Audiotapes & videotapes
by John Shelby Spong
Biblical Images of Easter
Identifications of Jesus as the "Christ" and as the "Son of Man" have their roots in the ancient writings and traditions of
the Jewish people. Knowing the origins of these designations enhances our understanding of their use in the gospels.
2 audiotapes, 108 minutes $20.00
Add to Cart Born of a Woman
If the story of the virgin birth is taken as legend and not history, it suggests some form
of illegitimacy. Accounts of Jesus' later life offer a number of hints on this subject. Is such an inquiry a challenge to our faith? Should it be?
2 audiotapes, 119 minutes $20.00 Add to Cart Born of a Woman
A scholarly journey into the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke. Bishop Spong
also traces the painful price women have paid for the elevation of the virgin as the ideal woman by a male-dominated church.
1 videotape, two 30 minute talks $20.00 Add to Cart Christ, a Spirit Person
In his earliest writings, Paul argued that the spirit present in Jesus was able to enhance
the spirit in each person. These and other sources suggest that the original Christ experience was one of the spirit. 1 audiotape, 83 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart
Christ and the Body of Christ: What Will the Church of Tomorrow Be? The Christ as Rescuer – an Image that has Got to Go
We must abandon the language of a pre-modern world and find other ways to express the experience of Christ. Among the images that need to be replaced is that
of Jesus as a sacrifice to overcome Adam's "original sin". 1 audiotape, 55 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart A Christianity for Tomorrow The Concept of Life After Death
Spong rethinks the concept of eternal life in the absence of heaven and hell as reward and punishment.
1 audiotape, 68 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Definition of Women
Only in the past 150 years have women begun to overcome their role as second class
citizens. Spong traces the causes that go back to Genesis and relates how church and culture have perpetuated ancient attitudes to this day.
1 audiotape, 65 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Did Christians Invent Judas
Entering the Exile
Many believers are "in exile" from traditional ways of understanding God. The history of the Judeo-Christian exile provides some hints about how we can live out the reality
of our own exile experience. 1 audiotape, 87 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Ethics in a Post-Modern World
Spong seeks a basis for ethical behavior in the absence of a god of reward and punishment. 1 audiotape, 44 minutes $12.50
Add to Cart The Gay and Lesbian Issue
Admonitions on homosexuality are placed in the context of the misuses to which the Bible has been put, for example, to justify the divine rights of kings, slavery, and the suppression of women. 1 audiotape, 71 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart God Beyond Theism
Spong traces the development of the concept of a theistic God — a supernatural
father who metes out rewards and punishments. He offers a radically new way of thinking of God in non-theistic terms.
1 audiotape, 65 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart How the Exile Came About
Believers in exile can neither accept the literal form of the Christian message nor cease to be believers. They must journey past ancient words to discover how early
Christians communicated their experience. 1 audiotape, 87 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Human Sexuality and the Bible
An invitation to rethink sexual ethics in ways that are appropriate to the realities of our day. 1 audiotape, 68 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart In a Non-Theistic World,
What Does the Emerging Church Look Like?
An examination of how inevitable departures from ancient theology will change the church. 1 audiotape, 75 minutes $12.50
Add to Cart Looking at Worship and Liturgy from a New Place
Spong sees opportunities for worship and liturgy to evolve with post-modern theology and the emerging church. 1 audiotape, 65 minutes $12.50
Add to Cart Luke's Birth Narratives
& their Connections with Hebrew Scripture
Analysis of the personal histories and the audiences of Matthew and Luke reveals why they used different Hebrew texts to shape their accounts of the life of Jesus.
1 audiotape, 72 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Jewish Heroes in the Story of Jesus
Understanding the role of of ancient Jewish heroes — such as Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and David — in the birth narratives of Jesus helps to reveal the Gospel writers' intended message.
1 audiotape, 44 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Jonah—God's Love is Unlimited
Cleverly animated with contemporary cartooning, the fantastic adventures of Jonah
are the basis for this lecture against prejudice. 1 videotape, 35 minutes $20.00 Add to Cart Jonah, a Story of God's Unlimited Love
The central meaning of Jonah's story is that God's love extends beyond the tribal
family and beyond Jonah's limited idea of who is worthy of love. 1 audiotape, 30 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Joseph in the Gospel Tradition
Joseph, husband of Mary, has long been viewed as mysterious. A close look
discloses many intriguing similarities between him and Joseph, son of Jacob, who saved the early Israelites by bringing them to Egypt.
1 audiotape, 53 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Judas Iscariot, A Christian Invention?
Was Judas invented by early Christians to move the blame for Jesus' death from the Romans to the Jewish people? 1 audiotape, 74 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Life and Work of Jesus without the Supernatural
An examination of the person and work of Jesus, apart from the supernatural framework of antiquity. 1 audiotape, 77 minutes $12.50
Add to Cart Mary Magdalene: Wife of Jesus?
