The Challenge of Jesus

I have been discovering a whole new world of thought in the pages of "The Challenge of Jesus" by N.T. Wright.  Wright's challenge is to reconstruct a solidly historical picture of Christ and his mission while on earth.  He does so over and against the liberal tendency to trap Jesus in a modern, "enlightened" perspective (i.e. the Jesus Seminar) and the conservative tendency to simply ignore historical readings in favor of an overly "spiritualized" understanding.

I'm not sure that I agree with all of the conclusions that Mr. Wright comes to, but this book has been a real eye-opener.  It has helped me to move further away from the "flannelgraph" image of Jesus we sometimes tend to have.  I think this is an accurate assessment of the kind of error my tradition has fallen into:

"...many Christians have embraced a Jesus who only seemed to be human, have read a Bible that only seemed to have human authors..." (p.24-25)

We seem to have this concept of Jesus who came out of the womb ready to preach "the gospel" and do miracles.  We are unwilling to question Jesus' own understanding of vocation/calling.  We say he is human, but distort that image with our Platonic view of "perfection."  We say human beings wrote the Bible and we say we do not hold to a "dictation theory," but is that really the case?  In all practicality, I don't see much difference between our view of Scripture and an Islamic understanding of the Khoran.

One of the very interesting things that Mr. Wright does is to describe Jesus as a political figure.  He describes how Jesus, in his word and in his deeds, sought to disrupt the various political schemes of the day.  He talks about how Jesus' parables were rooted in Old Testament porphecy concerning the kingdom of God.  He shows how these parables go beyond the realm of the spiritual platitude.  More on this later...

Comments

[Goyo in Nicaragua]

Hey, snappy new format! Did you read N.T. Wright's article concerning the Asian Tsunamis? I have it linked on a post I made which contrasts it with an article written by John Piper on my blog. I can't wait to read "The Challenge of Jesus."

[Bill]

Yes, I read (or skimmed) both articles. Wright's seemed very sensible. While I may agree with some of what Piper was saying, I wonder about his wisdom quotient. This phrase, in particular, stands out:

"Christ calls us to show mercy to those who suffer, even if they do not deserve it."

It sounds like he's implying that these foreign pagans might not deserve our mercy, but we should help them anyway. Surely that's not what he meant, but I think the burden is on him to be a little clearer.

[rick luoni]

Bill,

You may find that the more time you spend with Wright, the more you like him. I don't know you faith history or church background, but Wright is an Anglican and as you know fairly well respected. Many Christians really like him (me for one)he is very digestable. If you find yourself being opened spiritually, you may want to explore some of the scholars he references. E.P. Sanders formally of Duke Divinity has done some amazing work on the "Jewishness" of Jesus and has been very influential in Wright's scholarship.

I just posted someting very similar on my blog from Walter Wink that deals with some of the issues you addressed.

best wishes and God's peace in your continued journey with Christ,

Rick

[Pooh]

I read this book 2 1/2 times (had to take it back to the library) and I liked it every time...and a half. I wish I could have articulated it as well as you, though.

I just found your blog through other random blogs. I like it.