Best quotes by John Shelby Spong on God

Checkout quotes by John Shelby Spong on God

• ‟ When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ Our English language really says if you're not a theist, the only alternative is to be an atheist. What I'm trying to do is develop a language that will enable us to talk about God beyond the, what I think, are sterile categories of theism and atheism.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ I live on the other side of Copernicus and Galileo; I can no longer conceive of God as sort of above the sky, looking down and keeping record books.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. I might define God quite differently from the way some people in the Christian faith would do so, but I do not doubt the reality of that experience.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ I believe that God is very real. I believe that I live my life every day inside the reality of this God. I call this God by different words. I describe God as the source of life and the source of love and the ground of being.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ I think that anything that begins to give people a sense of their own worth and dignity is God.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ The God of the Hebrews is a God that human language, we're not even supposed to speak the holy name. We were told in the Second Commandment we could make no images of this God, and I don't think that means just building idols, I think that means also trying to believe you've captured God in your words, in the Creeds, in the Scriptures.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ I think the best way to view the Gospels is to view them as a magnificent portrait being painted by Jewish artists to try to capture the essence of a God experience that they believe they had with Jesus of Nazareth.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ It's just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ Jesus represents the possibilities of a new dimension of existence that transcends all the boundaries that restrict us from opening ourselves to God and allowing this source of love to flow through us.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ I believe God is real, but I believe God calls me beyond myself to take responsibility for my life and to try top work to allow other people to be themselves and to take responsibility for their lives.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ I experience God as the power of love.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ I believe that God is very real.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ I think one of the things we've got to look out for is human beings claiming that they know how God operates.

  - John Shelby Spong
  

• ‟ God is a presence that I can never define but I could never deny.

  - John Shelby Spong