The Speaker.
Jack Spong was Bishop of the diocese of Newark in the Episcopal Church in America
for 24 years before his retirement in 2001. He has been for years a champion of progressive
Christian thought and is the author of many books.
In Chapter one of his new book - Eternal Life: A New Vision – Beyond Religion, Beyond
Theism, Beyond Heaven and hell – he writes: "If I were asked to respond to the question
raised by the mythical biblical named Job so many centuries ago I would now be prepared
to give my answer. Job asked: 'If a man [or a woman] dies, will he [or she] live
again?' My answer is 'Yes !' Now let me take you on the journey that I have walked,
which took me both beyond religion and even beyond Christianity, as it is traditionally
understood, but a journey that has brought me to a new vision of eternity, to the
place where I can give that 'yes' answer to Job's question with both conviction and
integrity."
For Spong, the death of theism in our time opens new doorways into life, into timelessness
and into the mystical experience of being one with the presence of the holy. This
is the most exciting, most profound, and for some of his readers the most troubling
book of Spong's storied career. It will also, almost surely, be the book for which
he will be most remembered.
Bishop Spong - leading communicator of a new Christianity for a new age - speaks
and answers questions to the themes of his long-awaited new book at St James’s Church,
Piccadilly onSaturday 24th October 10.45 am to 4.00 pm
Tickets are £18. For a booking form, write to PCN Britain, St Faith’s Vicarage, 62
Red Post Hill, London SE24 9JQ
or see Len Aves at church
