Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues

This is a collection of essays/speeches on various topics Wright revamped for book form. The uniting theme of the book is the way Enlightenment thought has permeated modern Western culture and subtly affected thinking in regards to science, religion, and politics in ways many do not realize. Wright addresses many "sticky" contemporary issues and challenges Christians to not just accept common thought, but really try to figure out what the God of the Bible thinks on these issues.As each chapter related to a different topic and was originally directed at different audiences, I found them to vary in the way they got me thinking and how much I got out of them. But they definitely all got me thinking. Some of the essays felt very heady and the conclusions for some (particularly the science ones) felt so deep as to be a bit vague. Others I found highly readable and on point, especially those on politics and engaging modern culture. And others I felt like I had already read (which is my fault since I have already read Simply Jesus and I'm in the middle of Wright's exhaustive tome on the resurrection). A very good read if you want to address some of the blind spots of Western culture and subtle negative ways Enlightenment thought has influenced modern culture. Feel free to skip around and just read the essays of most interest to you. They are in no specific order, and I felt that some of the best were toward the end.

Since falling in love with the works of N.T. Wright over a year ago, I have recognized in his works how the overarching theme in all his works (that with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the new creation has begun to break into our world, that God has declared himself the king of this new world, and that we as Christians are called, as his image-bearers, to reflect His goodness in all things and to share the Gospel with everyone) has a political dimension to it. Sometimes Mr. Wright has touched upon this in his more recent popular works, but usually has chosen to do so in a tangential way. In this book, Mr. Wright begins to articulate more fully how the message of the Gospel challenges the world and its underlying philosophies. Mr. Wright points out how modern Western pop culture, in America especially, has adopted the Epicurean thought of the Enlightenment. Epicurean meaning that God, or the gods, are probably far off (if they exist at all) and have very little to no effect on our day to day lives, so we shouldn't worry about them at all. Mr. Wright ties this in with Europe's implicit and America's explicit split government and religion as well as culture's split between science and religion. In this series of essays, Mr. Wright makes a powerful case for taking up the thoughts of the Old Testament Jews and New Testament believers, where faith and public service were not as divided as they are today and science was used to explore the intricacies of God's created world, not used to proclaim the death of God. Each chapter comes from a speech or essay that Mr. Wright wrote in the past and has been edited for this book to give some thematic flow and it mostly works. As with any work of collected essays/speeches, this book can seem a little disjointed at times, but Mr. Wright and his editors have done a fantastic job of trying to tie it all together. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how revolutionary the message of the Gospel is even in our modern world and how the message of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is still the message that the world needs to hear.

The thing I like about all of N.T. Wright's books is that he writes with wisdom, wit, brevity, and clarity. He often says what you already know to be true, but were either afraid to say or didn't know how to word it. Of course, Wright's books are often filled with theology-shaking insights and ideas as well which you never before considered. Either way, you come away from an Book by Wright feeling refreshed, invigorated, and excited. N.T. Wright is like Moses, calling out the the Egyptian Pharaoh of contemporary theology, saying "Let my people go!"This book tackles the difficult subject of Scripture. It is not really an organized book which contains one primary argument, but is a collection of essays and transcripts from various articles and talks which NT Wright has given over the years. Many of the chapters contain ideas which can be found elsewhere in Wrights' books, but some of the chapters are new as well.The one complaint I have of the book is that it did not really contain any information about Wright's view on inerrancy. In a book claiming to tackle contemporary issues regarding Scripture, I think this is one of the key issues which should have been addressed.

Interesting perspective that deserves consideration. I was intrigued with Wright's embrace of God's created world. Where he lost me was his criticism of pretty much everyone. The fundamentalists and evangelical all have it wrong but so do people like Jim Wallis. I remain skeptical of any teacher/leader whose truth is the only truth. Been down that rode and it never turns out well.

N.T. Wright is the world’s foremost theologian and historian on the New Testament, and has done a tremendous job over the past couple of decades in grounding scripture into its historical context. His ideas and studies have had a huge impact; it’s very difficult to pick up a Christian non-fiction book today that doesn’t cite or reference to him in some way and for some reason (including my own work).Within this book, Wright is once again on top form. Bringing his sharp thinking to contemporary issues and how scripture addresses these. The book begins by addressing the false dichotomy of Science or Religion, emphasising the Epicurean mind-set that pervades today within religious and secular circles (a theme which is an undercurrent under most of the chapters in this book), and then moves onto asking whether Adam needs to be seen as a historical figure and exploring our understanding of Genesis. Over the course of the book issues such as Women in ministry, the nature of evil, Church and Culture/Politics and Eschatology are all discussed. Through each of these topics Wright provides a thoughtful and considered biblical exegesis of scripture, which avoids the errors of fundamentalist (a black and white reading of the text that ignores scripture’s own context and simultaneously ignores the discoveries of other methods of investigation, such as Science and History) and libertarian approaches.Even though some of these questions are asked by those outside of the Christian faith, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book to them — although, I’m certain it would be helpful to those who are thoughtfully asking those questions. The book’s main audience is the Church itself, as it seeks to help steer those who already read scripture to a more “biblical” and considered understanding of what the Bible is/isn’t saying on these topics. For example, Wright’s view on Genesis (which is the same as that of John Walton’s) will certainly pose a challenge to those who hold to a literal reading of the text and who refuse to embrace the insights that have been brought to light by scientific cosmology, physics and biological evolution, as well as lexical studies of ancient literature. The same could also be said of his Eschatology (a study of end-times); which thankfully moves away from a dispensationalist approach of a “magic bus” version of Jesus that saves all on-board from an evil material existence which an angry God is set on destroying, towards a God of love who is reclaiming his good material creation and who has acted within history to place His creation project back on track. Both of these approaches are ones that I personally welcome and agree with as they make a better sense of the larger meta-narrative of the Bible.If you’re someone who is new to the writings of Tom Wright, than this book is a great starting point that will whet your appetite. However, be aware that most of the chapters in this book have been adapted from speeches given by the author, as noted in the book’s introduction: because of this, there will be many positions posited by Wright that will leave new readers thinking, “How do you come to that conclusion?” This, in my opinion, is not a bad thing, as most of the hermeneutical work behind N.T. Wright’s perspective has been developed more fully in his other works — such as his acclaimed “Christian Origins and the Question of God” volumes — and the absence of this only helps to keep this book to a slimmer size, making it accessible to a more casual reader. Some brief light is shed within this book on these areas, but it’s to these other works that the reader will need to go. And I’d certainly encourage those whose curiosity has been peaked to do so.Personally, after reading some of those other scholarly works, I’ve greatly appreciated “Surprised by Scripture”; as it takes some of that previously worked out theology and begins to wrestle with how that plays out in practise.Overall, this is a yet another great book from great scholar, and I highly recommend it to you. As per his other works, N.T. Wright has continued to save Jesus and Scripture from a “Westernised and Enlightenment-reactionary Christianity”. Bravo.-- Tristan Sherwin, author of *Love: Expressed*

NTW is on great form. Actually if you're new to this revolutionary take on Christianity, then call it 5 stars. It's a great introduction to his big themes. If you've read the main theses in Surprised by Scripture, and How God Became King, then it's still worth 4 stars as the discrete topics in each chapter serve as good refresher summaries. Seriously, stuff this is so compelling that after one of NTW's books I had to read all four gospels again to see them afresh. Excellent.

Always good reading from this author. Helpful.

great

Excellent. Easily comprehensible. Bishop Wright at his best