"Whatever diminishes life is evil, and whatever enhances life is good"
About this Quote
John Shelby Spong reduces moral judgment to a simple test: does this enlarge life or shrink it? The standard reframes ethics away from rule-keeping and toward human flourishing, shifting the lens from abstract purity to concrete outcomes. It echoes Albert Schweitzer’s reverence for life and draws from the Gospel line, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” For Spong, the heart of the Christian message is not doctrinal conformity but the promotion of vitality, dignity, and freedom in persons and communities.
That orientation explains his battles against exclusionary dogmas. When religious rules diminish people by shaming bodies, restricting women, stigmatizing LGBTQ persons, denying science, or defending injustice, they become instruments of harm. By this measure, sin is not primarily disobedience to a code; it is any act, structure, or belief that crushes life’s possibilities. Conversely, grace is anything that heals, liberates, and enlarges the sphere of love, agency, and joy. The Sabbath principle applies: rules exist for life, not life for rules.
“Life” here is expansive. It includes bodies and minds, relationships and communities, and the ecological systems that sustain us. Policies that poison air and water, exploit labor, or inflame war diminish life; practices that foster education, health, compassion, justice, and peace enhance it. The ethic is teleological rather than legalistic, asking us to judge by fruits.
Critics worry that such a principle risks subjectivity. Spong would answer that the test is communal and empirical: listen to those most affected, measure harms and benefits, and revise when evidence shows our convictions hurting people. Hard cases remain, where short-term pain may serve long-term flourishing, but the compass still points toward the widest, deepest well-being.
The claim is both bracing and liberating. It relocates moral authority from static creeds to a dynamic reverence for life, urging faith to be measured by the hope, courage, and compassion it actually creates in the world.
That orientation explains his battles against exclusionary dogmas. When religious rules diminish people by shaming bodies, restricting women, stigmatizing LGBTQ persons, denying science, or defending injustice, they become instruments of harm. By this measure, sin is not primarily disobedience to a code; it is any act, structure, or belief that crushes life’s possibilities. Conversely, grace is anything that heals, liberates, and enlarges the sphere of love, agency, and joy. The Sabbath principle applies: rules exist for life, not life for rules.
“Life” here is expansive. It includes bodies and minds, relationships and communities, and the ecological systems that sustain us. Policies that poison air and water, exploit labor, or inflame war diminish life; practices that foster education, health, compassion, justice, and peace enhance it. The ethic is teleological rather than legalistic, asking us to judge by fruits.
Critics worry that such a principle risks subjectivity. Spong would answer that the test is communal and empirical: listen to those most affected, measure harms and benefits, and revise when evidence shows our convictions hurting people. Hard cases remain, where short-term pain may serve long-term flourishing, but the compass still points toward the widest, deepest well-being.
The claim is both bracing and liberating. It relocates moral authority from static creeds to a dynamic reverence for life, urging faith to be measured by the hope, courage, and compassion it actually creates in the world.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|
More Quotes by John
Add to List
