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Title: The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is by N. T. Wright ISBN: 0-8308-2200-3 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Perhaps the best book on historical Jesus to date
Comment: Not only does this book have great evangelical and apologetic value, and it is a fascinating read. There is much here to challenge much of what conservative evangelicalism has understood about Jesus' ministry, even his parables. While it has some refutation of Jesus Seminar views, more specific refutations can be found in his other works, so don't get this book for that purpose. The reviewer who complained that the book did not address atonement might re-read the chapters "The Crucified Messiah" and "Jesus & God", because perhaps he missed a major point of those chapters! Wright sees corporate redemption of God's covenant as the atonement. This is a more powerful idea than individual atonement for sin. The reader might also pick up a fuller treatment of Wright's understanding in the book "The Climax of the Covenant".
This book, "The Challenge of Jesus", is available on the 'net in its original form -- that of audio lectures, for free, so that if you are not sure you want this book, listen to the audio lectures first (just look for pages dedicated to N.T. Wright).
Rating: 5
Summary: An unsettling view of Jesus
Comment: Wright's book will challenge all you have thought about Jesus, whether you are an evangelical or a diehard liberal. He is, in my opinion, wrongly thought of as "conservative" in his assessment of the historical Jesus. Be prepared to have your ideas about the resurrection, about Jesus's divinity, and about the apocalyptic passages in the gospels turned upside down.
By doggedly placing Jesus within first-century Judaism, Wright makes us grasp how little we know about that time. While he offers a spirited reinterpretation of the resurrection, along the lines argued for by the Pharisees of the time, the total effect (at least for me) is further to undermine the belief in bodily revival and life after death still so prized by many Christians. I am not quite sure that Jesus' own resurrection is essential to Wright's thesis, although he strongly affirms that it is. Clearly, Wright does believe that the resurrection, where this means the restoration of Israel and the re-embodiment of the dead and the living, is still central to any conception of Christianity.
At the end of the book you are left with a very human Jesus who likely never thought of himself as God, at least not as we use that term. He likely thought of himself as Yahweh's representative acting in Israel, as the herald of the end of Israel's exile, and as the human embodiment of the Temple, or the place where God dwells. If Wright is right, this changes everything. I have read everything that Crossan has written; this book shook me up far more.
Rating: 4
Summary: It Is Dangerous to Walk the Middle of the Road
Comment: PREMISE: We have at least two camps (actually more) of persons who study the life of Jesus. There are those who search for the historical Jesus. This camp is too often made up of historians who come at the issue with a bias against traditional Christianity that was born of the enlightenment. Hence, they discount stories of the miraculous because they don't believe in miracles. A second camp is made up of conservative Christian scholars who approach the life of Jesus from a theological bias, born of centuries of Christian tradition. They do believe in miracles, because they have faith. Surprise! Both camps find the Jesus they set out to look for. N.T. Wright is aware of both camps, but writes somewhere outside of either. He approaches Scripture and the life of Jesus through the eyes of Second Temple Period Jewish Politics. His version of the historical Jesus is VERY political. He puts forth a rational case for his thesis, then examines the impact this new vision of Jesus should have on the church in this postmodern world.
AM I CONVINCED? I'm not sure I would say he convinced me, intrigued would be a better word. His case is too unusual to accept at first reading, but he certainly offers the reader a lot to think about, and delivers his message well. I will keep my eyes open a little wider for future discussions of this nature.
RECOMMENDATION: If you like to be challenged, you might like this book. If you are too accepting, you might be tempted to accept his well written premise too easily. If you tend to be a "Defender of the Faith" you might find this book threatening.
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Title: Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship by N. T. Wright ISBN: 0802841325 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, 3) by N. T. Wright ISBN: 0800626796 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.00 |
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Title: What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? by N. T. Wright, Tom Wright ISBN: 0802844456 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: June, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol 1) by N. T. Wright ISBN: 0800626818 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Jesus and the Victory of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Volume 2) by N. T. Wright ISBN: 0800626826 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: August, 1997 List Price(USD): $41.00 |
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