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About the Author

In 1994, James R. Adams founded The Center for Progressive Christianity, a non-profit corporation that encourages churches to focus their attention on those for whom organized religion has proved to be ineffectual, irrelevant, or repressive. When he stepped down from the presidency in January 2006, TCPC had a mailing list of over 3,500 people. The online directory listed 290 affiliated congregations and organizations, representing 12 denominations as well as independent and ecumenical groups. TCPC is the U.S. branch of an international network of autonomous progressive Christianity networks that includes organizations in South Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, and Canada.

Until he retired from parish ministry in 1996, Jim Adams served for nearly thirty years as rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. After being on the verge of collapse, St. Mark’s took a new lease on life by concentrating on the arts and adult Christian education. A flourishing congregation of over nine hundred members by the time Adams left, the church had attracted such a large number of people who had once given up on organized religion that the Washington Post called St. Mark’s "a citadel of enlightened Christianity".

Prior to his arrival at St. Mark's, Adams served at St. Christopher’s Church in New Carrollton, Maryland — first as vicar and later as rector. His first post as an ordained person was curate at St. John’s Church, Georgetown, in Washington, D.C.

A prolific writer, Adams's most recent book, From Literal to Literary — The Essential Reference Book for Biblical Metaphors was published by Rising Star Press in 2005. The second and expanded edition was published by Pilgrim Press in 2008. He is also the author of So You Think You’re Not Religious? A Thinking Person’s Guide to the Church (Cowley, 1989) and of So You Can’t Stand Evangelism? A Thinking Person’s Guide to Church Growth (Cowley, 1994). He and educator Verna Dozier wrote Sisters and Brothers: Reclaiming a Biblical Idea of Community (Cowley, 1993). Adams also collaborated on several study courses and books published by the Alban Institute. His first book was The Sting of Death (Seabury, 1971).

A collection of Adams's essays and reviews are available in the on-line Library of The Center for Progressive Christianity.  Several have been translated into French and can been seen on the website of Protestants dans la ville.  In addition, he occasionally posts a blog.

Currently Jim Adams serves as an honorary advisor for TCPC, along with such leaders in the progressive Christianity movement as Marcus Borg and Bishop John Shelby Spong. Adams is also a member of the Honorary Advisory Council for the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity and of the Advisory Panel for the Faith Futures Foundation, which has offices in the U.S. and Australia.

Jim has been touring the United States and England to promote his latest book.  In the U.S. he has made appearances in the regions of Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD, San Diego, eastern Colorado, Chicago, Columbia, SC, and the Twin Cities in Minnesota.  He does not charge a fee for an appearance at which his books are for sale. All that is required of the host is to provide hotel accommodations and travel expenses when necessary.

Jim Adams holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He and his wife Ginny live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They have three daughters and five grandchildren.

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"I also want to pay tribute to two people who have headed two organizations that have helped to change the religious debate in this country.  They are the Reverend James Adams, who founded and directed for over a decade The Center for Progressive Christianity in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the late Dr. Robert Funk, the founder and president of the Westar Institute, which has given the world the 'Jesus Seminar.'  Both organizations have provided my work with tremendous encouragement and both should occupy an important place when the history of  twentieth-century Christianity is written."

John Shelby Spong
from the Preface to Jesus for the Non-Religious

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From Literal to Literary: The Essential Reference Book for Biblical Metaphors