Biblical Literalism
Autor John Shelby Spongen Limba Engleză Paperback – 31 mar 2020
Găsim în Biblical Literalism o analiză structurală riguroasă care propune o schimbare de paradigmă în hermeneutica biblică. John Shelby Spong organizează materialul folosind Gospel of Matthew ca model, demonstrând cum textele au fost concepute inițial ca liturgii săptămânale pentru anul sinagogal evreiesc. Metodologia sa implică decojirea straturilor de interpretare gentilă acumulate de-a lungul secolelor pentru a recupera intenția originală a autorilor iudaici.
Putem afirma că lucrarea reprezintă punctul culminant al unei teme recurente în opera sa. Volumul extinde cadrul propus de Liberating the Gospels cu date noi din studiul tradiției midrașice, argumentând că ceea ce biserica modernă numește „fapte istorice” — cum ar fi miracolele sau detaliile patimilor — au fost, în contextul lor original, metafore teologice profunde. Această abordare completează perspectiva din The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, unde autorul a explorat caracterul interpretativ al scrierilor ioanine. Dacă în The Bishop's Voice John Shelby Spong și-a exersat vocea profetică prin editoriale lunare, aici el oferă un fundament academic solid pentru viziunea sa progresistă.
Experiența lecturii este una provocatoare, dar sistematică. Ritmul este susținut de deconstrucția pas cu pas a narațiunii mateiene, transformând textul dintr-o cronică presupus istorică într-un document de cult viu. În comparație cu Reading Backwards, care analizează modul în care evangheliștii au reinterpretat Scripturile lui Israel, Spong merge mai departe, susținând că ignorarea contextului iudaic a dus la o formă de „erezie gentilă” care denaturează mesajul creștin fundamental.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 0062362313
Pagini: 416
Dimensiuni: 133 x 203 x 24 mm
Greutate: 0.52 kg
Editura: HarperOne
De ce să citești această carte
Această carte se adresează cititorilor interesați de studiul biblic critic și de originile iudaice ale creștinismului. Veți câștiga o perspectivă nouă asupra modului în care au fost scrise Evangheliile, învățând să citiți textele sacre nu ca pe un reportaj istoric, ci ca pe o formă de artă liturgică. Este o lectură esențială pentru cei care doresc să reconcilieze credința creștină cu rigoarea intelectuală modernă.
Despre autor
John Shelby Spong (1931–2021) a fost Episcop al Diecezei Episcopale de Newark timp de peste două decenii și o voce proeminentă a creștinismului progresist mondial. Academician recunoscut, a fost lector invitat la universități de prestigiu, inclusiv la Harvard. Opera sa vastă, care include titluri precum Why Christianity Must Change or Die și Resurrection: Myth or Reality?, s-a vândut în peste un milion de exemplare. Cariera sa a fost marcată de un efort constant de a recontextualiza Biblia pentru o lume non-religioasă, fiind un susținător activ al drepturilor omului și al reformei dogmatice.
Textul de pe ultima copertă
A man who has consciously and deliberately walked the path of Christ, John Shelby Spong has lived his entire life inside the Christian Church. In this profound and considered work, he offers a radical new way to look at the gospels today as he shows just how deeply Jewish the Christian Gospels are and how much they reflect the Jewish scriptures, history, and patterns of worship. Pulling back the layers of a long-standing Gentile ignorance, he reveals how the church’s literal reading of the Bible is so far removed from these original Jewish authors’ intent that it is an act of heresy.
Using the Gospel of Matthew as a guide, Spong explores the Bible’s literary and liturgical roots—its grounding in Jewish culture, symbols, icons, and storytelling tradition—to explain how the events of Jesus’ life, including the virgin birth, the miracles, the details of the passion story, and the resurrection and ascension, would have been understood by both the Jewish authors of the various gospels and by the Jewish audiences for which they were originally written. Spong makes clear that it was only after the church became fully Gentile that readers of the Gospels took these stories to be factual, distorting their original meaning.
In Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy, Spong illuminates the gospels as never before and provides a better blueprint for the future than where the church’s leaden and heretical reading of the story of Jesus has led us—one that allows the faithful to live inside the Christian story in the modern world.
Recenzii
“This exciting book recovers the original meaning behind Matthew’s Gospel with profound implications for the way we look at Jesus and follow him today. Spong is a truth-teller who stands up to the ignorance spawned by a ‘Gentile Heresy’ that has hijacked the story of Jesus for too long.” — Matthew Fox, author of Original Blessing
“Jack Spong confounds biblical literalists by being profoundly biblical. This exciting book is liberating for those looking for a rational and authentic Christian faith that honors its biblical roots and an essential building block in the search for a new Christianity for a new world.” — Peter Francis, warden and director of Gladstone's Library, Wales
“A brilliant challenge to biblical literalism, Bishop Spong reveals the tragic consequences of idolatry of the written word and why it matters today. A timely, important book.” — Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution
“Delightedly publishing another book as he nears 85, Spong returns to a main theme of his career, the Jewishness of Christianity, denial of which, he holds, amounts to a heresy so malign that it will destroy Christianity in the twenty-first century…vibrantly accessible.” — Booklist
“Skewers historical readings of Matthew and turns the passages toward issues of dignity, social justice, and transformation . . . worthwhile read for the progressive layperson concerned with living out one’s faith and applying the Bible as a touchstone.” — Library Journal
“Spong offers a radical new way to look at the gospels.” — Publishers Weekly
“There is a powerful message that runs counter to the idea that faith offers nothing but a sweet and secure life.” — Religion Dispatches
“The release of Biblical Literalism - a Gentile Heresy brings him back to State of Belief to talk about his dive into a more contentious area of theology, his potentially-controversial use of the term ‘heresy’ and the future - and drive towards inclusiveness - of the progressive Episcopal community.” — State of Belief Radio
“For years-decades, really-the former Episcopal bishop of Newark, N.J., John Shelby Spong…has been proposing various controversial ways of understanding what Christianity is all about […] In his new-and, he says, perhaps final-book (he’ll be 85 years old in June), he’s at it again.” — Bill's 'Faith Matters' Blog
“If you’re keen for a deeper tracing of its history and inscription, then rush to get your hands on a copy of respected theologian Spong’s Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy.” — Chicago Tribute Printers Row Journal