Here I Stand is the autobiography of John Shelby Spong, the Episcopal bishop who is a lightning rod for controversy. Spong has for decades been working to popularize an inclusive version of Christianity that avoids racism, sexism, and homophobia; as a result, he has engaged leading conservatives (such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson) in very public conflicts. Here I Stand, predictably, gives a blow-by-blow of Spong's high-profile battles. More surprisingly, Spong also shares some very intimate details about his life that help to explain the sources of his theology. His southern childhood is related in a manner that is every bit as painful and comic as a Flannery O'Connor story. And the story of his first marriage, to a woman whose mental illness persisted for 15 years, is handled with sensitivity and grace. Despite his occasional rhetorical excesses, Spong's book is clearly written in love--with God, with the Church, and with the world. "I walk inside the wonder of this God in every experience of life," he writes at the book's end. We are fortunate that Spong's autobiography so expertly conveys this wonder.


From Publishers Weekly
Longtime devotees of Spong, the controversial Episcopal Bishop from Newark, N.J., will be familiar with some of the material in his new memoir, as his earlier books (Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, etc.) are peppered with autobiographical asides, but they will still relish this full-bodied, racy chronicle of Spong's political and theological journey. Liberal crusader Spong reveals that his concern for the oppressed began in his native Charlotte, N.C., while growing up in an "overtly pious home [where] racism was an operative assumption." Early on, he rejected the racism of the Jim Crow South and of the Church. Spong devotes the core of this memoir, however, to the battle that has earned him national prominence--the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals in the Episcopal Church. Spong has nothing but condescension for those who don't share his views, especially the theologically conservative bishops from the Third World. (Many African bishops disagree with Spong's stance on human sexuality, but rather than engage them, Spong suggests that they have blindly embraced the "fundamentalism" pedaled by English missionaries.) Spong's naysayers will want to steer clear of this book, which will strike them as just another restatement of his heresy, but his followers will appreciate the characteristically lively prose. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this superb autobiography, Spong (the retiring bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, NJ, and the author of over 15 books, including Why Christianity Must Change or Die and Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism) synthesizes his experiences as the leading spokesperson in America and abroad for liberal Christianity. In 20 well-written and -researched chapters, he remembers the dysfunctional environment of his early childhood, his intellectual and moral formation at the University of North Carolina, the humanization acquired through a loving marriage, and the pastoral responses incumbent of a good shepherd. Having thrown away almost nothing in 45 years of ministry, Spong reviewed files, scrapbooks, date books, and calendars chronicling times of adulation and popularity and times of prophetic loneliness. Spong's continuing goal is to make Christianity relevant to the modern world. A delicate and scrupulously honest work; recommended for all public and academic libraries.---John-Leonard Berg, Univ. of Wisconsin Lib., Platteville Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Beliefnet
For those who enjoy honest debate, Spong's candor is a blast of fresh air. (Even conservatives are not generally afraid of interaction with Spong or his kindred spirits.) But the book turns combative and harsh as Spong describes life under John M. Allin, the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop from 1974 to 1985. Allin's greatest sin in Spong's eyes was in being the theological opposite of Spong's mentor, John Hines. Hines, who proceeded Allin, was probably the most engaged social activist among the presiding bishops of the late 20th century. From the Allin years onward, "Here I Stand" becomes a list of professional slights, melodramatic narratives about fundamentalist power plays, and condescension toward those who still believe in the supernatural God of Christian theism. For instance, Spong answers fellow bishops who once questioned his intellectual firepower by referring to his many books, his guest lectureships (at Cambridge and Harvard) and his two honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees. Spong dismisses N.T. (Tom) Wright as "a propagandist rather than an educator" because Wright believes in such doctrines as the virgin birth. Spong's contentiousness reminds the reader that it's possible to be just as fundamentalist about disbelief as about the Nicene Creed.


From Kirkus Reviews
This engaging, fluid memoir from Spong (Liberating the Gospels, 1996, etc.), Episcopalian Bishop of Newark, of his theological odyssey is five parts theoretical, ten parts intramural, and perhaps one part personal and spiritual. Spong's controversial positions regarding racism, sexism, and homophobia in the Episcopal Church have won him responses from ``I believe you are a prophet'' to ``if all else fails, I will try to rid the world of your evil presence personally.'' Spong chose to ``move the theological debate out of the structures of sacred space and into the homes and professional lives of our people,'' bucking the church hierarchy when he saw it ``sacrifice truth and justice to the sensitivities of the majority of those who made up the ecclesiastical body politic.'' Questions of moral credibility moved him to defend the rights of African-Americans, women, and homosexuals within his church, and the need to make his church relevant to this day and age prompted a reconsideration of biblical narratives in the light of Einstein and Darwin and the Big Bang. Though Spong is clearly a man of the mind, he has spent much of his time dueling, when not actually duking it out, with a reactionary church hierarchy, calling them on their professed convictions, straightening his words when they have twisted them, taking heat for tinkering with entrenchedand, he feels, outmoded and potentially lethal to his faiththeological concepts that nonetheless have dispensed much religious security over the years. Ultimately, this is a professional memoir, with little personal materialSpongs wife's long mental illness is treated here with the same distance he suggests he handled it with at homeand scant spiritual probings. While Spong makes both church politics and his theological cerebrations fascinating, readers may feel dismayed that a man who has so much so say about biblical exegesis consigns the transcendental and the divine to the back seat. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.



