Excellent With One Caveat

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	• Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense N.T. Wright HarperOne, 2006 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 73 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Home Run for N.T.!

It seems many times I'm only reading material that reinforces what I already know. This book went beyond that educational rut. It gave fresh language to what I really believe and then took me places where I could see my faith from totally new perspectives. I grew deeper in knowledge and more passionate in love with God through it. Thanks.

E. SANDRAS, author of "Buck Naked Faith" and "Plastic Jesus"

Simply Very Good Writing

N.T. Wright gets it right. He writes with a style that is both lucid and lyrical -- clearly explained and well-written. In fact the thing I liked most about this particular work is that the author delivers exactly what the title promises -- a short exploration of the major themes of the Christian faith that simply makes sense.

Very well done!

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Sense and sensibility

When I first saw this book at the bookstore I was worried: with the title seemingly stolen from C.S. Lewis' famous classic and the prospect of yet another general defense of Christianity which would only appeal to those already converted, it was with some reservation that I borrowed it eventually. I needn't have worried. N.T. Wright is far more than just a brilliant New Testament scholar; he is also a lucid conversationalist and a brilliant expositor of the faith. He does not try to brow-beat people into accepting the 'inevitable' logic and accuracy of the Christian message. In fact, there's very little 'apology' in this book at all. He simply sets out why Christianity might be a sensible way of tying together our desire for justice, relationship, beauty and spirituality. The very fact that he spends very little time dealing with objections and criticism is a strength. It is as if he is suggesting that there are better ways to approach the Christian message than trying desperately to refute it. Questioning is not the alpha and omega of the religious quest, even if it is a very important part of it.

Although brief, the book covers the major aspects of the Christian worldview. It is inspiring and refreshing, brief but exhaustive and it has, in J.B. Phillips' words, "the ring of truth". Will it only have appeal with those already converted? That's hard to say, but if it can get at least some people thinking about the Christian message it will have been worth it.

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Excellent With One Caveat

Wright has written a wonderful book that, while in no way coming close to replacing C.S. Lewis' classic Mere Christianity, does give us the fruit of his scholarly work, in a pastoral way that is open to many more readers. Wright here is the pastor giving us suggestions even on how to pray (I like especially his suggestion about praying with the actual words of Scripture). Wright's two main themes are really two sides of the same coin: how heaven and earth overlap in prayer, worship, and the Eucharist, and how life in the Holy Spirit means that God's future for us--which involves bodily resurrection and a new heaven and new earth-- is anticipated now on earth when we live in the Holy Spirit and experience heaven on earth in prayer and liturgy. Wright as a traditional Anglican values the Eucharist--that approach is refreshing for Catholic readers like myself, although I think he goes too far in trying to minimize the differences between Catholics and others on the Eucharist, a stance that Lewis was wise enough to avoid altogether. Catholics engage in Eucharistic Adoration. There in one singular, concrete practice is the Catholic difference that cannot be made to disappear with a wave of the hands. With that caveat in mind, I still highly recommend the book to all readers, including Catholics. For a more detailed review, see my blog above for October 11, 2006.

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Gadfly Like

I remember reading the Apology of Socrates in college. In fact, part of the class was to give a speech from the various literary pieces that we read during the semester. I chose the gadfly metaphor. Socrates refers to himself as a gadfly and the Athens as a lazy steed that needs to be spurred in to action. When I read Bishop NT Wright,that is the impression I get. He is like that gadfly spurring the church in to action.

SIMPLY CHRISTIAN is written to that end. I couldn't put this piece down. I think it is unfair to speak of this volume in the same breath as CS Lewis' MERE CHRISTIANITY. Both are targeting different readers, NT Wright to the church and CS Lewis the general reader.

I recommend SIMPLY CHRISTIAN without reservation.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, page 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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