Eternal life: A new vision

Book: Eternal Life: A New Vision
Author: John Shelby Spong

In his latest book, Eternal Life: A New Vision, Spong takes you on a deep personal journey through his experiences with friends and family, and his intellectual journey on the subject of death. When reading about his life you get the sense of a man who has been through a lot. Having lost a wife, a father at a young age and many close friends, Spong is a man who definitely qualifies as someone who has had extensive experiences with death all his life.

Before reading this book I had previously only read one other book by Spong titled, "Jesus for the non religious" which I found fascinating, insightful and liberating. For those who don’t know much about Spong, here is a short video clip to get a brief idea on some of his views:






When I picked up this book I had very high hopes and expectations. While not exactly what I expected, I’m happy to say he didn’t disappoint me. I am a huge fan of John Shelby Spong and admire the man immensely. I relate a lot to his personal struggles with religious convictions and have learned a lot from the conclusions that he has drawn from a long experienced life.

He begins the book by telling his audience of his personal life journey of where his faith has lead him over the years, and his reasons for writing the book. Right from chapter one he gives us his position on the question of life after death, which he confesses is a very affirmative yes! But if you want to find out why he believes there is life after death, you will have to read to the very end of the book.

What I found most valuable from this book was not necessarily his ideas or conclusions about life after death, but his journey through religion and his life experiences with dying loved ones. I think he has a lot to share through his life story and has great insights into what he would call “the human experience”. I also really liked his critic of organised religion:

“That is the great sin of organized religion. Organized religion seeks to turn us inward upon ourselves. It binds us into a world marked by enormous limitations. Organized religion always divides the world into warring camps. It separates the followers of “true religion” from the followers of that which is judged to be false religion. It separates true believers from heretics, the clean from the unclean, the saved from the unsaved, the baptized from the unbaptised, and the circumcised from the uncircumcised”

I must admit I was a little disappointed in the way he explained (or lack of) his reasoning behind his belief in a life after death. I personally found it a little unclear and unjustified, which was a bit frustrating since he was so convincing in the beginning of the book. I also felt the book didn’t really have enough to do with exploring life after death. Much of the books content has to do with his personal journey through religion and his discoveries of what we already know about natural history.

But all in all i thought it was a great book and definitely worth a look at for those interested in the topic of life after death and who are after a fresh new perspective in the 21st century. Gotta love the Spong!