Jay Wexler, When God Isn't Green

04/03/16 • 27 min

What do palm fronds, statues of Ganesh, and eagle feathers all have in common? They are religious objects that pose a challenge for the environment. Jay Wexler is a professor at the Boston University School of Law. He specializes in environmental law and church/state issues. His latest book is When God Isn't Green: A World-Wide Journey to Places Where Religious Practice and Environmentalism Collide. With humor and a hope for raising consciousness and finding balance, he makes the case for continuing the conversation between the needs of religious and environmental communities.

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Bart Ehrman, Jesus Before the Gospels

Were the authors of the gospels who told fanciful stories about Jesus making stuff up, or did they have faulty memories, or both? Bart Ehrman, The James A Gray Professor of Religious Studies at The University of North Carolina tackles the issue of Jesus and memory. He is one the most renowned and controversial religious scholars in the world. He studies the historical Jesus and early Christian writings but is not a Christian. He has written over twenty books and has appeared on this program twice previously. His latest book is Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories of The Savior. Find his blog in which all proceeds go to help the hungry and homeless.

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Bishop John Shelby Spong, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy

A pioneer of the progressive Christian movement, John Shelby Spong, returns for the third time to Progressive Spirit. We discuss his 25th book, Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy. The retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark demonstrates that the gospel writers were not writing material to be taken literally but liturgically. As Christianity moved away from Judaism it lost its ability to interpret the stories about Jesus. The Christian faith became a matter of believing things that can't possibly be true. Fundamentalist Christians, says Spong, are heretics. He charts a course for spiritual thinkers to embrace faith and the modern world. Find his weekly column at www.johnshelbyspong.com.