springtime beauty

 

N.T. Wright on the Resurrection

I'm reading a book by N.T. Wright entitled "Surprised by Hope - Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church". It is excellent reading, and probably merits re-reading multiple times. I just finished reading Chapter 4 entitled "The Strange Story of Easter". It is a very interesting discussion of the many ways people look at the resurrection of Jesus.

Wright discusses the challenge presented by the Resurrection:

"The challenge is in fact the challenge of new creation. To put it at its most basic: the resurrection of Jesus offers itself, to the student of history or science no less than the Christian or the theologian, not as an odd event within the world as it is but as the utterly characteristic, prototypical, and foundational event within the world as it has begun to be. It is not an absurd event within the old world but the symbol and starting point of the new world. The claim advanced in Christianity is of that magnitude: Jesus of Nazareth ushers in not simply a new religious possibility, not simply a new ethic or a new way of salvation, but a new creation."

The beginning of a new creation! That is exciting! He continues...

"And this is the point where believing in the resurrection of Jesus suddenly ceases to be a matter of inquiring about an odd event in the first century and becomes a matter of rediscovering hope in the twenty-first century. Hope is what you get when you suddenly realize that a different worldview is possible, a worldview in which the rich, the powerful, and the unscrupulous do not after all have the last word. The same worldview shift that will enable us to transform the world."

This is the first book by Wright which I've read, but from what I've read so far, it will not be the last! I think it is cool that I reached this chapter "The Strange Story of Easter" during Holy Week. Very cool.

ps. see also "Easter's Challenge to Empire" (by N.T. Wright)

pps. check out Bishop Wright on the Colbert Report. A friend pointed it out to me...

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bishop N.T. Wright
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