I seem to have an affinity for authors whose names begin with two initials. C. S. Lewis
The third has both confirmed and challenging my thinking for the past three years. He is N. T. Wright
In this paper, he made the following statement, which is quite close to what I have been trying to say in my series on doctrinal statements:
I have come to worry about a…theology…that thinks the point is simply to ‘prove’ the divinity of Jesus, or his resurrection, or the saving nature of his death in themselves, thereby demonstrating fidelity to the Creeds or some other regula fidei. In the gospels themselves it isn’t like this. All these things matter, but they matter because this is how God is becoming king. To prove the great Creeds true, and to affirm them as such, can sadly be a diversionary exercise, designed to avoid the real challenge of the first-century gospel, the challenge of God’s becoming king in and through Jesus.
He says with much more dignity and authority than I, but he is, after all, the leading New Testament scholar in the world. The idea is this: the Bible isn’t given to us so that we can prove our points, defend our doctrinal statements, and support our creeds. These things are important, but they are not our primary task, nor are they the primary purpose of Scripture.
Scripture is given to help us imagine a new way of living, a way in which Jesus Christ rules and reigns over earth, a way in which God’s values of love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness become more dominant than the ways of power, authority, greed, and control.
The gospels were not given so that we can know and defend all the truth about Jesus, as important as that is. The gospels are given to show us what God’s rule and reign looks like in one person, and in revealing this, embark us upon an imaginative adventure where we can similarly live like Jesus in our own lives, families, and neighborhoods.
I thought the srciptures said to not worry about anything? Kinda crazy huh?
Hilarious! Let’s quote a Bible verse at NT Wright! I’ll bet he isn’t aware of Matthew 6:26.
Interesting thought, So where I am coming from I see it as we are to become a reflection of Jesus Christ here and now and Peter and the writer of Hebrews says we are but Pilgrims and sojourners in a foreign land. As mentioned yes, Our lives should produce through the spirit those traits Gal 5:22 .. as Christians in this life, at the same time this is not our home. Paul fought not the world but the infiltrators of our own Christian faith who try to bind us back to the law and diffuse the power of Gods Grace. Also I read that though we let the Spirit work on us to bare the fruits of the spirit, Timothy also said in 2Tim 3:12-14.
Vaughn,
Yes, that is probably another way of putting it. Following Jesus is about more than waiting until we die so we can get to heaven, but is rather about living like Jesus here on earth so that things can be done on earth, as they are in heaven.
Well I think after reading those references.. maybe why he might be more of the latest leading NT scholar is he kind of dumbs it down for the lay person. That can be a good thing I guess. I work in education K-12, not as teacher but as technical support for the technology used and I sit in on classes and I see curriculum.. very dumbed down, watered down and see education decaying and not exercising the students brains. I see a kind of trend here too but that is just my opinion. I am no bible scholar but I tend to be drawn to more meat to draw from such as the likes of Chafer, Hodge, Hodges and others.
sincerely
vb
Some of his writing are written for a popular audience, but his “Christian Origins and the Question of God”
Series are anything but dumbed down. They are top-notch scholarly-level research and writing.
I think the genius of NT Wright is that he is able to take such scholarly ideas and make them understandable to the average person. Few writers and thinkers can publish in both worlds.
Hmmm..I never liked NT Wright too much….I always thought he bordered too close to liberal theology. Why is he the foremost scholar? We have to know a person and judge them by their fruit. He could beat his wife, ya know? That’s why “community” is important. He’s probably a very nice guy. And he knows a lot, but knowledge puffs up…just sayin’
I don’t know about him being liberal. He is the most formidable defender of the historical accuracy of the Scriptures that I have ever read.
And while I don’t know what his community life is like, I don’t know what the community life is like of 99% of the authors I read.
The original Sam says: Don’t you just hate it when you feel someone else more succinctly said what you’ve been saying? Really, you did a good job!
I like N.T. Wright, so that must make me a liberal. He may be the foremost NT scholar, but I’ve heard he spends a lot of his time with regular people who may or may not seem him in such a light.
Yeah, I don’t know much about him outside of his writings.
I may have prejudged him..I’m only going on what other people (who are liberal theologians) say about him. I read 1 book by him
Which one?
N.T. Wright and John Pipers debates on Justification are classic theological dialog, however Wright is on the wrong side and goes outside the boundary of brotherly debate and gets an nasty and angry tone with piper.
Hmm…. I have never seen this debate. Is it online?
Interesting when Piper isn’t the one being nasty and mean. I read his book against NT Wright and it was discouraging in tone.
Uh oh, you just pissed off the fundies.
Jude does exhort us to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Paul tells us to study to shew thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. John said “I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth”. Jesus said the truth would set us free. One person defined theology as “the study of God and of God’s relation to the world’ while another “Christian theology is simply an attempt to understand God as He is revealed in the Bible”. Theology is important, essential, and interesting as long as it is based on truths of scripture.