A Fresh Retelling of an Old Story

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

Wonderfully easy to read theology

In very easy to read understanable English, N.T. Wright describes tbe basics of biblical based Christianity that people of most denominations will find helpful and sound.

Good, Not Great

NT Wright has moments of fantastic insight and periods of banality that really made for a confusing read. Sometimes I found myself impressed by a strong Biblically-based theological mind backed by good writing skills and others I was nearly put to sleep by what amounted to a sermon on what Wright thinks Christianity is all about. When he gets into the history of Israel, and makes his case for why spirituality makes sense (which reminded me a lot of Peter Berger's 'hints of transcendence') he is at his best. Also his understanding of soteriology is admirable. But so many possible objections to his point of view are just passed over without real address. There's no commentary on the problem of evil, and no commentary on the contemporary problem of synthesizing a real comprehensive worldview where we are pulled on one side by a pervasive existential vaccuum (though he does adress this side of the problem indirectly) and the other by the ascendency of the natural sciences as the central ordering principle of most intellectuals lives and much of society. Nor was there any address of the problem of Divine Hiddenness, or how ethics and religion interact, or anything like that.

I thought he defended his view that Christ is the mode of God's saving activity in history admirably, and I share that conviction, but I can't understand why he would admit an open-ness to the idea that Christ was unaware of His own divinity while insisting on the Gospel's affirmation of a bodily resurrection. A lot of his theological positions seem ad hoc and don't strike me as very systematic. I share his confidence in the truth of a triune God, I think the trinity makes the most sense of our spiritual lives and he does make something of a case for it, but I saw no serious attention to the possibility of a more unitarian stance that was also biblically based.

This book harkens back to C S Lewis's MERE CHRISTIANITY, and while I respect both attempts at some simple exposition of the Christian faith, my biggest problem with Wright's work is similar to a problem I had with Lewis's. Wright seems to be presenting HIS Christianity as THE Christianity, there is no real recognition of the plurality found within the Christian faith. In the end Christianity is a living movement, one that finds a multitude of expressions, and many of which share more a historical than a doctrinal connection. But Wright acts like this is simply what Christianity IS, in it's essence. I found myself agreeing with 80% Wright thought theologically speaking, but how he said it only rang a bell with me about 40% of the time. I recommend it to beginners, but only if they are willing to take a deeper look into the rich theological tradition that is out there for the sampling afterwards.

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A Fresh Retelling of an Old Story

While there are various re-tellings or re-imaginings of the Christian story out there, from what I have read of them I can commend Norman T. Wright's Simply Christian more than most. It is thoroughly orthodox in its expression of the faith we hold, and yet it has a fresh and relevant way of telling the story without being folksy or irreverent.

Wright begins with what may be his most important contribution, and that is raising four questions, or "echoes of a voice," within contemporary society -- the longing for justice, the quest for spirituality, the hunger for relationships, and the delight in beauty -- areas which he identifies in a postmodern, post-Christian society as "strange signposts pointing beyond the landscape of our contemporary culture and out into the unknown." It's a helpful place to begin, as in an increasingly pluralistic society and one in which truth is devalued, these are helpful points of connection, as every TV show, movie, and song point to one or more of these areas. Wright helps us flesh out what questions people are asking, what drives them, and why.

In Part Two of the book, he relates the Christian story, demonstrating how the Story offers itself as the answer to the questions raised in Part One. And yet it's not a simplistic reading of the questions but one that appreciates the complexity of the struggle for meaning and community. What he relates is an amplification of the "mere Christianity" of C.S. Lewis. In chapters on God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, he fleshes out the meaning of what Christians believe. It's not a simple reading, and yet the fresh prose makes it easy to read. A non-Christian could read this book and have an understanding of what Christians believe without all the confusing nuances of different strains of belief (whether Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox,; Calvinism or Arminianism). Something does suffer in the effort, that is, by drawing down the Story to its basics some of the richness is missed, but the generalizing is worth it given the book's purpose.

Finally, the author describes Christian practice, with chapters on prayer, scripture, and Christian living. In the last chapter he returns to the questions posed by Part One and tries to suggest how the Christian story and the Christian life is lived out in answer to these longings -- not as simply biding our time until Jesus returns for us, but as a new creation awaiting its restoration:

"The New Testament picks up from the Old the theme that God intends, in the end, to put the whole creation to rights. Earth and heaven were made to overlap one another, not fitfully, mysteriously, and partially as they do at the moment, but completely, gloriously, and utterly. . . . The great drama will end, not with 'saved souls' being snatched up into heaven, away from the wicked earth and the mortal bodies which have dragged them down into sin, but with the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth, so that 'the dwelling of God is with humans' (Revelation 21:3)."

I'm thankful for N.T. Wright's retelling of a story I thought I knew well. I'm grateful too for his acute sense of what our culture longs for for rather than, I confess, my dismissive approach to it at times as beyond repair and hopelessly lost and decadent. He gives me hope for where revival of the Story may come when it comes -- out of the midst of these "echoes."

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A kindred spirit

This is the first book on Christian apologetics that I have read in a long time that feels like it is written by a true thinker and hasn't made me feel slightly nauseated. At first I thought he was going over the same ground as C.S. Lewis does in the book "Mere Christianity", since it starts the same way about how humans have an in-built longing for justice and beauty (and where did that come from??) - but he moves on from there to Jesus himself and the kingdom that Jesus kept on talking about ... I strongly recommend this book for any thinking person who is thinking about God.
After finishing this book - I would recommend rereading the book of Matthew - maybe with William Barclay's easy to read commentary, which also sends shivers down the spine in its insights into Jesus.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, page 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

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