N.T. Wright Project

I’m back from a long break and there’s a nice blanket of white snow here in Princeton. Perfect time to start working through Wright’s big blue book, Jesus and the Victory of God (hereafter JVG), which is the second volume in his Christian Origins and the Question of God series.

He begins with a thorough overview of the history of Jesus studies and some of the biographies of this Galilean Jew that have resulted. Playing off of a Schweitzer tune, he says that most historians looking for Jesus in the past were “inclined to see [their] own face at the bottom of a deep well and mistake it for the face of Jesus” (XV). There’s an old jibe that says God made us in his image, so we turned around and returned the favor.

I’ve got a stack of books about Jesus sitting on my desk, and it’s been stimulating (to say the least) to read some other folks’ perspectives on this man from Nazareth alongside my study of JVG. In Mark 8 Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” and here’s a sampling of some of the answers I’ve come across:

Pope Benedict XVI
“What was true of Moses only in fragmentary form has now been fully realized in the person of Jesus: He lives before the face of God, not just as a friend, but as a Son; he lives in the most intimate unity with the Father. We have to start here if we are truly to understand the figure of Jesus as it is presented to us in the New Testament; all that we are told about his words, deeds, sufferings, and glory is anchored here.” (Jesus of Nazareth, 6)

The Dalai Lama
“For a Buddhist, whose main object of refuge is the Buddha, when coming into contact with someone like Jesus – who life clearly demonstrates a being who has affected millions of people in a spiritual way, bringing about their liberation and freedom from suffering – the feeling that one would have toward such a person would be that of reverence toward a fully enlightened being or a bodhisattva.” (The Good Heart, 82-3)

“For me, as a Buddhist, my attitude toward Jesus Christ is that he was either a fully enlightened being or a bodhisattva of a very high spiritual realization.” (Ibid., 83)

Richard Horsley, professor of religion at University of Massachusetts
“Trying to understand Jesus’ speech and action without knowing how Roman imperialism determined the conditions of life in Galilee and Jerusalem would be like trying to understand Martin Luther King without knowing how slavery, reconstruction, and segregation determined the lives of African Americans in the United States…” (Jesus and Empire, 13)

“From the survey of the various resistance movements among the Galileans and Judeans we may begin to suspect that Jesus was not a completely unique figure.” (Ibid., 14)

Scott Peck (1936-2005), psychotherapist and author of The Road Less Traveled
“Everyone wanted to see this controversial new show coming to town called Jesus Christ Superstar. That show was a real eye-opener. It was the first thing that put me in touch with Jesus’ humanity and realness. The other major thing was reading the Gospels at the age of 40. I lay in bed at night reading the New Testament. And just as I had felt with Jesus Christ Superstar, I was blown away. Now I think a small part of the Gospels is made up. But I found this incredibly real person. Jesus was lonely and sorrowful and scared – an unbelievably real person. And it was at that point that I began to take becoming a Christian seriously. Some people who arrive at Christianity start with Jesus’ divinity, and some with his humanity. With me, it was his humanity. And only later did I begin to get in touch with his divinity, which was initially difficult for me to swallow.” (Interview in Psychology Today)

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), existentialist philosopher
“The ‘bringer of glad tidings’ died as he had lived, as he had taught – not to ‘redeem men’ but to show how one must live. This practice is his legacy to mankind: his behavior before the judges, before the catchpoles, before the accusers and all kinds of slander and scorn – his behavior on the cross. He does not resist, he does not defend his right, he takes no step which might ward off the worst; on the contrary, he provokes it. And he begs, he suffers, he loves with those, in those, who do him evil. Not to resist, not to be angry, not to hold responsible – but to resist not even the evil one – to love him.” (The Antichrist, 608-9)

Dave Matthews, South African-American singer and songwriter
“Not very much of his childhood was known
Kept his mother Mary worried
always out on his own
He met another Mary who for a reasonable fee,
less than reputable was known to be.
His heart full of love love love…

When Jesus Christ was nailed to his tree
said ‘oh, Daddy-o, I can see how it all soon will be
I came to shed a little light on this darkening scene
instead I fear I’ve spilled the blood of my children all around’…

So I’m told, so the story goes
the people he knew were
less than golden hearted
Gamblers and robbers
drinkers and jokers, all soul searchers
like you and me…

Rumors insisted he soon would be
for his deviations
taken into custody
by the authorities less informed than he.
Drinkers and Jokers all soul searchers
searching for love love love…

Preparations were made
for his celebration day
He said ‘eat this bread and think of it as me
Drink this wine and dream it will be’

Father up above, why in all this hatred do you fill
Me up with love, love, love…” (The Christmas Song)

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), philosopher and author of The Quest for the Historical Jesus
“In the knowledge that He is the coming Son of Man [Jesus] lays hold of the wheel of the world to set it moving on that last revolution which is to bring all ordinary history to a close. It refuses to turn, and He throws Himself on it. Then it does turn; and crushes Him. Instead of bringing in the eschatological conditions, He has destroyed them. The wheel rolls onward, and the mangled body of the one immeasurably great Man, who was strong enough to think of Himself as the spiritual ruler of mankind and to bend history to his purpose, is hanging upon it still. That is His victory and His reign.” (368)

Now back to JVG. Wright feels that for the last 200 years the church has been timid and apprehensive about using the Enlightenment’s tool of historical criticism in fear of the influence and impact it could have on how Jesus is seen. As a result, the gap between the ‘historical Jesus’ and the ‘Christ of faith’ has widened.

He uses the parable of the prodigal son to further explain the situation: the younger son (representing the Enlightenment and its tool of historical criticism) left home a couple hundred years ago wanting nothing to do with the Father. It now seems, however, that the prodigal has sobered up and is heading home. The elder son (representing the church and its orthodoxy) has been scolding the younger brother ever since he left and is indignant about the possibility of him returning.

Is this where the story must end? Or is there a chance the elder son (church) could come to embrace his prodigal brother (historical criticism)? Wright thinks so. The underlying argument of his book is that rigorous history and rigorous theology “belong together, and never more so than in discussion of Jesus” (8). He is seeking nothing less than the reconciliation of the two brothers.