There was no Adam or Eve, and no original Sin - says (ex) Catholic Priest

Vancouver/Victoria, B.C. -- In his first book, 'The Priest who left his Religion - In Pursuit of Cosmic Spirituality" Shields tells the story of being witness to the Vatican Council opening the door to a significant reinterpretation of some of the church's key teachings. "When the Vatican Council adopted the findings of the best biblical scholars, the assembly of the world's bishops made a bold break with the past. They asserted in order to interpret the Bible a reader must understand the literary style and the intention of the author of the book. Consequently, what the church had taught in the past was mistaken and there was an urgent need to correct the ramifications of these errors." says Shields.

Shields received an enthusiastic response when he launched his controversial book at the Body Soul Spirit Expo in Calgary along with a book tour event called"Authors Bridging Evolutionary Consciousness", which started at the Calgary Unity Church. Within a few days of launching the book he catapulted to No.1 Spiritual Book on Amazon and was listed as the No.3 Best Selling book in Canada.

Shields was excited as a young priest to be studying the Bishops findings in his classes "We examined some serious doctrinal problems. If there was no Garden of Eden, and no original sin, humanity as fallen and mired in an inherited sin needed to change. I saw the message of love replacing the emphasis on hell and damnation. Here was an ideal opportunity for the church to re-articulate the role of Jesus in history, and to end its fixation on sin and sex."

However, Pope Paul IV proclaimed "The greatest care must be taken, while fulfilling the indispensable duty of research, to do no injury to the teaching of Christian doctrine (emphasis added). For that would be to give rise, as is unfortunately seen in these days, to disturbance and perplexity in many faithful souls." Pope Paul VI, "The Credo of the People of God", Proclaimed June 30, 1968 http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/p6credo.htm

Shields explains in his book "He denied almost all the development of knowledge over the two thousand years. By doing so, he engaged in what can only be described as a cover-up. In the name of protecting the faithful, he ignored scholarship and truth. He opted to keep the church members in ignorance. By attempting to sweep learning and science under the carpet, he created a crisis for those who had just watched the Vatican Council commit the church to the pursuit of sound biblical scholarship."

Thus started Shields own private battle with the Catholic faith and his quest to discover the truth in Science and Cosmic Spirituality. "Here you will find both a story of a passionate, sceptical, spiritual man, and a story of a culture in search of a new way of being" says Dr Paul Bramadat, Director University of Victoria Centre for Studies in Religion and Society.

Shields continues his media tour and was recently featured in "Focus" Magazine with a two page review and was interviewed on Village900 Radio. He will be interviewed by Fanny Keifer on Shaw TV in Vancouver the last weekend in March, in the run up to Easter "celebrations" To read the articles please visit his media page at www.spiritualauthorscircle.com/john-shields

About the Author:

Born in NY City, Shields holds a Masters Degree in theology from St. Paul's College in Washington, DC, where he worked with Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. He went on to teach popular theology in Canada and the US. He left the church and moved to British Columbia in 1969. An interest in social justice led him to the labour movement where he was a champion for women's equality work. He was President of the BC Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU) for fourteen years.

More information on the book at www.SpiritualAuthorsCircle.com

For media interviews please contact Julie Salisbury, Influence Publishing

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