Group Discussion: The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus

An integral component of the SagePlace mission is to support the development and deepening of spirituality. One method of doing this will be to offer discussions, retreats, celebrations, and book groups where inquiry and exploration is warmly welcomed and absolute certainties are rare. This coming Sunday at 1:00 pm SagePlace will be hosting a discussion based on a dialogue between Rev. Alan Jones from Grace Cathedral and Peter J Gomes, Harvard professor, paster and author of The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus. The conversation between Jones and Gomes can be downloaded and listened to here. If you plan on attending, please listen to the discussion online first and be prepared to share your observations, reactions, etc

In his book Gomes writes, “Thus, when Christians state categorically that Jews, or Muslims, or believers in other faith systems are outside the provisions of God, they utter arrogant nonsense. A respected agnosticism is called for when often there is offered in its place a self-interested certainty. If God is the God of all, and not just a tribal deity, then God has made provision, not necessarily known to us, for the healing and care of all his creation, and not simply our little part of it.” He also wrote, "It may be scandalous if we actually tried to apply it in our communities ... to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, love our neighbors ... those are dangerous things." We would be interested to hear your response to these and other statements.

You can also listen to Gomes on NPR's Book Tour here

All views are welcomed. We only ask that individuals be respectful of the beliefs and perspectives of others. Contact tammie@sageplace.com for further details.