The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was & Is
by N. T. Wright
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Book Summary Information
Author: N. T. WrightEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-10-14
ISBN: 0830822003
Number of pages: 202
Publisher: IVP Books
Book Reviews of The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was & Is
Book Review: Invigorating, but uncomfortable at the same time.
Summary: 5 Stars
While many seek out Christian books to simply reinforce their own established ideas, I love to find an author who reveres Scripture, but does not shy away from sharing what is often uncomfortable.
The first portion of the book establishes the case for Christians to pursue the historical exploration of Jesus. I think this illustrates that the book was written in the late 20th century before most Christians saw the value of history and the Bible. Today, it is not foreign to hear preachers using history to illuminate Scripture. I was a bit bored by this justification, but it was logically sound.
Secondly, Wright begins placing the story of Jesus within the Jewish concepts of the presence of "God with us" and the Exodus story. He explores the Temple, Torah, Word, Spirit and Wisdom. Then he establishes the way Jesus is the fulfillment of these symbols of God's presence and redemption. He also brings out the ways our modern views of Jesus are often skewed.
This portion of the book is full of spiritual and intellectual meat. Meat that helps fill some of our empty understanding of Jesus. We now know that our view of Jesus in the modern sense is at least lacking. Wright connects the Old and New Testaments with a shockingly clear vision of Jesus and his purpose.
But this process is not without some controversy. There were three things that leapt out at me in this first reading of the book. First, Wright tells us that much of our Scriptural support for the return of Christ is actually telling of God's presence returning to an exiled Israel. This is supported well with biblical evidence and is not threatening to foundational doctrines. But many who use these parables and passages to support their vision of the end times may find this offensive.
Secondly, and much less importantly, Wright contends with C.S. Lewis's concept of Madman, Liar or Messiah, saying that this is too simplistic a vision of Jesus. That if he claimed to be God, as Lewis attests, then he had to be or he was a liar or madman. Whenever a writer takes exception to the works of Lewis, I take note. But at the end of the book he quotes Lewis affectionately, almost as if to say, "I love Lewis too, so don't be offended."
This idea also led to the shocking statement that Jesus did not know that he was God in the same way we can know that we are male or female. This was tied into the Lewis statements and is the source of much criticism from evangelical stalwarts. But, later in the book, the last chapter in fact, Wright clarifies that Jesus's knowing is deeper than modern and post-modern Enlightenment epistemology. He begins to flesh out a deeper type of knowing, an "epistemology of love." I am not sure if this idea ever gets off the ground, but the heart of it intrigued me intensely. I felt that he was onto something, but it never materialized. I found myself caught between my orthodox sensibility of "you can't say Jesus didn't know he was God!" and my suspicion that Jesus's ability to "know" the Father was far deeper than any imagining. But Wright never delivers the epiphany with any force. Yet I sense that he is onto something and that perhaps he is like the person who struggles to open a jar and when they hand it off to another, the next person easily takes the lid off and wonders why the first had such a hard time. Wright has loosened the lid for us. The epistemology of love has a future. It is not that Jesus didn't know he was God, it is that his knowing is rooted in something greater than ours.
Finally, the last two chapters of this book resonated with me deeply. Wright delivers a call to action with more force than all of restorationists combined. Rooted in storytelling, symbol-making and living the reality his vision for the Church is full of the depth and power of the Holy Spirit.
Overall, this book is bursting with rich material for connecting the Messiah to the overall purpose of God. While his controversial statements get most of the attention, it is his portrait of Jesus as the fulfillment of the OT and how this affects us today that should be front and center.
Summary of The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was & Is
Today a renewed and vigorous scholarly quest for the historical Jesus is underway. In the midst of well publicized and controversial books on Jesus, N. T. Wright's lectures and writings have been widely recognized for providing a fresh, provocative and historically credible portrait. Out of his own commitment to both historical scholarship and Christian ministry, Wright challenges us to roll up our sleeves and take seriously the study of the historical Jesus. He writes, "Many Christians have been, frankly, sloppy in their thinking and talking about Jesus, and hence, sadly, in their praying and in their practice of discipleship. We cannot assume that by saying the word Jesus, still less the word Christ, we are automatically in touch with the real Jesus who walked and talked in first-century Palestine. . . . Only by hard, historical work can we move toward a fuller comprehension of what the Gospels themselves were trying to say." The Challenge of Jesus poses a double-edged challenge: to grow in our understanding of the historical Jesus within the Palestinian world of the first century, and to follow Jesus more faithfully into the postmodern world of the twenty-first century."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
Christian Living Books
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