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Review Summary: Life after Life after Death! |
Date: 2008-10-13 |
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Details: Two weeks ago I started reading this book, it is one of three volumes, the first; Jesus and the Victory of God the second; The New Testament and The People Of God
This book can only be described as truly magisterial in its scope, it is magnificently comprehensive and the work of one of our most outstanding New Testament scholars in recent times.
Such is the influence of this book and the integrity, credibility of its author that Anthony Flew was compelled to admit to the following after reading it
" (The resurrection) The claim is defended by one of today's premier New Testament scholars, Bishop N. T. Wright. In my view Wrights responses to my previous critiques of divine self revelation, both in the present volume and in his books comprise the most powerful case for Christianity that I have ever seen"
In his book There is a God Flew wrote the following;
"I am much impressed with Bishop Wright's approach, which is absolutely fresh. He presents the case for Christianity as something new for the first time. This is enormously important; especially in the UK...it is absolutely wonderful, absolutely radical and very powerful"
This is high praise indeed when one considers Flews background. On the inside cover of his latest book it says this;
(Antony Flew) is a renowned philosopher who was arguable the best-known atheist in the English-speaking world until his announcement in 2004.
He was considered the darling within the elitist circles of academic atheism, somebody held with the highest of regard by Dawkins, Dennett, Wolpert, Harris and Stenger.
Wright has this amazing ability to describe deep theological treaties, free of all hype, free of all Christian cliché's and like C S Lewis has this uncanny ability at the same time to bring an irresistible attraction to all things theological, this is a rare gift indeed, coupled with this is his skill in bringing (much like Lewis did!) it all down to the common language of the day, almost to a street level of comprehension.
This book requires a little `enduring' it is over 700 pages in duration, but its utterly compelling, and creates such a foundation of believability and credibility that I found it most inspiring.
For me its greatest contribution is to remove the romanticism, dualism, the flaws, brought about primarily through fundamentalism and its beloved; Platonism.
He brings in to this picture all the precision of a surgeon, he takes it right back to original text and explains, as only a scholar can, the real meaning and the real context of the Pauline epistles.
He takes away the curtain of ignorance and bias and with baited breath encourages all to take a look he draws one beyond the curtain time and time again and with delight says, "Look at this"
His main sources of referencing are books such as; Daniel, Isaiah, Hosea and Genesis
He looks at the culture and history of the Hebrews, and prizes out the innumerable references to the `resection' to `the afterlife' ` to life after death these themes run like a torrent throughout the Old Testament with direct quotes form David in the book of Psalms and also Job.
Wright has coined a wonderful phrase, one that he uses a number of times throughout the book " life after life after death"
I would highly recommend this book to everybody, but once again let me encourage patience and a little bit of endurance the pay of is worth it
Bob Garbett
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Review Summary: Bit off more than I can chew. |
Date: 2008-05-15 |
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Details: Well, I hate to say it, but this book is just a lot more information and in depth than I'm prepared to digest right now. Perhaps my mistake was not reading the first volume first. I've never considered myself short on attention span, but I've had to skip to the chapters that speak directly to what I want to know. I'm still slowly working my way through parts of it. I would say this book is for serious scholars only. I thought I was one, but apparently I'm not. |
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Review Summary: Outstanding History |
Date: 2008-02-03 |
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Details: This is volume 2 of N.T. Wright's "Christian Origins and the Question of God", which begins to put flesh on volume 1 and centers on the historical Jesus. In the opening section Wright surveys the historical quests to find out who Jesus is and provides a devastating critique of the Jesus Seminar. This is a great section, introducing the lay scholar to names, theories, and trends in the study of the historical Jesus and he does it without simply locking into strict orthodoxy or jettisoning it at the door. Once this basic background is established Wright seeks to set forth his vision of the historical Jesus. He begins by outlining the work of a prophet in section II and then moves into the beliefs and aims of Jesus in section III.
Through his historical analysis, Wright sheds a lot of light on numerous texts, bringing out the historical Jesus and, I believe, showing that there is not a dichotomy between the Christ of faith and the Jesus of history. In fact, given the aims and beliefs of this prophet the outworking of the Church's vision is quite sound. This is a great book that will challenge aspects of your thinking, especially if you think Jesus is a-political or simply a 'savior from hell', but doesn't necessarily call you to leave the Faith to discover the 'real Jesus', but enables one to clearly understand the the history and life and times of Jesus more thoroughly.
My fault with the book lies on aspects of his conclusion, which flows from his methodology. Granted, he says he is not touching John's Gospel, because it is a huge mountain to climb, but how can John's Gospel not tie in directly with any aspect of "Jesus' self-consciousness"? Granted, he limits the scope of his work, which was necessary, but some of his conclusions seem to be built on incomplete evidence to say the least.
Yet, despite that complaint, the book is worth investing several hours of your life to read and digest the material. |
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Review Summary: Jesus and THe Victory of God |
Date: 2007-06-27 |
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Details: It is a very comprehensive and informative book. Apart from all the critics, Wright has provided a much needed balanced overview of recent writings re the Historical Jesus and outlines a challenging pisture of the Central message of christianity. |
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Review Summary: Jesus and the Victory of God |
Date: 2007-01-09 |
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Details: A most detailed and excellent work, probably too technical or detailed for the ordinary reader but required reading for anyone studying the life and ministry of Jesus. |
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out of 34 Reviews
