Wright, N.T. Books

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

N. T. Wright

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperOne Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $12.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Theology -> Eschatology
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven.

Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise.

Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life.

Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

N.T. Wright

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HarperSanFrancisco Amazon Marketplace: 64 new & used starting at $12.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Theology -> Apologetics
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 77 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Why do we expect justice? Why do we crave spirituality? Why are we attracted to beauty? Why are relationships often so painful? And how will the world be made right? These are not simply perennial questions all generations must struggle with, but, according to N. T. Wright, are the very echoes of a voice we dimly perceive but deeply long to hear. In fact, these questions take us to the heart of who God is and what He wants from us.

For two thousand years, Christianity has claimed to solve these mysteries, and this renowned biblical scholar and Anglican bishop shows that it still can today. Not since C. S. Lewis's classic summary of the faith, Mere Christianity, has such a wise and thorough scholar taken the time to explain to anyone who wants to know what Christianity really is and how it is practiced. Wright makes the case for Christian faith from the ground up, assuming that the reader has no knowledge of (and perhaps even some aversion to) religion in general and Christianity in particular.

Simply Christian walks the reader through the Christian faith step by step and question by question. With simple yet exciting and accessible prose, Wright challenges skeptics by offering explanations for even the toughest doubt-filled dilemmas, leaving believers with a reason for renewed faith. For anyone who wants to travel beyond the controversies that can obscure what the Christian faith really stands for, this simple book is the perfect vehicle for that journey.

The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol. 3)

N. T. Wright

Amazon Price: $26.40 List Price: $40.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Augsburg Fortress Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $21.10

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Bibles -> New Testament
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> New Testament -> Study

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Why did Christianity begin, and why did it take the shape it did? To answer this question – which any historian must face – renowned New Testament scholar N.T. Wright focuses on the key points: what precisely happened at Easter? What did the early Christians mean when they said that Jesus of Nazareth had been raised from the dead? What can be said today about his belief?

This book, third is Wright’s series Christian Origins and the Question of God, sketches a map of ancient beliefs about life after death, in both the Greco-Roman and Jewish worlds. It then highlights the fact that the early Christians’ belief about the afterlife belonged firmly on the Jewish spectrum, while introducing several new mutations and sharper definitions. This, together with other features of early Christianity, forces the historian to read the Easter narratives in the gospels, not simply as late rationalizations of early Christian spirituality, but as accounts of two actual events: the empty tomb of Jesus and his "appearances."

How do we explain these phenomena? The early Christians’ answer was that Jesus had indeed been bodily raised from the dead; that was why they hailed him as the messianic "son of God." No modern historian has come up with a more convincing explanation. Facing this question, we are confronted to this day with the most central issues of the Christian worldview and theology.

The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God)

N. T. Wright

Amazon Price: $25.08 List Price: $38.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Augsburg Fortress Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $19.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Theism
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Bibles -> New Testament

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A great beginning to an excellent series 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have just finished reading this book after coming across Wright's shorter work, The Challenge of Jesus" which I also highly recommend.
This book lays a good foundation for the ambitious project Wright is undertaking to explain Jesus, Paul and the New Testament.

The first section of the book explains the need for History, Theology and Literature to be interlinked. Wright explains that neither positivism nor phenomenalism are good ways of explaining the world. He argues for a new hermeneutic: the hermeneutic of Love. He also uses the term 'critical realism' to explain this.
In part two he goes deeper into the explanations of narrative and worldview with some very useful insights and ideas. Such as the reality of public and private spheres of knowledge, instead of the well worn objective/subjective split. He also discusses the enlightenment and its values and the necessity for different ideas in theology than pantheism and deism.
The third part of the book is a massive account of Judea and its people from the 100's BC to the 100's AD. It includes explanations of Jewish beliefs, hopes and worldviews. How their interpretive framework of the world operated.
The fourth portion of the book does the same for the early 1st century Christian movement. Wright critiques the different strands of Christianity and insists that Christianity of the first century was above all from a Jewish perspective and not, as Crossan and others postulate, a hellenistic movement that later became Jewish.
The final section sums up the entire book and sets the stage for the second book of the series, Jesus and the Victory of God. I promptly ordered that book as soon as I finished this first volume. It is very refreshing to see someone like Wright who is firmly rooted in history but can also sum up theology and narrative so well.

A definite must-read for any student of the bible and christianity. 5 stars all the way around.

Jesus and the Victory of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Volume 2)

N. T. Wright

Amazon Price: $27.06 List Price: $41.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Augsburg Fortress Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $16.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Criticism & Interpretation -> New Testament
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Theology -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Jesus and the Victory of God 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 7 people found this review helpful.

