Bishop Spong

• Welcome to the BOL Forum on Evolutionary Psychology by John Grohol, 3/19/97
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    • Dawkins and God ... by Brian Robinson, 6/20/97
      
      

Hello all,

I am new here, and as a former Divinity student, as well as a student of Ethology and Vertebrate Zoology, and one who has followed the emergence of the field of Evolutionary Psychology with great interest, I have found this thread fascinating. As you might imagine, it touches on issues very near and dear. I have made a couple of replies above, which are buried, replies to replies to replies. My unassuming way of throwing my hat into the ring, you might say. :o)

But I did want to commend to all who are following the thread a book that may be of interest to some, Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile, by John Shelby Spong, the Episcopal Bishop of Newark (NJ, USA). If you aren't familiar with Bishop Spong, he is considered quite radical by the Episcopal Church, and tends to be shunned by the mainstream. For those of you who are familiar, you can probably already imagine the flack that has arisen in response to this, his latest in a series of challenging and controversial ideas he has published.

In this book, he tries to project into the future what we might expect as humanity's beliefs in God mature, and the rituals and myth-making are consequently replaced. He paints a picture of God that might even appeal to you agnostics, and, while he does present this from a Christian perspective, and considers just where Jesus fits in this picture, there is probably still some decent food for non-sectarian thought.

It was not a great leap for me to see his ideas in the context of how religion and spirituality serve an adaptive purpose for the species. Nor does he ignore the issue of where religion fits in the context of science and techology in general and evolution in particular.

I am delighted to have found this forum. I look forward to both broadening and better defining my own budding knowledge of EP through the prism of the dialogue here. (Please forgive the mixed metaphor.)

Elizabeth Rose

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