by Bishop John Mackey
Roman Catholic
Bishop Emeritus of Auckland
Reproduced from:
New Zealand Catholic
May 20 2001, page 19
APOLOGIA.
Focus on John Shelby Spong
(Apologia,
106 Hataitai Rd, Wellington, 2001): $29.95.
Reviewed by BISHOP MACKEY.
This
is a difficult publication to review because it
is a journal rather than a book, with almost 20
articles from a variety of authors. The
presentation is attractive, the print clear and
the photos and illustrations illuminating.
Background
It
is produced by the Wellington
Christian Apologetics Society (Inc.), a body
of Christians who defend traditional Christian
beliefs against the more fashionable secular
beliefs of people like Lloyd Geering, James
Veitch and the American, Anglican Bishop Spong.
This volume is devoted to a critique of Bishop
Spong, his many publications and his lectures.
There is also an article on Veitch, a follow-on
from a previous volume, Focus
on James Veitch.
Spong
Exposed
The
criticisms of Bishop Spong's scholarship are
really quite devastating. In almost every area
in which he claims competence, and from which he
draws his conclusions that Christianity is an
outmoded proposition, he is shown to be either
shallow or inaccurate, and often both. This is
not surprising because the faith that Geering,
Veitch and Spong expound is as much a faith as
that of any other worshipper. The difference is
that they have transferred their allegiance from
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the
faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the worship of
humanity. Such worship is hard to justify.
The
essays are all very competently presented. Some
are short and trenchant; others are longer and
more meticulous in the exposition of Spong's
shallow erudition. This is especially true of
three long essays by the editor, David H. Lane.
He writes: "While there is sometimes a fine
line between argument that is ad hominem and a
rigorous critique, we have sought to avoid
charges/accusations of dishonesty, stupidity,
hypocrisy, and the like, even though the subject
of our investigation regularly directs such
barbs at his critics."
The
exposition of the mind of Bishop Spong reveals,
I think, an attitude that a writer on Utopias,
in a recent Time
magazine, describes: "The Utopian state of
mind indicates a yearning to be released from
history, to shed the burdens of free will,
failure and improvisation. Basically Utopia is
for authoritarians and weaklings." Bishop
Spong is among the authoritarians undoubtedly.
Spong's
Religion: the Worship of Man
The
religion, if one can call it that, which Bishop
Spong and his collaborators preach is
unashamedly man-worship. Arnold Toynbee, in his
own reflections on religion in human behaviour,
said: "Every form of man-worship is a
religious expression of self-centredness, and is
consequently infected with the intellectual
mistake and the moral sin of treating a part of
the universe as if it were the whole...
Man-worship of any kind is unable to satisfy
Man's spiritual needs."
In
the long run it needs to be criticised, as this
volume does, rather than become the darling of
the secular media,
as it currently is.
Bishop
John Mackey
Bishop Emritus of Auckland
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