URBANarmy

Thanks to Prodigal Kiwi for pointing out NT Wright interviewed in Time here To whet your appetite: "...I've often heard people say, "I'm going to heaven soon, and I won't need this stupid body there, thank goodness.' That's a very damaging distortion..."

"Heaven is important but it is not the end of the world....!" Bishop of Durham, N.T. Wright To summarise this book in four posts is tantamount to being sacrilegious , unless that in itself is sacrilegious ! This is one fat book and if I understood 10% of it (including the bibliography, even that was challenging!). However, following the general theme and working on it has been helpful. Put crudely NT Wright looks at two major thoughts on eschatology. "The creator will therefore make a new world, and new bodies, proper to the new age to the new age. From one point of view the new world, and the new bodies, are the redeemed, remade versions of the old ones;" "From another point of view the new world, and the new bodies, are 'stored up in heaven'." (pp 373) It would be easy to play these off against one another - but NT Wright warns against this. Instead he suggests that our sense of eschatology needs to be shaped by the narrative of New Creation whic...

The point is not, in other words, that the new humanity will exist in a place called 'heaven'. Rather, it will originate there NT Wright takes a great deal of time working through particularly Paul. Trying to understand the concept of resurrection and its implications in terms of new creation as a first century Christian. In others words, what actually was Paul saying. In particular he starts to undermine any concept that suggests that there is a framework that can explain the resurrection body within ideas of 'astral immortality'. In other words: "The point is not, in other words, that the new humanity will exist in a place called 'heaven'. Rather, it will originate there, where Jesus himself currently is in his own risen and life-giving body; and it will transform. the life of those who are presently located on earth and earthy in character.." (pp 355) This is where his arguments pick up speed - it is quite a shock to discover that any concept of hea...

"One of the most striking features of the early Christian movement is its virtual unanimity about the future hope" - NT Wright starts part two by suggesting that you would expect the first Christians to have developed a spectrum of beliefs that would mirror the Judaic context from which it emerged and the Paganistic culture it entered, however eschatological hope was firmly rooted. Interestingly NT Wright develops the thought that Paul has Genesis 1 and 2 underpinning his understanding and thereby 'sees the final act of redemption not as a rescue from creation but as the renewal of creation'. I like how NT develops this and draws on Philippians 3:20 imagery of heavenly citizenship - the point being that "Citizenship is a point about status and allegiance, not a place of residence" (pp230). Therefore, "For Paul, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the heart of the Gospel... it is the object of faith, the ground of justification, the basi...

Since hearing NT Wright speak last year I've been intrigued at his suggestion that we are missing the point when it comes to our theology of heaven. His claims that a theology based on 19c Hymn writing has shaped our understanding away from the text and closer to a form of Gnosticism (beyond the blue horizon there's a better place I know!) have certainly got me thinking hard. The questioning of a woman at that day's conference will remain with me. "Am I to say that I have spent the day with Bishop Tom, NT Wright only to come away to say there is no heaven?" ... "You can say what you want but make sure you base what you say on the text" A good evangelical answer! - base what you believe on the word!! Is he saying there is no heaven? I'm not sure he is. I'm on a journey looking through the third in his trilogy " The Resurrection of the Son of God " to see what he is saying. Too be honest it so far has been a heck of read so I aim to s...