John Shelby Spong is the bestselling author of over 20 books such as Jesus for the Non-Religious, Christianity Must Change or Die, and Eternal Life: A New Vision, where he explores commonly held Christian beliefs and shows us how we can understand them in new ways.

In his next book, Spong turns his attention to the Gospel of John, the fourth Gospel in the Bible. Contrary to what is most often believed, the book of John is written against the background of a three year Jewish liturgical lectionary of the first century synagogue and written by a Jewish mystic who did not think of God as an external being who invaded the world in Jesus. Because of this, the fourth Gospel develops a very different and relatively modern Christology about heightened consciousness, inner being, and an immanent sense of God.

The Fourth Gospel will be a fresh way to read the Gospel of John and a unique primer about how to be a Christian in the post-Christian twenty-first century.