The gospels contain many clues that suggest Jesus may have been married to Mary Magdalene. How do our reactions to this possibility speak to our own prejudices
about women and our concept of who Jesus is? 1 audiotape, 68 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Mary, Mother of Jesus
Through almost twenty centuries, the church has presented the virgin Mary as the
ideal woman thereby denigrating all other women's sexuality and humanity. It is time to transcend the influence of this icon of female identity.
1 audiotape, 63 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Matthew's Birth Narratives
& their Connections with Hebrew Scriptures
Spong compares the birth stories in Matthew and Luke and traces and analyzes the different orientations of the authors. References to sources in the Hebrew Scriptures
help to explain unique features of Matthew's Gospel. 1 audiotape, 53 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Prayer in the Post-Modern World
Spong examines the meaning of prayer in a world that has rejected an external, theistic god. 1 audiotape, 43 minutes $12.50
Add to Cart Special Five-Tape Series
Preaching the Resurrection of Christ
Based on Spong's book,
Resurrection: Myth or Reality?, these lectures are fully accessible to lay people. They may be purchased individually or as a five-tape set.
5 audiotape set, 6 hours, 37 minutes $40.00
Add to Cart
1. Getting the Resurrection Text Straight
What biblical texts actually say about the Easter moment is not what most
people think. Five sources are examined in detail: Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. This lecture lays a solid textual foundation for what is to follow.
Tape 1 of 5, 82 minutes $12.50
Add to Cart 2. Searching the Text for Clues to the Resurrection
Where were the disciples when the meaning of Easter broke upon their conscious minds in a life changing way? Who was it that stood in the center of that experience?
Tape 2 of 5, 71 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart 3. The Third Day: Not a Matter of Chronological Time
When did the East experience occur? Should "three days" be understood as literal, symbolic, mythological, or traditional?
Tape 3 of 5, 84 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart 4. Reconstructing the Easter Moment from Biblical Clues
Using specific scriptural clues and a willingness to free the imagination, Spong gives a radically different account of how and when Easter events occurred.
Tape 4 of 5, 79 minutes $12.50
Add to Cart 5. Entering the Reality of the Easter Experience
Examination and analysis of Easter events help explain how the disciples were transformed from fishermen into major players on the world stage and how we
might also be transformed by the Easter experience. Tape 5 of 5, 81 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart
Recasting the Meaning of Sin
Spong investigates the meaning of sin in today's modern world, bringing a new
perspective to the basic theological issues that are present in our faith tradition. 1 audiotape, 53 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Reading the Gospels with Jewish Eyes
Reading Luke with Jewish Eyes
Luke, an urban and hellenized Jew, was less observant of some Jewish customs than Matthew. How did his use of the Torah in shaping his Gospel differ from Matthew's? 2 audiotapes, 136 minutes $20.00 Add to Cart Reading Matthew with Jewish Eyes
Matthew was created by an unknown author to meet the needs of a particular
audience of Jewish Christians. Insights into Matthew's person and purpose enhance our appreciation of this Gospel.
2 audiotapes, 126 minutes $20.00 Add to Cart Rescuing Jesus from Religion
Spong calls attention to what we know, think we know, and what we don't know
about the Bible, with special attention to biblical accounts of the life of Jesus. 1 audiotape, 72 minutes $12.50 Add to CartResurrection: Myth or Reality
A fresh look at what the Bible actually says about the resurrection of Jesus. 1 videotape, 120 minutes, six 20 minute talks $20.00 Add to Cart
Rethinking the Christ
If God can no longer be thought of as an external superbeing, how can Jesus be thought of as God's son? Spong examines the New Testament and finds revealing
new insights into its claims about the divinity of Jesus. 1 audiotape, 72 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Saying the Christian Creed with Integrity
Starting with the first statement of the Nicene Creed, "I believe in God …", Spong examines the historical development and applicability in today's world of Christian
creeds and discusses the need for change. 1 audiotape, 74 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Truths That Must Endure After the Coming Reformation
Spong seeks the kernels of truth that must endure in the radical reformation of the Christian Church if it is to survive into the next century.
1 audiotape, 45 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Understanding the Bible
A penetrating exposition of what the Bible is and is not that helps us to understand
scripture in a context of the literary traditions of its Jewish authors. 1 audiotape, 90 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart What Is God?
Traditional language leaves a choice between theism — God as a personal being,
crafted from our own needs, fears and desires — and atheism. The idea of God is examined here from a totally different perspective.
1 audiotape, 83 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart What Think Ye of Christ Where the Human Meets the Divine
Spong goes beyond theism to find a vocabulary of the divine. 1 audiotape, 48 minutes $12.50 Add to Cart Westar Institute audiotapes may also be ordered using the printable Polebridge Press Order Form. Westar members received a 20% discount on audiotapes ordered through this site.
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