Wednesday, April 19, 2006

N. T. Wright

A good pastor friend of mine is always quoting N. T. Wright, but I confess I'm intimidated by the sheer volume of his writings. I don't know where to begin. So I was pleased to discover this "unofficial website dedicated to the bishop of durham" where you can read selected sermons, essays, and watch audio and video.

In his Easter sermon for 2006, which is quite good, he has this comment on the Da Vinci Code:

And let me just say that one of the great ironies of that silly book The Da Vinci Code is that, in seeking to elevate Mary Magdalene, all it does is diminish her, to make her Jesus’ appendage, his girl-friend or even his wife, whereas she was his chosen first apostle. Here, as so often, the revisionist versions of Christianity only succeed in domesticating the utterly revolutionary message of the New Testament – not, of course, that the church has not been guilty of that as well.

7 comments:

  1. LoieJ8:12 AM

    Interesting quote. My Catholic-friend-in-rebellion would agree that the Church has diminished the roll of women in general, except, of course, the one-on-the-pedestal.

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  2. Christopher12:59 PM

    At Spring Harvest one of the books I got for my 75 quid for volunteering was "Simply Christian" by Wright.
    Peace,
    Chris

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  3. Chris Duckworth1:55 PM

    NT Wright also has some intelligent but not intimidatingly academic New Testament commentaries. The series is called, "For Everyone." Titles include, "Colossians for Everyone," "Luke for Everyone," etc. etc.. And he goes by Tom Wright for those books . . . .

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  4. Anonymous4:48 PM

    Yes I'm treading through his New Testament and people of God and next comes the victory of the son of God. Not bad stuff. He tends more toward Reformed than Lutheran but good stuff on our Jewish roots and Kingdom of God.

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  5. Clint Schnekloth9:35 PM

    Yes, the Tom Wright stuff is written for a wider audience (although, imho, it makes it more boring than the really weighty tomes)... and I hadn't noticed the Reformed tendency, but know that he does not consider Paul to be a "Lutheran".

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  6. Dwight P.11:22 AM

    For good illustration of Bp. Wright's insights, scholarship, and theological axes, I recommend _What Paul Really Said_. (Be sure to get the N.T. Wright one, not the "Tom Wright" one.) It is something of an assault on the Lutheran hermeutic on Paul, but if we're so "sola scriptura," we'd better be able to identify where he goes wrong. I was challenged and inspired by that read!

    Dwight

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  7. Clint Schnekloth9:42 AM

    Lively thread. Thanks for the recommendations!

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