A friend shared an experience with me once. He was staying in a home of a Christian couple, and had just finished a can of soda. Upon asking for the recycling bin, the couple’s response was, “As Christians, we don’t recycle. Jesus is coming soon anyways.” When all attempts at detecting some sort of sick humor failed to turn up any results, my friend stood speechless and dumbfounded at such a remark. Their comment sounds absurd, but is a safe conclusion if many Christians take their beliefs of the afterlife to the logical end. Why bother with the environment or social issues if it's all going to hell anyways? Why not just spend our time saving souls for heaven instead? Didn't we have enough of those mainline liberals and their Social Gospel in the past? The question of why sweep the deck of a sinking ship is often a response to the way we understand the progression of history into the "End Times." (Cue thunder cracks and dramatic orchestral music.)
I haven’t really written a book review in a while, and don’t intend to do so here, but there are many books and experiences that push me towards the river, and a few books that have been the Rubicons of my faith. I give credit to Lee Strobel (Case for Faith/Christ) in my early days, Mark Noll (Scandal of the Evangelical Mind) and Philip Jenkins (The Next Christendom) during my college years, and now, NT Wright for his work “Surprised by Hope.”
His work for me, was the pulling together of the Gospel that I’ve been trying to understand these last four years. Drawing together history, theology, ontology, spirituality, and a plethora of other related things ending in ‘y’, he synthesizes why the mainstream Christian understanding of the afterlife is wrong at worst, or misplaced at best, and how a corrected understanding of the crucial doctrine of resurrection is key in how we are to reorder our lives around the Kingdom and why it brings us hope. In it, he explores why the common held notions of dualism (separation between soul and body or spiritual and material) are weak in light of Christ’s resurrection and the greater picture of redemption, and why sentiments shared by the Christian couple above are completely misguided. It beautifully exposes the shoddy Biblical foundations of many mainstream versions of the end times (*cough* Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins), and how damaging such theology is to the witness of the Church.
Basically, it’s frickin awesome.
It’s not a difficult read, though the concepts are heavy and mind-blowing, especially to those who have grown up in a Western dualistic Christian culture. I hear it’s an abridged and compiled version of a few of his other works. Any way it happens, READ IT. If you understand the points he tries to make, it will change things from the way you read Scripture to the way you understand yourself and God’s interaction with world.
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2 comments:
ha. you know, Jessica and I were just reading your latest two posts, and she said something about how sometimes you're like me in a Chinese body, or maybe I'm like you in a white boy's body. Anyway, that except for the whole ethnic identity ingredient you've got going on, we're a lot more alike than we realize. or at least we "like to soapbox about similar things. not that he was really soapboxing in these posts..." [Jessica]
If you are just discovering the work of N.T. Wright, you are in for a real treat! I loved this post, especially the title and this line:
"Basically, it’s frickin awesome."
You might check out his book "The Challenge of Jesus". You will never think of Jesus Christ the same. Also, if you're interested in more in depth issues, "What St. Paul Really Said" and one of his more scholarly works "The Climax of the Covenant are excellent choices. Very good post!
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