NT Wright @ Act Justly... 1/2

There is so much I want to remember about Tuesday's conference with NT Wright. His clarity of thought and incisive communication is something that left me breathless with anticipation for each new sentence. Every word word measured and significant. Every phrase constructed with precision, enough to leave me scrambling to keep up with my note taking not wanting to lose anything.

Too much was lost :o(

Here are my highlights...
  • We must be God's people for God's world ....
  • Any perceived split between social and sacred engagement with the world is deeply unbiblical ....
  • A post-enlightenment cosmology has pulled apart that which should never have been divided ....
  • It's time to put the record straight and bring restoration, healing and love into the world ...
  • danger of making the mistake that the world is for our benefit, rather than we are for the benefit of the world ....
  • Micah 6:8 ....
  • Judgement in the sense of putting to rights ....
  • Jubilee Israel's model for restoration ....
  • Miracles were not magic tricks to point to Jesus' divinity but signs of a new creation ...
  • Matthew's miracles sandwich the meal with a tax collector which was as much a miracle as it was a sign of the new creation ...
  • Disembodied heaven ...
  • We're to be signposts of hope, an anticipation of God's future beyond that of an escapist soteriology ...
  • Heaven is important but it is not the end of the world ...
  • People are ripe to hear the gospels in a new way, a gospel that refuses any kind of dichotomy...
  • Need to get our theology right so that it is a theology that is non-dualistic
  • Resurrection a sign of new creation and that we have work to do
  • A soul that doesn't bother about justice and social action is disembodied
I came away feeling affirmed but pretty thick!!

Comments

Carl said…
What does "heaven is important but it isn't the end of the world" mean?
4:27 PM
Gordon said…
NT Wright's eschatology is more of a heaven on earth than what he calls a disembodied heaven - or as he puts it 'pie in the sky when you die'. Intriguing as he is an evangelical!

I'm reading through his resurrection book to dig a bit deeper. But for now his concerns seem to centre on the fact that our understanding of heaven seems pretty gnostic in flavour, which has undermined any theology of 'the kingdom'. Also he points out that the eschatology of Revelation is more about the New Jerusalem coming down - in other words a new creation.

Only 800 pages to go...!
6:11 PM
Anonymous said…
"We're to be signposts of hope, an anticipation of God's future beyond that of an escapist soteriology"

I love this and would love to explore that concept further. Any notes kept on that Gordon?
3:40 PM
Gordon said…
I'm still mulling it all over -

Again I think NT Wright is pointng to a concept of heaven that is more profound than a big party in the sky - which he seems to see as what he called an escapist soteriology.

He talked about the resurrection as the launch pad for the New Creation implying that concepts of heaven should have a more of a 'here and now' emphasis than the 'there and after' emphasis.

Signposts of hope are then what can be under the new creation as opposed to what might be!

Not surprisingly there is quite a weight of reformed thought against what he is saying!!

NT Wright has a website - if you google him.
8:49 AM
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