"...a rare and compelling exercise in spiritual and intellectual autobiography."



"The poignant account of someone who loves the church deeply and has frequently been misunderstood."



"In this superb autobiography, Spong synthesizes his experiences as the leading spokesman in America and abroad for liberal Christianity."



"...a rare and compelling exercise in spiritual and intellectual autobiography."



"The poignant account of someone who loves the church deeply and has frequently been misunderstood."



"In this superb autobiography, Spong synthesizes his experiences as the leading spokesman in America and abroad for liberal Christianity."



"Spong demonstrates how it is possible to make the faith a force against the injustice and lack of compassion in our modern society."



"The remarkable story of a soul raised in the segregation and racial prejudice of North Carolina..."


-Cultural Information Service
"hard-hitting and large-souled memoir ..."



"Here I Stand" is an engaging, honest and forthright examination and description of the life of a man, often misunderstood...


Book Description
The legendary Episcopal Bishop tells of his lifelong struggle to champion an authentic christianity based on love, not hatred.


About the Author
John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey for twenty-four years before his retirement in 2000. He is one of the leading spokespersons for liberal Christianity and has been featured on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, FOX News Live, and Extra. This book is based on the William Belden Noble lectures Spong delivered at Harvard.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The legendary Episcopal Bishop tells of his lifelong struggle to champion an authentic christianity based on love, not hatred.

About the Author

John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey for twenty-four years before his retirement in 2000. He is one of the leading spokespersons for liberal Christianity and has been featured on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, FOX News Live, and Extra. This book is based on the William Belden Noble lectures Spong delivered at Harvard.

FROM THE CRITICS

Peter J. Gomes

...a rare and compelling exercise in spiritual and intellectual autobiography.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu

The poignant account of someone who loves the church deeply and has frequently been misunderstood.

Publishers Weekly

Longtime devotees of Spong, the controversial Episcopal Bishop from Newark, N.J., will be familiar with some of the material in his new memoir, as his earlier books (Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, etc.) are peppered with autobiographical asides, but they will still relish this full-bodied, racy chronicle of Spong's political and theological journey. Liberal crusader Spong reveals that his concern for the oppressed began in his native Charlotte, N.C., while growing up in an "overtly pious home [where] racism was an operative assumption." Early on, he rejected the racism of the Jim Crow South and of the Church. Spong devotes the core of this memoir, however, to the battle that has earned him national prominence—the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals in the Episcopal Church. Spong has nothing but condescension for those who don't share his views, especially the theologically conservative bishops from the Third World. (Many African bishops disagree with Spong's stance on human sexuality, but rather than engage them, Spong suggests that they have blindly embraced the "fundamentalism" pedaled by English missionaries.) Spong's naysayers will want to steer clear of this book, which will strike them as just another restatement of his heresy, but his followers will appreciate the characteristically lively prose. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal - John-Leonard Berg, Univ. of Wisconsin Lib., Platteville Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

In this superb autobiography, Spong (the retiring bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, NJ, and the author of over 15 books, including Why Christianity Must Change or Die and Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism) synthesizes his experiences as the leading spokesperson in America and abroad for liberal Christianity. In 20 well-written and -researched chapters, he remembers the dysfunctional environment of his early childhood, his intellectual and moral formation at the University of North Carolina, the humanization acquired through a loving marriage, and the pastoral responses incumbent of a good shepherd. Having thrown away almost nothing in 45 years of ministry, Spong reviewed files, scrapbooks, date books, and calendars chronicling times of adulation and popularity and times of prophetic loneliness. Spong's continuing goal is to make Christianity relevant to the modern world. A delicate and scrupulously honest work; recommended for all public and academic libraries.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

This autobiography, which shows the courage and integrity that we have come to associate with Bishop Spong is more than a personal testimony. It shows how Christianity is not simply a received faith but one which constantly grows in interaction with the world; Spong demonstrates how it is possible to make the faith a force against the injustice and lack of compassion in our modern society. — Karen Armstrong

The remarkable story of a soul raised in the segregation and racial prejudice of North Carolina, who garnered the sensibility and courage to stand for genuine equality—risking all in order to bring a clear vision into the Church he loves so much. — Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The poignant account of someone who loves the church deeply and has frequently been misunderstood. — Desmond Tutu