Book Review -- After You Believe

What is the chief goal of man?

This is the question that prolific scholar N.T. Wright addresses in After You Believe. According to Wright, the goal of human existence is to

“become genuine human beings, reflecting the God in whose image we’re made, and doing so in worship on the one hand and in mission, in its full and large sense, on the other; and that we do this not least by following Jesus.” [Page 26]

After You Believe is the conclusion to the trilogy of Simply Christian and Surprised By Hope. In the preceding works Wright expounded on the subjects of why Christianity made sense, and subsequently on proper Christian hope for the future and afterlife. After You Believe represents the culmination of that series, dealing directly with the issue of putting into proper praxis orthodox Christian faith.

For Wright, the goal is virtue, which comes through a transformation of character. This transformation must be understood in terms of proper understanding of the eschatological nature of the promise and work of God. Through Jesus God has enacted a worldwide redemption plan, which transcends the simplistic, and dualistic understanding of salvation as merely heaven when you die. Wright persistently draws the readers’ attention back to the idea that the work of God is transforming the entire cosmos. This transformation does not lie in the distant future, but rather is has been inaugurated in the life and death of Jesus.

Christians long for the day of glorification, when we shall be released from our bondage to sin and decay, however, it is important to recognize that the transformation process from depravity to glorification has already been enacted. This is the eschatological dimension of Wright’s work. The Christian life is meant to be lived in anticipation of this future event, and evidence of that event is to be manifested in the here and now.

Wright contrasts the Aristotelian goal of virtue, with the Christian goal of virtue. One is accomplished in a Pelagian sort of manner, and leads to active service in ones polis, while the other results in the manifestation of Christian virtues in the life of the Christian results in being formed to more closely reflect the image of God.

The transformation of character, which leads to virtue, is not an instantaneous experience. Rather, it is the long drawn out process of making many small, important decisions about reflecting the image of God which leads those engaged with this process to make the right decision when faced with a crisis.

We are called to be rulers and priests. Wright surveys the vast, but often times overlooked Biblical passages that speak of the human race one-day ruling with Christ. Our calling is one of great privilege and responsibility, to be rulers and priests is a high calling, and one that we should be working out in the present in anticipation of that future vocation.

One of the most brilliant chapters of the book is the section on 1 Corinthians 13. Because of familiarity some passages require a fresh reading with new eyes. We have so often heard the passage read and expounded upon, that we miss the intensity of what love really is. For Wright, love is the chief of all the virtues. Love is not something that can be gained overnight, or that can be exercised without much learning. To obtain the true virtue of love is to partake in the long arduous process of transformation of the mind.

In this book Wright characteristically exegetes Biblical passages, his style is both readable and challenging. Fans of his work will enjoy his characteristic interpretation of the Scriptures. However, what sets this work apart from his voluminous other works is the tying of that exegesis to attainment of virtue, and right Christian action. In this book Wright closes out the circle of his trilogy by taking proper orthodox Christian belief and hope and connecting it with proper Christian praxis.

After You Believe II

“Liberation theology, as it was then known, wasn’t any longer an abstract exercise, a seemingly exciting, flaky, and slightly dangerous sub-branch of systematic theology created to keep left-wing students from getting bored with the study of ancient dogmas. It was about churches, themselves poor and living among the poor, that were working out from day to day what it meant to call Jesus Lord and to make that lordship a living reality in their wider communities.”

--N.T. Wright, After You Believe, Page 235

“Rodney Stark’s book The Rise Of Christianity is his description of how Christians in ancient Turkey would react when their town was struck by plague. The rich, the well-to-do, and particularly the doctors would gather up family and possessions and leave town. They would flee to the hills, to fresher and less polluted air, or to friends or family in towns some distance away. But the Christians often among the poorest, and many of them slaves would stay and nurse people, including those who were neither Christians, nor their own family members, nor in any other way obviously connected to them. Sometimes such people got well again; not all diseases were necessarily fatal. Sometimes Christians would themselves catch the disease and die from it. But the point was made, graphically and unmistakably: this was a different way to be human. Nobody had ever thought of living like that before. Why were they doing it? And the Christians, called upon to explain the habits of the heart which made it ‘natural’ to do such things, would talk about Jesus, and about the God they had discovered through Jesus the God whose very nature was and is self-giving love. Stark suggests that this kind of behavior was one of many contributory reasons for the rapid spread of Christianity, despite the best efforts of efficient Roman persecutors, leading up to the time when, by the start of the fourth century, nearly half the empire was Christian and the emperors decided it was better to join what seemed to be the winning side.”

