Why "Simply Christian" is a "must read"

books:

	• Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense N.T. Wright HarperSanFrancisco, 2006 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 77 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Reveals much that has been neglected

N. T. Wright is both a brilliant thinker and excellent writer; the latter gift enables him to communicate his deep and broad thinking on Jesus to just about anybody. As the subtitle of the book suggests, here he writes primarily to explain for people who are either non-Christian or perhaps anti-Christian why Christianity makes sense. Wright also writes with an eye toward helping Christians understand more clearly the one whom they follow. Thus, his audience and purposes are pretty much identical to those of C. S. Lewis's modern classic Mere Christianity, making the many comparisons of Wright's book to Lewis's pretty much inevitable.

Others have already ably summarized the contents of this book here, so I will not just recapitulate what has already been said. Instead I will do a bit of compare and contrast with Mere Christianity, and then give a final assessment, in the hope that that will help readers decide whether they would want to read or purchase Simply Christian.

First, while Mere Christianity is more philosophically oriented and more systematically organized (though hardly systematic), Simply Christian is more oriented to history/narrative, particularly the basic historical narrative of the Bible itself. Thus, Wright engages the actual biblical texts more often than Lewis did; that difference is welcome.

Second, Wright's book is more culturally contextualized than Lewis's. Thus, Wright refers to current events and issues far more frequently than Lewis did--which is especially remarkable given the fact that Lewis wrote what became Mere Christianity for a series of BBC broadcasts aired during World War II. While Wright doesn't get bogged down in the current events and (thankfully) refrains from editorializing on them, I do think that he has dated his book much more than Lewis did. So while the present generation will find Wright's book more "relevant" than Lewis's, I do not know if it will age as well.

Third, Wright writes as an "expert" in historical Jesus research and a bishop, in contrast to Lewis, who wrote as a layman. The consequent differences in the two men's books are readily apparent. Wright is far more confident in setting forth his own historical and theological opinions and writes in a more authoritative voice, while Lewis was content to recount what others thought. And when Lewis did state his own opinion on a matter, he did so cautiously, more like a student comparing notes with fellow classmates than a teacher. Moreover, while Wright (as Lewis did) self-consciously sets forth Christianity in a way that cuts across some denominational lines, his account of Christianity is more idiosyncratic than Lewis's. Lewis was the insightful student setting forth his best understanding of that core of truths upon which the experts throughout Christian history would have agreed; Wright is the expert setting forth his own view of the gospel and the Christian life (whether it is in line with historic orthodoxy and practice is for the reader to judge).

So how well does Wright accomplish his objectives in writing here? As a Christian, I cannot evaluate how compelling this offering would be to non-Christians, but I can take a shot at answering how well Wright helps us Christians rethink some things about our doctrines and lives that have become bent out of shape over the years.

On the positive side, Wright stresses the importance of understanding Jesus in his historical context. This is a point that Wright has emphasized for many years, and it is indeed crucial.

Related is the importance of understanding the narrative flow of scripture-that the Bible is first and foremost a narrative account of things God has accomplished in history, not primarily a collection of inspiring platitudes or categorical dos and don'ts (though the dos and don'ts are unquestionably there).

Also helpful is the recurring theme of the relation of God to creation, of heaven to earth. Against the pantheist, who identifies God with creation and creation with God, and the deist, who removes God far from creation, Wright offers his belief that the true and biblical view is that heaven, the realm of God's direct rule, and earth, which we inhabit, are interlocking and overlapping realms-not the same, but in close relationship. In Jewish thought, heaven and earth met, and God inhabited his creation, in several places, e.g., in the Torah and in the Temple. The early Christians, most of whom were themselves Jews, appropriated this belief and applied it to Jesus himself. That is, Jesus was now the place where heaven and earth met once and for all.

Also refreshing is the theme of new creation that runs through this work. This is something that has gone neglected by at least some Christian traditions: that integral to the good news is that God has declared his purpose to renew his creation, rather than to offer people an escape from it into his heaven, or to scrap the present created order and begin again ex nihilo. God decisively began this new creation in the resurrection of Jesus.

