I’ve nearly finished with N. T. Wright‘s Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (HarperOne, 2008) and have indeed been surprised. I wasn’t sure what I’d discover in this volume, but Wright has once again offered an accessible, significant and timely book. This volume should be required reading of pastors in particular as we think through more carefully our theology of “heaven” and the Resurrection. I discovered (to my pleasant surprise) that he essentially posits (of course in a far more developed and articulated fashion) what I wrote elsewhere about “abandoning heaven.” The pop-theology notion of “heaven” is utterly deficient as any form of Christian belief or hope.
I believe his message (and the one that has been stirring in me of late) must be taken seriously especially in my own fellowship (the Assemblies of God) wherein we seem to hold to an escapist notion concerning both death and the “rapture of the Church.” The good news is transformative…it is redemptive. It is not escapist. The world (indeed the whole cosmos) belongs to the redemptive plan of God in Christ.
Rick: first of all, thanks for keeping up this blog, while the rest of us sit on our hands! I really do hope to contribute in the near future. I’m just trying to figure out what my personal blog is meant for and what I should write there and what would be more appropriate here.
Secondly, this book of Wrights was very formative for me. Probably in the top 5 influential books in the last 5 years or so!
(Another book leading up to this one: Paul Marshall’s “Heaven is not my Home.” I presume that Wittmer’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth” will cover similar territory.)
I’ve been meaning to read this book for a few years now. I even bought it a few months ago, but then loaned it to someone who has since moved to Belgium and didn’t return it. *sigh*
I will happily loan you my copy Jeff. 🙂
[…] Comments « The Wright Kind of Future […]
I must admit I had always thought the words of John the Baptist when he said “Repent for the kingdom of God was near,” were problematic until recently. Was Christ the kingdom of God or was the kingdom of god what he would rule eventually on earth during the millenium, and then finally after the last battle, in heaven? What exactly was the kingdom of God that it could be near? How could it be near when seperated by a historical period of more than 2000 years from Jesus’ lifetime, death and resurrection? This could not be resolved unless the church was in fact the kingdom and the fact we have joined membership with it meant it was near in the moments before we accepted Christ as saviour? However, I like how Wright presents the resurrection and reign of Christ as Him being here everwhere now and also absent in heaven, him reigning in heaven over the world but eventually his kingdom coming to the earth in the new creation. This has a tension that I find in scripture about the kingdom of God.
Thanks for your comments on Wright’s book … I, too, just finished it several weeks ago and found it powerful. The escapist message became necessary after Rome “won” and the church became a servant of the state and no longer sought to change the world according to God’s purpose, but settled for the world as it was under Rome, feeding at its luxurious table. As the state changed from state-to-state, the Western Church pretty much stayed the course and bowed the knee to Baal, all the while promising pie-in-the-sky in the sweet by-and-by, while mostly closing its eyes to war, colonialism, slavery, greed and the despoiling of God’s creation and God’s creatures. Wright won’t let us get away with this easy message because it is not the message of Scripture, nor the message proclaimed by Jesus and Paul.
It is still fascinating how the Church went from largely amillennial and kingdom “now” to (at least with the birth of “Evangelicalism” from the throws of Fundamentalism) premillennial and “not yet” escapists. At least, that was the movement in the U.S. context. In either direction, one has moved toward something thoroughly un-biblical (and not that either perspective is completely wrong…but being wrong in each direction is still being wrong). Thanks for the comments. By the way, have you found it difficult to listen to preaching about eschatological themes and/or singing songs about such matters? I have found Wright to spoil me for such things now…as if I wasn’t already on that journey.