritual, then ours is a religionless world, for that spiritual realm is dead. If, in this sense, our generation is forced to choose between being file:///D:/rb/relsearchd.dll-action=showitem&id=558.htm (1 of 4) [2/4/03 1:56:10 PM]