Finally, Wright says many good things on Christian living, even when (or especially when) his declarations counter wider cultural currents. Two examples: against pervasive individualism he emphasizes the importance of the church, and he calmly yet powerfully confronts the idolatry of sexual immorality.

My only significant concern about the book is that it understates the great truth that Jesus's death in fact reconciles us to God himself, and that this is a huge part of the good news. Jesus's death is presented as absorbing and exhausting evil on our behalf, but not as absorbing the just wrath of God against sin on our behalf. Since Wright has elsewhere defended the notion that Jesus's death was indeed a propitiation for sin (that is, a sacrifice to satisfy the just anger of God against sin), perhaps Wright's under-emphasis of that here was intended as a counterbalance to widespread Christian neglect of the "new creation" aspect of the good news. Or maybe he thought that emphasizing propitiation would turn off the non-Christians in his audience, who have heard the whole "Jesus died for your sins" sales pitch before. Nevertheless, given its importance in scripture, I do not think the extent of Wright's neglect of this subject in this book is justified. Wright is articulate enough to state the propitiation theme in a way that wouldn't just sound like the same old blather to non-Christians, and he is intelligent enough to point out aspects of propitiation that would enlarge the Christian's understanding of it and appreciation for it.

Despite that significant reservation, I recommend Simply Christian highly. It is a worthy defense of the Christian faith for this generation, and it reveals many facets of the good news of Jesus that have often been obscured.

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Why "Simply Christian" is a "must read"

It presents a compelling case for Christianity without attempting to bully the reader (as C. S. Lewis often does in his essays) and without relying on all those "code words" that long-time Christians find familiar but others do not. This is the Gospel in plan English. Bravo!

It firmly insists that Christianity makes claims about history - that Jesus lived, died, and rose again, and that this resurrection is the central event in the story of God's re-creation of our fallen world.

It insists that Christians be active participants in the future unfolding of God's plan. We are each called to play a unique role in it.

It insists that there is a transcendent realm, another world, that can and does intersect or overlap with our own world, especially in sacraments, in worship, in Bible reading, and in prayer. Moreover, just as the temple was, for Jews in Jesus time, a place where heaven and earth overlapped, now we, as individual Christians, are called to be such places of overlap, where the light of Jesus shines through us.

It highlights the crucial importance of forgiveness. Just as God has forgiven us our sins, so are we to forgive others. The Lord's prayer is explicit on this point.

Becoming a Christian, Wright asserts, is not a matter or accepting certain improbable factual assertions, but rather a matter of trusting in God and accepting our role in unfolding his plan for the world.

Rather than being dissected, as in a laboratory, or treated merely as an instrument of historical or linguistic research, the Bible is in fact one of the principal ways in which God addresses us, to prepare us for our role in fulfilling his ultimate plans. It is another place where this world and God's world overlap. Current debates over "literal" versus "metaphorical" ways of reading scripture are, in Wright's view, counterproductive. The Bible eludes these simplistic categories, which should be abandoned.

At its core, then, the "faith" to which the Bible calls us is essentially trusting in a God who has revealed himself in history, who has begun, through Jesus' death and resurrection, to redeem the world and transform it into his kingdom, who invites us into to an intimate relationship with him, who demands that we become all that we were created and meant to be, who forgives us when we fall short of that mark, and who invites us to play a significant role in moving forward his plan for the world. For Wright, Christian faith is not just a matter of spiritual feelings that are quite independent of what we say and do. It makes demands upon us that can only be met in the realm of thought and behavior.

As C. S. Lewis did in his fiction, "Simply Christian" persuasively invites its readers to recognize that there is a transcendent reality that impinges on our ordinary world, that the God who rules this realm has made himself known in history and continues to do so, that we are part of his plan to renew his creation, and, consequently, that what we think and do has cosmic significance.

