N.T. Wright Project

Having reached the end of our study of NT Wright, I would like to reflect on one of the things I have most appreciated about Wright’s work: his use of Scripture.  Because so much of our theology depends upon how we treat and use the Bible, understanding the way in which Wright works with Scripture is helpful in understanding the conclusions he makes about certain theological points.  I found this to be especially true when reading “The Future of Justification”, John Piper’s critique of Wright’s treatment of justification.  While reading Piper’s critique, it became abundantly clear to me that in order to evaluate if his critiques were fair, it would be necessary to understand how Wright treats Scripture as he builds his various arguments.

The first place I turned was Wright’s popular work “The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture”.  This proved to be immensely helpful.  His discussion of the authority of Scripture was particularly insightful, because he argues that the authority we are talking about is not the authority of Scripture itself, but “the authority of God exercised through Scripture” (Last Word, 138).  This shift in emphasis helps me to use the text as an avenue to hear and know God, rather than to view it as an unliving document to which my life and every decision must answer.  It allows for flexible and creative interpretations, and it opens up the ability for people who end up with different opinions on matters to respect each others use of the Bible as having led them to that position.  Ultimately, it allows for a much more faithful witness to the truths of God which are revealed in Scripture.

There’s a favorite hymn lyric that goes “They’ll know we are Christians by our love”.  These words are sung in churches every Sunday.  But I wonder if many of the people singing them really want to be known as Christian.  It seems to me that lately we will do anything possible not to be identified as a Christian.  Whether this is because we don’t want to seem intolerant, weak, prissy, or boring, claiming the identity of Christian has become something we do with reluctance rather than pride.  And we take great care to make sure our lives are indistinguishable from everyone else around us.

In reading Tom Wright’s discussion of the very beginnings of the early church in The New Testament and the People of God, I came across a passage which paints a very different picture of Christian identity than the one I just described.  “But that there was a striking difference in general praxis as between pagans and Christians there can be no doubt.  That there was even a viable expectation of a striking difference is remarkable in itself…  Early Christians took it for granted that in the details of their behavior they should be significantly different, in clearly defined ways, from their pagan neighbors” (NTPG, p. 363).

My theology over the past year has been developed and refined into what I describe as “Kingdom of God” theology.  I’m still learning what exactly that means, but the ideas of NT Wright have been one of the primary influences on this development in my life.  Essentially K.O.G. theology recognizes that we live in a time of inaugurated eschatology, that with his resurrection, Christ ushered in a new inbreaking of God’s kingdom on earth, but it has not yet been fully realized and our hope is in the ultimate restoration of this earth, which is still to come.  This tension is why we pray every Sunday “thy kingdom come” while at the same time recognizing that we can claim renewal in the broken areas of our lives and our world here and now because the kingdom is here and now too.

So what is our role as Christians during this time of inaugurated eschatology?  What does it mean  for our lives now?  We are able to do kingdom work, in fact we are commanded to do so.  But what does this look like?  It looks like care for those who have need around us, being an advocate for justice, creation care, proclamation of truth….  But our engagement in these things does not bring about the ultimate establishment of God’s kingdom.  We are not responsible for this.  That, ultimately, is God’s decision, as the New Testament frequently reminds us.  The work we do does not in some sense help to further establish the kingdom.  So what is it’s purpose?  All this is very confusing, and I am still discerning what exactly that means for how we are to live our lives.

In the opening section of “The New Testament and the People of God”, Wright defines worldview around four central functions.  Worldview “provides the stories through which human beings view reality”, “discover[s] how to answer the basic questions that determine human existence”, is “expressed in cultural symbols”, and “include[s] a praxis, a way-of-being-in-the-world” (123-4).  These four functions combine to form one’s worldview, which is “the basic stuff of human existence, the lens through which the world is seen, the blueprint for how one should live in it, and above all the sense of identity and place which enables human beings to be what they are” (124).  Thus, worldviews are extremely important in our daily lives and allow us to live in the world and make sense of it.

The aspect of worldview which most intruiged me as I was reading this week about the Jewish worldview as described by Wright, is that of symbol.  For the Jews, there were four key symbols, that of Temple, Land, Torah, and Racial Identity (224).  The Temple especially functioned as “the focal point of every aspect of Jewish National life” (224).  It was the place where God lived and where the people gathered, where not only religious but economic and financial decisions were made.  It was the place of celebration and being in community.  And it was “the heart of Judaism…the organ from which there went out to the body of Judaism…the living and healing presence of the covenant god” (226).

There has been a lot of conversation the past few years in my church communities concerning the importance of story.  It is true that we are told hundreds of stories every day through books, television, conversation, advertisements…and I have heard countless pastors and other writers and speakers acknowledging that fact and encouraging us to reclaim story for the church.  Most memorably in my experience, Donald Miller spoke at the Willow Creek Shift Student Ministry Conference in 2007 as a featured speaker, and the central theme of his message to thousands of youth pastors was the importance of story.   So when I picked up Tom Wright’s “New Testament and the People of God” and found him, once again, arguing the centrality of story, I wasn’t expecting to gain many new insights.  I’d heard it before, you know?  But the following passage (yes, I know it’s long…) has stuck with me as I’ve continued through my week.

“Stories are, actually, peculiarly good at modifying or subverting other stories and their worldviews.  Where head-on attack would certainly fail, the parable hides the wisdom of the serpent behind the innocence of the dove, gaining entrance and favour which can then be used to change assumptions which the hearer would otherwise keep hidden away for safety.  Nathan tells David a story about a rich man, a poor man, and a little lamb; David is enraged; and Nathan springs the trap.  Tell someone to do something, and you change their life-for a day; tell someone a story and you change their life. Stories, in having this effect, function as complex metaphors.  Metaphor consists in bringing two set of ideas close together, close enough for a spark to jump, but not too close, so that the spark, in jumping, illuminates for a moment the whole area around, changing perceptions as it does so.  Even so, the subversive story comes close enough to the story already believed by the hearer for a spark to jump between them; and nothing will ever be quite the same again” (NTPG, p. 40, emphasis mine).