--N.T. Wright, After You Believe, Page 237

“The church has been divided between those who cultivate their own personal holiness but do nothing about working for justice in the world and those who are passionate for justice but regard personal holiness as an unnecessary distraction from that task. This division has been solidified by the church’s unfortunate habit of adopting from our surrounding culture the unhelpful packages of ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing’ prejudices, the former speaking of ‘justice’ and meaning ‘libertarianism’ and the latter speaking of ‘holiness’ and meaning ‘dualism.’ All this must be firmly pushed to one side. What we need is integration.”

--N.T. Wright, After You Believe, Page 247

The End Is Near...

Apocalyptic fervor seems to be at an all time high. We are on the verge of the conclusion of the Mayan calendar, global warming threatens to drastically change the landscape of our world, and the recent economic crisis has lead many to believe that we are fast approaching the end of days. Frightened readers may find solace in the knowledge that even before the dawning of a new millennium prognosticators predicted the ending of our world. Fortunately to this point every Nostradamus has been incorrect in their predictions.

As Christians we are called to be an eschatological people. For some this means a constant mining of the apocalyptic Scriptures for hidden insights about the coming world catastrophe. These insights are appealing to much of our world, some having so much appeal that their unveiling is the cause for rampant fandom resulting a fervor that distracts many well meaning Christians from the crises on which their attention should fall.

What is the telios of the Christian life? Paul makes it abundantly clear, building upon his understanding of what the atonement accomplishes. Our goal is new creation [2 Corinthians 5:17]. We are to live with the end in mind; our attention should be fixed on the future of God, coming to redeem all things, and to restore all of the created order. What Paul calls us to is a life lived in expectation of that future goal, we are to model new creation in our lives in the here and now.

Unfortunately, we are often distracted from the grandiose nature of that goal. A narrow understanding of what the life and death of Jesus on the cross accomplishes easily distracts us. We want to subsume the work of Jesus into a single narrative that focuses its attention primarily on how we get to heaven when we die. But the atonement accomplishes so much more. In his death and resurrection Jesus says no to the powers of this world, he defeats death, evil, and faithfully does what Israel could never do. This work is based primarily on the faithfulness of God to his covenant with Abraham.

Jesus death on the cross inaugurates a new eschatological reality. We are to live out lives today in anticipation of the future coming of God, the restoration of all things, and the establishment of God’s Kingdom on the earth. Our future goal is not disembodied bliss, but rather a world where God runs the show. In anticipation of that reality, we must begin to ask ourselves some probing questions.

First, what would our family, our neighborhood, our city, our country, and our world look like if God were running the show? Our lives should propel our world in that direction. Our sphere of influence should resemble heaven a little more because we are in it. If there will be peace in heaven, we should be peacemakers in our families. If there will be plenty for all in heaven, we should strive to ensure that no one is without when we have the means to bless them.

Second, we recognize that living out Christian ideals is not a matter of adherence to a list of rules to which we are obligated to follow out of fear of divine retribution. Nor are we simply free to live in a world of grace without consequences because we serve a God who is overflowing with forgiveness. Rather, we understand that our lives are to be lived in anticipation of our redemption. We are an eschatological people, not because we long for the end of time, or the removal of ourselves from this evil world, but rather because we long for the day when God will restore all things. In anticipation of that restoration, our lives serve as glimpses into that future reality. This eschatological anticipation motivates us to live up to the standards of the Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5-7]. We are neither trying to earn God’s favor, nor are we taking advantage of His grace. We are striving towards the goal of completion when we will be made whole.

