John Shelby Spong, bestselling author and Episcopal bishop of Newark, NJ, challenges the doctrine of the virgin birth, tracing its development in the early Christian church and revealing its legacy in our contemporary attitudes toward women and female sexuality.
John Shelby Spong, the Episcopal Bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000, has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard and at more than 500 other universities all over the world. His books, which have sold well over a million copies, include Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy; The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic; Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World; Eternal Life: A New Vision; Jesus for the Non-Religious, The Sins of Scripture, Resurrection: Myth or Reality?; Why Christianity Must Change or Die; and his autobiography, Here I Stand. He writes a weekly column on the web that reaches thousands of people all over the world. To join his online audience, go to www.JohnShelbySpong.com. He lives with his wife, Christine, in New Jersey.
“How a one-sided portrayal of the Mother of God has been used to keep real women under wraps.” — Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of Women Who Run With the Wolves
“Spong restores a flesh-and-blood humanity to the mother of Jesus.” — Ron Hansen, author of Mariette in Ecstasy
“A marvelous combination of scholarly, speculative, and imaginative reflection written in language accessible to the theologically unsophisticated. Highly recommended.” — Library Journal