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Sinply Brilliant!

SIMPLY CHRISTIAN

by N.T. Wright

This was the first book of Wright's that I've read, though I certainly was already familiar with him. Primarily through his magnum opus "The Resurrection of the Son of God", which immediately became the gold standard for defending the orthodox Christian stance regarding the physical resurrection of Christ. I am also familiar with Wright through the controversy over his views concerning Paul and second temple Judaism. Since I deeply disagree with Wright on that issue, I came to this book with some concern, but with an open mind, knowing that he is a brilliant theologian who should be listened to even if disagreed with.

On the pre-published copy there's a blurb on the back that declares this book to be the 21st Century's new "Mere Christianity". Typically, these kind of accolades are nothing more than publishing houses trying to hype a product in order to generate "buzz". Yet, after reading through the book one, and having read through most of it a second time now, I would have to concur. Wright is a masteful writer, and I imagine an excellent preacher, since his use of illustrations are pithy, appropriate to the need at hand, and have a lyrical quality that carries you right along.

The book is made up of sixteen chapters and is broken up into three parts. In part one, the first four chapters address the gnawing sense of unease (what he calls the "Echoes of a Voice") that exists in everyone concerning our need to see the world being "put to rights" (one of Wright's favorite phrases throughout the book), "The Hidden Spring" which speaks of our need for "spirituality", "Made for Each Other" reflects on our need and hunger for relationships, and in "For the Beauty of the Earth" he describes quite endearingly of our delight in beauty.

In the central section of the book, called "Staring at the Sun", Wright gets into theology proper, speaking of God, Israel, Jesus and the Coming of God's Kingdom, Jesus: Rescue and Renewal, God's Breath of Life, and finally in chapter 10, Living by the Spirit. Finally, in section three, called "Reflecting the Image", Wright describes what it means to be Christian. In the six final chapters, he covers Worship, Prayer, The Book God Breathed, The Story and the Task, Believing and Belonging, and New Creation, Starting Now. At the end of the book, Wright offers several resources for readers to take things further, but ultimately makes it clear that a fully orbed Christianity has to leave the book and start living it out in communion with other Christians.

The first four chapters are simply wonderful and inspiring to read and his story-telling ability is beyond question. His account of our sense of needing to put the world to rights, a sense that there should be "justice" in some sense is best illustrated by this one quote, where he quickly points out that "[t]he 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 of us."(p.6). He then goes on to point out examples that illustrate both the human condition in its best and worst.

Throughout the beginning of the book, Wright speaks of hearing a "voice" and where that voice leads. First dealing with issues of justice, then our spiritualities, our need for relationships, and our being drawn to beauty, he leads us, inexorably, to one step before God. Here, Wright makes clear that unaided human intellect can never "reach up", so to speak, to God. God has to reveal Himself for us to even enjoy any knowledge of Him at all, let alone in a saving way.

One of the key issues in the chapter on God is how we see the world we live in. Here Wright describes three options: option one, which sees the world and God as being coterminous and interchangeable, is essentially "pantheism." Option two is where God and the physical universe are radically separated, a view that is best described by "Deism." Option three posits the idea that God and the created order are distinct and yet interact or overlap with each other. This, according to Wright, is the Jewish/Christian view that allows for an accurate (if not exhaustively complete) view of reality. In fact, Wright's description of the Trinity goes a long way towards offering an epistemology that is both coherent and satisfying to those seeking to know how to reconcile the one and the many, the "is" and the "ought." If only for this aspect of his book, Simply Christian "ought" to be bought!

