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Marianne of First Congregational Church, UCC, Ocala, Florida created the Study Guide for her church discussion group and has made it available to our readers as a free download.

n this book you will find a profile of what Jesus may have been like within the context of Second Temple Judaism. This is set alongside selected aspects of the Jesus tradition as preserved in the earliest Christian writings. Neither is ascribed primacy over the other, but each casts light on the other and both inform the final part of the book that traces some of the ways in which Jesus communities now might shape their collective and individual lives.

This  Study Guide, Shedding Light on the Gospels is based on Bishop Spong’s “Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism.” The Study Guide is organized by Discussion Sessions and includes extensive quotations extracted from Bishop Spong’s book. In addition to Bishop Spong’s book, we will be reading the three gospels: Mark, Matthew and Luke (in that order).

Jesus was very clear in a variety of passages that if we want to experience this Realm of the Infinite Mystery or have a direct experience of the Divine Presence, we will need to reach out and take risks on behalf of those who suffer. “Pick up your cross if you want to follow me,” he was supposed to have said. So he talks about the Good Samaritan who risked his life to help the wounded Jew lying on the side of the road. He models with his own life a willingness to turn the tables in the Temple because of the unjust exchange rate the money changers were charging the poor Jews who had no perfect animal to sacrifice. He eventually showed us we should not even fear death when we are seeking justice for those who have no hope. And he went into Jerusalem to protest the injustices of the Roman and Priestly treatment of his people.

How do you account for / explain the different versions of the same event? To what extent does it matter in your understanding and experience of Jesus that the details that describe such a fundamental event in his life are not an agreed Gospel record across Mark, Matthew and Luke? Why did John ignore all the details of the baptism of Jesus?

Originally brain-stormed by and created for the Generation NOW Meeting in 2009. This video can be used as a tool for deep inquiry and discussion.

A growing number of progressive Christians, for a decade or more, have seen themselves less and less of being a theist, that is as one who believes in a ‘God out there’ who intervenes with and over rules the laws of nature. Yet many of these are still very happy to use the words Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This Trinitarian descriptor expresses the way in which Christians may encounter or interpret our ‘God’, but ‘God’ is much more. For many progressive Christians, the Trinity is an expression of different people and communities living in perfect harmony. Now that really is heaven on earth!

This is the web version of a Jewish history project I prepared a few years ago, “Timelines in Jewish History, 1000 BCE – 1925 CE, with Parallel Timelines in Relevant General History.”

The 3 books books covered in this progressive christian book study guide are by Spong, Pagels, and Kidd

The 5 books covered in this progressive christian book study guide are by Armstrong, Wallis, Holloway, Friedman, Taussig

Authors covered in this study guide are Sanford, Kidd, Cobb, Mesle, Holloway, Spong.

5 Books are covered in this progressive christian books study guide

Click Here to Download this Study Guide.   Books / Material Covered in this Study Guide: The Once and Future Faith by the Jesus Seminar Emptiness & Brightness by Don Cupitt Honest to God by John Robinson …

Click Here to Download this Study Guide.   Books / Material Covered in this Study Guide: Rediscovering the Teaching of Jesus by Norman Perrin There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem by Wayne Dyer Christ: A Crisis …

Click Here to Download this Study Guide.   Books / Material Covered in this Study Guide: Soul Stories by Gary Zukav Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography by John Dominic Crossan The Silence of Jesus by James Breech The …

Click Here to Download this Study Guide.   Books / Material Covered in this Study Guide: How to Know God by Deepak Chopra Friendship with God by Neale Walsch Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism by John Shelby …

The political, social, spiritual, and economic history of most of the Western world has been defined by the belief articulated in the literal application of John’s gospel to personal and social piety. If Christianity is to survive with any relevance to postmodern, twenty-first century realities, the theology of condemnation and substitutionary atonement associated with the fourth gospel has to be scrapped. Not only is the future of Christianity at stake. This theology threatens the further evolution of human consciousness, and life as humanity has known it thus far on Planet Earth.

The material we are exploring is controversial; the subject matter is often tied to deeply held beliefs. The intention of this study guide is not to change your mind but to challenge your beliefs. That is, our initial objective is not to believe what the author proposes but to be open to consider the validity of his proposition. In so doing, we empower our beliefs through the dynamics of our evolution of consciousness — the purpose of this discussion group.