Finally, because we are an eschatological people we will seek out others who share our convictions and hopes of reaching fulfillment. The path that leads to completion is not to be traveled in seclusion. We are a community of called out people challenged with the task of orienting our lives around the reality of the resurrection. We cannot traverse this path alone, nor were we meant to. Living in anticipation of the end means a radical change in lifestyle, commitments, and values. This transformation is designed to take place within the context of a community of believers who challenge, prod, and dare us to take the next steps toward our goal. We are not meant to walk alone on this road, for God has called out others just like us to be an eschatological people.

After You Believe I

“Thus in literal historic truth, not simply in theological interpretation, the one bore the sins of the many. Some theories of atonement detach themselves from the actual events and superimpose on (or even substitute for) the gospel narrative a theological scheme of interpretation culled from elsewhere, in order to explain how sinners may ultimately leave this world and go to heaven. Such theories are no better, at the level of a proper theological method, than theories of the kingdom, which ignore the cross. Kingdom and cross belong together. The whole story is the whole story. And it is within that whole story, not within some truncated version, that Jesus’s call to a new-creation kind of virtue makes the sense which it does.”

--N.T. Wright, After You Believe, page 114

Embracing Grace Book Review

“The Gospel is more like a piece of music to be performed than a list of ideas to endorse.”

With those words Scot McKnight launches the reader in to an extremely helpful and often times much needed reminder of what the Gospel of Jesus Christ actually entails. This book represents a clear synopsis of the overall narrative of Scripture, which allows the reader to make sense the message and actions of Jesus within a context of the developing story.

For McKnight, the Gospel is about the restoration of cracked eikons. McKnight begins with the story of Genesis, which is where any explanation of the Gospel must begin. For too often the Old Testament has been discarded as the history of Israel, containing only archaic laws and commands, which were clearly replaced by the ministry of Jesus. McKnight traces human beings need for the Gospel all the way back to the garden of Eden, where human beings are created in the image of God [Genesis 1], and are subsequently cracked [Genesis 3], and in need of restoration.

Jesus represents the true eikon, the one in whom all things are contained. In Jesus we see a true reflection of what it looks like to be human. From the Genesis story we also see a clear reflection of what the Gospel is all about. The death and resurrection of Jesus provide restoration of not only the cracked eikon, but also of the entire world. The Gospel is bigger and greater than we have made it out to be, involving not just our own personal salvation, but the restoration of the entire world.

The reality of judgment must also be faced when speaking about the restoration of cracked eikons. Exclusion is the way in which McKnight chooses to speak about the reality of judgment for those who choose to reject the restorative power of the Gospel, and instead choose their own path. In the garden Adam and Eve were excluded from fellowship with God, and allowed to pursue their own selfish ambitions, we too face the same sort of choice. We are free to choose our own path apart from God, only to end up excluding ourselves from God’s restorative justice. All of this, McKnight rightly points out, happens in the context of community.

McKnight's chapter on theories of the atonement is worth the price of the entire book. The atonement accomplishes so much that no single theory can possibly contain it. McKnight carefully walks through different theories of the atonement, pointing out the teachings of each one, and the validity each one possesses for a well-rounded theology of the cross. Any student of theology would do well to read McKnight’s chapter on the atonement. If more pastors were to glimpse the broad brush with which McKnight understands the atonement preaching on the Gospel would improve exponentially.

An excellent read, I highly recommend it for any serious student of theology.

Ghandi is Back!

Funny clip, Brian McLaren recently pointed out how this clip illustrates some of the hazardous ways the second coming of Jesus is read from Scripture. For too long Christians have missed the non-violent message of Jesus from the Gospels.

Why Believe?

Depsite all the skepticism of today's Western world, there might after all be a God who made the world and who is going to put it right at last. The dreams we have that refuse to die -- dreams of freedom and beauty, of order and love, dreams that we can make a real difference in the world -- come into their own when we put them within a framework of belief in a God who made the world and is going to sort it out once and for all, and wants to involve human beings in that process.

--N.T. Wright, After You Believe page xi