A Very Modern Man
John Shelby Spong's Here I Stand
Richard Kew
January 1, 2000
I spent a memorable day with Canon Max Warren, without doubt the twentieth century's greatest Anglican missionary statesman, not long before he died. I learned a lot that day, but one of his most noteworthy pieces of advice was that if I wanted to understand what was happening in the culture, I should read "biography, lots of biography."
Here I Stand is Jack Spong's autobiography, published to coincide with his retirement as Bishop of Newark. I must confess that this was the first Spong book I had ever bought—the others that I have read were either borrowed or browsed in successive visits to libraries and bookstores. But, remembering the advice of my old mentor, I thought that reading Spong's autobiography would give me some insight into this puzzling and often infuriating individual. I was not disappointed.
Whatever one thinks of Spong, he is a brilliant communicator. The book is well-written, and as far as such a volume can be, it is a page-turner. I found it ideal reading for a chilly winter weekend spent by the fireside in my home. Among other things, Spong provides the reader with a vivid and idiosyncratically personal view of the history of the Episcopal Church, set within the context of world Anglicanism during the last 40-odd years.
Here I Stand also provides some fascinating insights into the man's personality. The title alone communicates something about how Spong sees himself. In his own mind, Spong is a new reformer, challenging the church to shed past baggage and move forward in fresh ways, much as Martin Luther did nearly 500 years ago. "My vocation was then, as it is now, to be an agent for the reformation of the church." Like all autobiographies, this is inevitably a sanitized study of its author's life, but ...
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