Review by John C. Snider © 2009

When I read John Shelby Spong’s Jesus for the Non-Religious, I declared him an honorary atheist.  Here was a retired Episcopal bishop, free of any obligation to a flock, secure in the fact that he could speak his mind without fear of professional reprisal, saying that there was no Virgin Birth, no Three Wise Men, no Flight to Egypt, no Slaughter of the Innocents,  no Sharing of Loaves and Fishes (or any other miracles), no Resurrection, and no Ascension to Heaven.  Still, Spong made it obvious that he had a deep reverence for the person and example of Jesus, and promised (should he live long enough) that he would write one more book to detail his views on what Christianity might look like in the absence of all the supernatural foolishness.

That new book–Eternal Life: A New Vision (pub. by HarperOne, Sep 2009, 268 pp hdcvr, $24.99)–has just been published, and after reading it I think Spong’s place as an honorary atheist is still secure, to the extent that Spong disavows any kind of Creator God who takes a personal interest in the lives of mere mortals, and rewards or punishes us based on our actions in this life.  But being an atheist doesn’t necessarily preclude a belief in supernatural phenomenon other than God, and what Spong proposes will discombobulate hardcore anti-theists and traditional Christians alike.

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