Post Calendar
-
Podcast Feeds
Feb
25
N. T. Wright
February 25, 2008 |
Posted by joanied · Filed Under Dispensationalism/Covenant, General Discussion, Books
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710844,00.html
N.T. Wright, Bishop in Durham, England, has a new book out, Surprised by Hope and in the above article, he gets interviewed in TIME magazine. I am going to read his book.
One of the things he says when the reviewer asks about the period of time after death but before Jesus returns to Earth is:
TIME: But it’s not where the real action is, so to speak?
Wright: No. Our culture is very interested in life after death, but the New Testament is much more interested in what I’ve called the life after life after death — in the ultimate resurrection into the new heavens and the new Earth. Jesus’ resurrection marks the beginning of a restoration that he will complete upon his return. Part of this will be the resurrection of all the dead, who will “awake,” be embodied and participate in the renewal. John Polkinghorne, a physicist and a priest, has put it this way: “God will download our software onto his hardware until the time he gives us new hardware to run the software again for ourselves.” That gets to two things nicely: that the period after death is a period when we are in God’s presence but not active in our own bodies, and also that the more important transformation will be when we are again embodied and administering Christ’s kingdom.
http://parablesofaprodigalworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/nt-wrights-surprised-by-hope-pirate.html Raffi Shahinian reviews N.T. Wright’s new book chapter by chapter. I will spend more time there later.
Joanie D.
Comments
8 Comments so far
-
-
Theologica
Check it out here.
-
Parchment and Pen Blog - Internet Monk
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- Faith and Theology
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
-
Warning: Attempt to assign property of non-object in /home/ttpstude/public_html/blogs/wp-includes/rss.php on line 428
Warning: Attempt to assign property of non-object in /home/ttpstude/public_html/blogs/wp-includes/rss.php on line 428
Powered by FireStats
I really like NT Wright and am interested to see what he has to say in this book.
One great quote from him on this general point is:
“Heaven is important, but it is not the end of the world”.
I like that quote, Vance. I know you and I both love C.S. Lewis and maybe that is an indication that I will like N.T. Wright too.
Joanie D.
He is also a great speaker. There are a number of his lectures and sermons available in audio format for free here:
http://www.ntwrightpage.com/
about half way down, you get to the audio/video section. I have downloaded much of the audio to put on my iPod, but you can listen right on your computer as well.
Thanks, Vance. I just read one of his sermons at http://www.ntwrightpage.com/sermons/EasterVigil07.htm which is appropriate with Easter not far away. Part of what he says is, “The church’s mission isn’t about telling more and more people that if they accept Jesus they will go to heaven. That is true, as far as it goes (though we ought to be telling them about the new heavens and new earth rather than just ‘heaven’), but it’s not the point of our mission. The point is that if God’s new creation has already begun, those of us who have been wakened up in the middle of the night are put to work to make more bits of new creation happen within the world as it still is. And that is why we need to leave behind on the cross all the bits and pieces of the old creation that have made us sad, that have drawn us, too, down into evil, into lying and cheating and greed and selfishness, that have blighted our lives and the lives of others around us. Paul is quite crisp about this: all that stuff must be left behind in the deep water of baptism, in other words, on the cross of Jesus Christ. Instead, we are given a new life, with a new purpose: to be part of God’s new creation, already here and now; to be people of the light, even though the world still seems dark; to be people who live by New Time even though Old Time is still rumbling on.”
Nice.
Joanie D.
No one has impacted my theology more over the last year+ than Tom Wright.
He has several lectures on www.veritas.org.
A true blessing to the modern church
bcwb, I checked out the video at veritas telling what they are about and at the end it listed the speakers at the forum. Wow, what a line-up! Thanks for the link.
http://www.veritas.org/calpoly/
Wow, the whole week of talks is free and open to all. Too bad I didn’t live closer to California. Well, that one is over anyway, but I see there are many more forums across the country coming up.
http://www.veritas.org/forums/
Joanie D.
http://parablesofaprodigalworld.blogspot.com/2008/02/nt-wrights-surprised-by-hope-pirate_25.html
Raffi Shahinian has written a chapter by chapter review of Wright’s Surprised by Hope. On the page above, he included links to three talks that Wright gave. I listened to part 1 of “Wright on Space, Time and Matter” and enjoyed it very much. Wow, what a fast talker he is! He hardly breathes. It’s like he has so many important things to tell you and only a short life to tell it in. He can breathe when he goes to sleep, I guess! I am eager for his book to arrive in the mail. It should be here in a day or two.
Joanie D.
I finished Wright’s book Surprised by Hope and liked it very much. There were a few times when the writing was difficult to understand…almost like he started one thought but ended with another, but all in all, VERY good. It certainly emphasizes that going to heaven is wonderful but not the end of us, that we will still arise in our resurrection bodies to take part in the new heaven and earth. I just finished watching the Billy Graham special and it was very good, especially the stories of how coming to accept Jesus as Lord of their lives changed their lives. But there was no mention about life in our resurrection bodies. I went to Billy Graham’s website and didn’t see anything there about that either on a quick read. Reading the Bible, it looks so obvious to me that Paul and the other apostles all expect that Jesus’ followers will receive resurrection bodies at the “end of time” as we know it. Do you know if a lot of evangelicals don’t believe that?
Joanie D.