Simply Great Stuff

I'm going to try to write this review without once screaming like an eleven-year-old girl at a Jonas Brothers concert.

N.T. Wright is the most engaging Christian writer on the planet. A bishop of the Church of England and a New Testament scholar, he is able to write academic tomes such as The Resurrection of the Son of God, which won the Book of the Year and Best Academic Book by the Association of Theological Booksellers in 2003. He is also able to communicate effectively for the masses. His The Gospel of Judas deals with extra "Gospels" not included in the Bible (remember all The Da Vinci Code conspiracy stuff?). In Evil and the Justice of God, he tackles the Why-Do-Bad-Things-Happen-To-Good-People questions.

He is popular enough that his latest book Surprised by Hope, Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church got him invited onto Comedy Central's Colbert Report: http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=174352 Granted, getting interviewed by Stephen Colbert is not a particularly good way to have a deep discussion about God but I'm impressed when a reputable orthodox scholar can use pop culture to get his message across.

Any of Wright's books are worth reading but a great place to start is Simply Christian, Why Christianity Makes Sense. Whether you are someone who has never been to church or you've been a church-goer all your life, this an excellent book. If you read it, you will understand God's overall plan and how he is working it out in the world better than 90% of the people who call themselves believers.

The good bishop divides his book into three sections. In the first he asks a series of questions. Why do human beings expect things to be fair? Why are human beings universally concerned with spiritual things? Why are we so defined by our relationships? Why is beauty so powerfully haunting? Wright argues that these things - which make us human - all have answers in the Christian faith.

In the second section he walks the reader through the overall story of the Bible, much in the same way that John Eldredge does in his book Epic. Wright's version is richer and more demanding than Eldredge's and yet he still manages to go from Creation to Revelation in about 80 pages. Incidentally, if any of you remember my last Easter sermon where I covered the history of the universe in 5 acts - Creation - Fall - Israel - Jesus - Church - and managed to tie it all in to the Resurrection, well, the basic structure of the ideas came from this section of Wright's book.

In the final section he summarizes in about 70 pages the purpose of human life and how the church engages us in that purpose. It is all very rich, very originally expressed, thoroughly based on the Scriptures.

Honestly, if I was 20 years old again and just beginning to study theology I'd go hang out wherever N.T Wright was and take whatever class he was teaching. Even if it was a class in auto repair.

There, I'm done. I did kind of sound like an eleven-year-old girl at times, didn't I?