A most detailed and excellent work, probably too technical or detailed for the ordinary reader but required reading for anyone studying the life and ministry of Jesus.

Jesus and THe Victory of God 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

It is a very comprehensive and informative book. Apart from all the critics, Wright has provided a much needed balanced overview of recent writings re the Historical Jesus and outlines a challenging pisture of the Central message of christianity.

Outstanding History 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is volume 2 of N.T. Wright's "Christian Origins and the Question of God", which begins to put flesh on volume 1 and centers on the historical Jesus. In the opening section Wright surveys the historical quests to find out who Jesus is and provides a devastating critique of the Jesus Seminar. This is a great section, introducing the lay scholar to names, theories, and trends in the study of the historical Jesus and he does it without simply locking into strict orthodoxy or jettisoning it at the door. Once this basic background is established Wright seeks to set forth his vision of the historical Jesus. He begins by outlining the work of a prophet in section II and then moves into the beliefs and aims of Jesus in section III.

Through his historical analysis, Wright sheds a lot of light on numerous texts, bringing out the historical Jesus and, I believe, showing that there is not a dichotomy between the Christ of faith and the Jesus of history. In fact, given the aims and beliefs of this prophet the outworking of the Church's vision is quite sound. This is a great book that will challenge aspects of your thinking, especially if you think Jesus is a-political or simply a 'savior from hell', but doesn't necessarily call you to leave the Faith to discover the 'real Jesus', but enables one to clearly understand the the history and life and times of Jesus more thoroughly.

My fault with the book lies on aspects of his conclusion, which flows from his methodology. Granted, he says he is not touching John's Gospel, because it is a huge mountain to climb, but how can John's Gospel not tie in directly with any aspect of "Jesus' self-consciousness"? Granted, he limits the scope of his work, which was necessary, but some of his conclusions seem to be built on incomplete evidence to say the least.

Yet, despite that complaint, the book is worth investing several hours of your life to read and digest the material.

Editorial Review:

N.T. Wright brilliantly surveys the field of Jesus scholarship in the twentieth-century, presenting Jesus firmly within the political and social setting of the first-century--as a Jewish apocalyptic prophet.

Evil And the Justice of God

N. T. Wright

Amazon Price: $16.32 List Price: $24.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: IVP Books Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $7.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Theology -> Apologetics
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Theology -> Philosophy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

With every earthquake and war, understanding the nature of evil and our response to it becomes more urgent. Evil is no longer the concern just of ministers and theologians but also of politicians and the media. We hear of child abuse, ethnic cleansing, AIDS, torture and terrorism, and rightfully we are shocked. But, N. T. Wright says, we should not be surprised. For too long we have naively believed in the modern idea of human progress. In contrast, postmodern thinkers have rightly argued that evil is real, powerful and important, but they give no real clue as to what we should do about it. In fact, evil is more serious than either our culture or our theology has supposed. How then might Jesus' death be the culmination of the Old Testament solution to evil but on a wider and deeper scale than most imagine? Can we possibly envision a world in which we are delivered from evil? How might we work toward such a future through prayer and justice in the present? These are the powerful and pressing themes that N. T. Wright addresses in this book that is at once timely and timeless.

Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship

N. T. Wright

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $6.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Essays -> General
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Christian Living -> Discipleship

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Wow. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is my first time reading N.T. Wright's books, though I've read an essay and heard him speak. This is an unbelievable book. The first half of the book walks through the New Testament and describes each author's view of Jesus and what it looks like to follow Him. The second half seems to walk through some of the major issues of discipleship and what it actually looks like to follow Jesus. I loved it and will go back to it again and again.

Bishop Wright is my Hero 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

For years I'd scoffed at Bishop N.T. Wright thinking him a backward-looking, anti-intellectual Christian with nothing to say to the contemporary world. I was wrong. And I'm glad to say this book started it all.

After reading several books on revisionist views of Jesus, I've concluded (very, very reluctantly) that the Jesus presented in "Following Jesus" is the only Jesus really worth following. Here Wright gives us a glimpse of the Jesus of the gospels, a Jesus who is the Savior of the World, a Jesus who makes huge demands on our lives and calls us to follow Him to Calvary. This Jesus tells us disturbing things about ourselves, the world, and how both are in need of repair. The good news, as Wright points out, is that G-d has begun to recreate the world through Jesus of Nazareth. In this short book of sermons, Wright shows the new creation appearing by looking at Jesus' teaching, his healings and, perhaps most of all, his resurrection. The new creation has already begun, yet it will fully arrive in the Age to Come.

This book set my heart aflame for the Christian hope. Although the world suffers and humans fail in love (again and again), there is a G-d who raises the dead, a fact that--when it's internalized--gives life its proper focus.

