tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post7753201432091732944..comments2024-03-28T09:52:15.415-04:00Comments on Common Denominator: Philo, Paul, and the TempleKen Schenckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745548537303356655noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-4395935244647813532008-07-31T14:04:00.000-04:002008-07-31T14:04:00.000-04:00Spong is not much of a Bible scholar. His materia...Spong is not much of a Bible scholar. His material is a mixture of good scholarship and whacko imagination. Anyone is of course free to reappropriate Christian symbolism in their own way, especially if they don't claim to be speaking for historic Christianity. The Episcopal Church seems happy enough to let Spong express his appropriation. Perhaps there is something of merit in his appropriation.<BR/><BR/>But you are right that uneducated people do prove just about anything they want from Scripture. And I will confess my befuddlement that this takes place even among scholars who should do better. But I strongly continue to maintain that there is such a thing as good and bad scholarship on the Bible. Spong's is primarily bad scholarship on the Bible, which is a separate issue from his contemporary appropriation of its symbolism.Ken Schenckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09745548537303356655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355052.post-43910632352496385472008-07-31T09:33:00.000-04:002008-07-31T09:33:00.000-04:00Since you can "prove" just about anything from Scr...Since you can "prove" just about anything from Scripture, individuals "make their story" fit...<BR/>Bishop Spong's book on "Sin in Scripture" resonated withme, at least what I read last night briefly in a bookstore. I think his emphasis on re-thinking Christian faith and existentialism are themes that I believe.<BR/>So, yes, universalism is what faith is about, but not in "mission", as in "tradidional" evangelical tradition (salvation). There is no sacred and secular (such as the Pharisees would believe), it is "proper use" (boundaries, law?) that is important.Angie Van De Merwehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12617299120618867829noreply@blogger.com