In the chapter on Israel, Wright offers copious amounts of Scripture to explain God's relationship with His Covenant people and hos He was and is at work with them to put the world to rights. Ultimately, the only one who keeps covenant faithfully is the one true Son of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth. Following up on that, Wright describes what Christ "didn't" come for before he describes what He actually came for. Christ didn't come to give us a new moral teaching, or to offer us a wonderful moral example, or to offer us a way to "get to heaven", or even a new teaching about about God. "The point of the Christian faith is not so much that we are ignorant and need better information, but that we are lost and need someone to come and find us, stuck in the quicksand waiting to be rescued, dying and in need of new life."(92) I couldn't have said it better myself. And just two pages later Wright says, "The place where God's space and our space intersect and interlock is no longer the Temple in Jerusalem. It is Jesus himself." Wright then goes on to use this illustration to show how the Christian life is to be lived. This part was the most powerful for me, and helped to bring home the presence of Christ more than almost anyone outside of Scripture has been able to do.

In the chapter called Jesus: Rescue and Renewal, Wright directly addresses the issue of the historicity of the physical resurrection of Christ. He points out that the once popular view that there was a plethora of "resurrecting gods", and that early Christianity borrowed from these myths, is completely false. His "Resurrection of the Son of God" goes into fantastic detail to support the orthodox view. In his chapter on Living in the Spirit, Wright essentially says that Christians are called to live the Torah, which for some will be controversial, though in Christ, the Law is brought to a razor sharp edge that finds its sharpest edge in Christ Himself. And Wright makes clear that no one can come near to that obedience. Yet we are nonetheless called to follow Him in His understanding of the Law.

The final chapters speak to what it means to "be Christian." Wright's chapter on Worship is profound beyond words, though his words do communicate something of the mystery of being in communion with Christ, especially in regard to the means (sacraments) that God has commanded. I appreciated Wright's chapter on prayer, especially his defense of using written prayers, both for corporate and private use. As one who uses the Banner of Truth's "Valley of Vision," which is a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions, and who gets more out of them than from much of my own prayers, I can say a hearty AMEN!

In Wright's chapter on Scripture, I am less "higher critical" than he is, yet he still reads the text faithfully in its final form. And so while I would differ with him regarding how the text came to us, I nonetheless appreciate his words. The following chapter is by far one of his strongest, in that he deals with how to interpret the text. His treatment of the tension between "literal" versus "metaphorical" is worth the price of the book.

In Believing and Belonging, I find that Wright is very strong on why it's so importantto belong to a church body. His lays waste the "lone ranger" type of Christianity that is so prevalent today, especially here in America. But his treatment of baptism is where I part ways. He implies quite strongly a form of baptismal regeneration throughout the chapter and in the one following. Admittedly, Wright is Anglican, and a high Anglican at that. So I certainly understand and appreciate where he's coming from. Yet, if he's concerned to offer a "simply" Christian perspective that isn't sectarian, I would have preferred he had been a bit more "ecumenical" than to offer up only a high-church, sacramental perspective that neglects what the "low" church (myself included) has held to for many centuries.

So other than that caveate on baptism, Tom Wright's Simply Christian is, overall, Simply brilliant!

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Excellent, Accessible Work by Wright

I have read most of N.T. Wright's books and this is by far the most approachable. Please don't interpret approachable to mean simple or only for new believers. This book accomplishes the unusual feat of offering complex concepts that will enrich the knowledge of seasoned Christ-followers while also providing the necessary 'bridging text' so that newer believers will understand.

Of particular interest for me was explaining the old testament and new testament as one continuous story. Understanding, and explaining, the unified story of the Bible is difficult and is therefore, usually avoided. Wright does an excellent job.

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the new face of christianity?

Take a glimpse into this complex, yet, simple masterpiece and discover that it is intellectually profound, poetically exquistie, emotionally captivating, and monumentally revolutionary.

In this explorative work, N.T. Wright takes you through hidden valleys and across beautiful mountain tops where you see, at last, a sunset break forth that only some have heard whispers about.

This is not a book. This is a long lost treasure map waiting to be discovered. But, only if one is ready to embark on the journey that it holds out.

To give this book a description would be like trying to, as N.T. Wright has said on one occasion, "shovel snow with a teaspoon."

Welcome home and beware, this might change your life, but, who knows...

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reviews: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, page 15, 16

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