Simply Christian
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Overview
Simply Christian is essential reading for anyone who wants to consider the real fundamentals of Christianity or is intrigued by its claims about the place of justice, beauty, and love in our daily lives. Written in a lively and accessible style, though rooted in solid scholarship, this book describes the exciting relevance of the Bible and the Christian story for the contemporary world.
It is laid out helpfully in three sections. The first opens with the frustrated longings of humanity for justice, spirituality, relationships, and beauty: why are things like this, do they have to be so, and can life be lived differently? Tom Wright then sets out the central Christian belief about God and his creation, and explores the biblical analysis of what’s wrong with the world. He explains God’s plan for its renewal, and the central importance of Jesus. In the final section, he explores what it means to follow Jesus, to be energized by the Holy Spirit and to advance God’s plan for our world.
This question brings up new angles on many other issues: the relation of Scripture, tradition, and reason; the place of experience; the many-sided problems of the use and abuse of the Bible in relation to personal and public life. N. T. Wright’s contribution to this intense debate will bring fresh clarity to many puzzling questions.
Top Highlights
“Or we can say, if we like, that the reason we have these dreams, the reason we have a sense of a memory of the echo of a voice, is that there is someone there speaking to us, whispering in our inner ear, someone who cares very much about this present world, and our present selves, and who has made us, and it, for a purpose which will indeed involve justice, things being put to rights, ourselves being put to rights, the world being rescued at last.” (Page 8)
“‘Heaven’ in this latter, very common, biblical sense is God’s space as opposed to our space, not God’s location within our space-time universe. The question is then whether God’s space and our space intersect, and if so how, when and where.” (Page 52)
“And I still break them. The line between justice and injustice, between things being right and things not being right, can’t be drawn between ‘us’ and ‘them’. It runs right down through the middle of each one of us.” (Page 5)
“We honour and celebrate our complexity and our simplicity by continually doing five things. We tell stories. We act out rituals. We create beauty. We work in communities. We think out beliefs.” (Page 43)
“The death of Jesus of Nazareth as the King of the Jews, the bearer of Israel’s destiny, the fulfilment of God’s promises to his people of old, is either the most stupid, senseless waste and misunderstanding the world has ever seen, or it is the fulcrum around which world history turns.” (Page 95)
The arguments are sophisticated, and Wright is a brilliant expositor of the Bible.
—The Times Literary Supplement
Simply Christian is thought provoking. It provides a solid biblical basis for moving beyond private religion, and raises many of the issues that warrant much further work.
—Mick Pope, (PhD., Monash University), Professor of Environmental Theology and Missional University
Nicholas Tom Wright, commonly known as N. T. Wright or Tom Wright, is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Andrews University. Previously, he was the bishop of Durham. He has researched, taught, and lectured on the New Testament at McGill, Oxford, and Cambridge Universities, and has been named by Christianity Today a top theologian. He is best known for his scholarly contributions to the historical study of Jesus and the New Perspective on Paul. His work interacts with the positions of James Dunn, E. P. Sanders, Marcus Borg, and Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Wright has written and lectured extensively around the world, authoring more than forty books and numerous articles in scholarly journals and popular periodicals. He is best known for his Christian Origins and the Question of God Series, of which three of the anticipated six volumes are finished.
Reviews
7 ratings
Steven Blader
10/12/2023
Matt DeVore
7/17/2022
Veli-Pekka Haarala
6/21/2017
Prophet_kevin
4/1/2016
Glenn Crouch
12/24/2015
This is an excellent book by Tom Wright - and if you haven't read anything from this Author, then this is a good place to start - if only that it is a lot shorter than several of his books :) The Author does a fine job covering what Christianity is all about, placing it into its Jewish / Israelite roots and centring it on the person of Jesus. He also develops what it means to be a Christian covering a wide range including Worship, Prayer and the Bible. I especially enjoyed his coverage of Justice and of Beauty - with the latter being something I need to think more about. Worthwhile read for those interest in Christianity as well as Christians of all spiritual ages :)
Allen Bingham
4/7/2014
Gordon Jones
10/23/2013
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