Eternal Life - A New Vision

Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell.
click on book cover to read a review.

John Shelby Spong make a strong case for Eternal Life. But not as you might expect it to be. Not a nice little "place" to go to eternally sing songs of adoration to a Creator who needs constant adoration to justify his existence. Indeed he says (in one of the most profound statements I have ever read"

There is no supernatural God who lives above the sky or beyond the universe. There is no supernatural God who can be understood as animating spirit, Earth Mother, masculine tribal deity or external monotheistic being. There is no parental deity watching over us from whom we can expect help. There is no deity whom we can flatter into acting favorably or manipulate by being good. There are no record books and no heavenly judge keeping them to serve as the basis on which human beings will be rewarded or punished. there is also no way that life can be made fair or that a divine figure can be blamed for its unfairness. Heaven and hell are human constructs designed to make fair in some way the unfairness of life. The idea that in an afterlife the unfairness of this world will be rectified is a pious dream, a toe dip into unreality. Life is lived at the whim of luck and chance and no one can earn the good fortune of luck and chance.

This statement resonated with me. For many years I have questioned some of the basic ideas of the Christian Religion as practiced today. The idea that a loving God would require His son to die a horrible death on a cross to atone for the "sins" of the world does not sit with me. I have regarded much of the pious babbling of fundamentalist as just so much crap to gain prestige and control of their "flock" - I cannot and will not worship that "god". The God I worship is the one defined in I John 4:8 and the Jesus I honor is the one defined in the Book of John.

The one who said:

I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

I can still remember the first time I read that statement. It resonated with me to such an extent that the feeling was almost physical. To that end I have tried to follow the Christ as exemplified by Jesus. I don't always make it - I "miss the mark" (sin) many times, but I do try.

Spong also says:

The power of love flows through all forms of life, but it ceases to institutional and comes to self-consciousness only in human beings. That power of love is also part of who God is for me. This means that the more deeply I am able to love, the more God becomes a part of me. This is why no religion can be in the last analysis ever really be about proper beliefs and proper practices. Those are only the artifacts of religious power. Religion has to to be about the enhancement of life through love. Religious rules are sacred only if they serve to enhance life. ... Every act, whether it be individual or corporate, must be judged as a right or a wrong based solely on whether it enhances or diminishes the life of another. If my action diminishes another, it also diminishes me. A diminished life is never the place where holiness will be found. Diminished lives will never be loving lives.

It is a very powerful book. It brought together some ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for many years. I recommend that you pick up a copy and read it for yourselves.