Thank you, Bishop Wright, for this powerful little book.

The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is

N. T. Wright

Amazon Price: $12.24 List Price: $18.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: InterVarsity Press Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $7.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Christian Living -> Faith
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Jesus -> Historical Jesus

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"We cannot assume that by saying the word Jesus," writes N.T. Wright--Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey and formerly Dean of Lichtifeld Cathedral--"still less the word Christ, we are automatically in touch with the real Jesus who talked in first-century Palestine." Even less are we automatically in touch with "the Jesus who ... is the same yesterday, today and forever." Wright's goal in this volume is to present in a simplified form the findings that are occupying him in his monumental six-volume series entitled Christian Origins and the Question of God, and in particular in the second volume, already published, Jesus and the Victory of God. Distinguishing himself from the "Jesus Seminar" theologians, who question the literalness of the resurrection (among other things), Wright affirms the absolute centrality of both the Last Supper and the Easter experience as historical events. Through these experiences with Jesus, Wright suggests, the early Christians came to see that "Jesus--and then, very quickly, Jesus' people--were now the true Temple, and the actual building in Jerusalem was thereby redundant."

Written with refreshing clarity and passion, The Challenge of Jesus serves as an excellent introduction to the thinking of this influential New Testament historian. --Doug Thorpe

What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity?

N. T. Wright

Amazon Price: $11.56 List Price: $17.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $3.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Commentaries -> New Testament
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> New Testament -> Study

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great Explanation and Defense of New Perspective 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is a well written explanation and defense of the New Perspective on Paul. Wright breaks down Paul's theology in a way that makes sense of his background as a first century Jewish Pharisee. He indeed shows that Paul's theology is not a new faith as a mixture of Judaism with Hellinism, but rather it is Jewish to the core reshaped and redefined around Jesus of Nazareth, who showed himself to be the very face of Israel's God. I think he does a good job of demonstrating that Second Temple 1st century Judaism was not a religion of self-help morality, but rather it's obsession with the Law was more or less an ethnocentric way of keeping the covenant all to themselves.

From all of this stems Wright's view on justification and the righteousness of God. As a North American Protestant/Evangelical, many of the people with whom I have discussed this issue completely reject and condemn it right from the beginning. But I don't see things that way. I believe that Wright's view of justification is a completely valid and biblical view to hold. And honestly I hold almost the same view of justification (I don't know all the intricacies of his view, therefore I say 'almost'). His basic argument is that justification in Paul's law-court language has nothing to do with how a person "gets saved" but rather is the declaration that a person "is already saved". He seems to distinguish between regeneration (the new birth) and justification (and rightfully so), however most Protestants, especially those of the Reformed tradition do not. To sum it up, Wright believes that justification is God's present declaration that someone is part of the covenant family in anticipation of the future declaration of vindication.

From this issue, Wright tackles the issue of the righteousness of God. Most Protestants, especially Reformers hold to the doctrine of imputation. That is the actual righteousness of Jesus is somehow transferred to the believers "account". In light of Wright's defense of his view of justification imputation is simply not needed. It's not only not needed but there does not seem to be ample biblical support for the doctrine, which Wright demonstrates in the classic proof texts of the doctrine. Instead of the righteousness of God being something given to the believer, it is actual God's own righteousness, his justice towards his covenant. Wright defends this notion beautifully from historical 1st century Judaism and the Old Testament itself.

I highly recommend this book.

Editorial Review:

N.T. Wright, a world authority on the life and letters of Paul, responds to A.N. Wilson's claim that it was Paul and not Jesus who founded Christianity. He delivers a devastating critique, contending that Paul was a faithful witness and herald of Jesus Christ.

Paul: In Fresh Perspective

N. T. Wright

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fortress Press Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $12.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Wright, N.T.
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Criticism & Interpretation -> New Testament
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"For me," says N.T.Wright, "there has been no more stimulating exercise, for the mind, the heart, the imagination and the spirit, than trying to think Paul's thoughts after him and constantly to be stirred up to fresh glimpses of God's ways and purposes with the world and with us strange human creatures." Wright's accessible new volume, built on his Cambridge University Hulsean Lectures of 2004, takes a fresh look at Paul in light of recent understandings of his Jewish roots, his attitude toward the Roman Empire, and his unique reframing of Jewish symbols in relation to his experience of the risen Christ. Then Wright attempts a short systematic account of the main theological contours of Paul's thought and its pertinence for the church today.

Part One Themes 1. Paul's World, Paul's Legacy 2. Creation and Covenant 3.Messiah and Apocalyptic 4. Gospel and Empire

Part Two Structures 5. Rethinking God 6. Reworking God's People 7. Reimagining God's Future 8. Paul, Jesus, and the Task of the Church