Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters by N.T. Wright

May 01, 2013 Trevor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio, 2011

This book should be titled: "Jesus: It's Complicated"

As could be expected, in this book Wright attempts to open up his dense and nuanced arguments from Jesus and the Victory of God for the non-academic audience.

Trouble is, he has already boiled down those arguments in The Challenge of Jesus. Basically the conclusions in this present work are the same as those he's already put forward several times before (so I can't see why the subtitle mentions a "new vision" etc.), but Wright has a brilliant m...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Tim Hatfield rated it 4 of 5 stars

Relistening to this started today 3.6.2013

Taking more in the second go round. I already know the basics of the tour so I think I'm able to pay attention to the scenery a bit better so far.

I love Wrights exegesis and his writing style in this book. Wright is very repetitive but you won't miss his points.

Jesus is the new Moses, the new Joshua, the mobile temple of God, the new meeting place (ladder) between heaven and earth. He is leading THE exodus from THE Egypt which will conquer Satan and al...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Josh Meares rated it 4 of 5 stars

N.T. Wright is a formidable writer and a solid theologian. He is deeply grounded in the text of the New Testament and the history of the Ancient Near East. He is a scholar who is still bound by his conviction that Jesus Christ is the king of the universe. This is a really good book on who Jesus is, what kind of world he came into, and what he was all about. I have some quibbles with Dr. Wright, but in the main I am in agreement with him in his central point. That Jesus announced AND began the re...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Billy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Jesus introduced himself and identified himself as a king. Today we greatly marginalize the significance of this through a spiritualized gospel that focuses on personal morality for entrance into an other-worldly after-life, upon which the author drily comments, "will not do."

Wright elaborates at length upon the Jewish messianic expectations and teachings from the OT, the strife and political culture in the Roman world, and upon God's intervention within and beyond these two, all culminating in...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Dean Summers rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian-living, scm-2

This has become my new #1 favorite book! Though I’d give it a different title. I’d call it Who Does Jesus Think He Is? A Straightforward Reading of the Gospels in their Historical, Literary, and Cultural Context.

That’s just one of many reasons why N.T. Wright sells more books than I. His editors are much better at coming up with good titles.

That said, the subtitle they chose, A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters, could be a little misleading. It certainly is if you under...more This has become my new #1 favorite book! Though I’d give it a different title. I’d call it Who Does Jesus Think He Is? A Straightforward Reading of the Gospels in their Historical, Literary, and Cultural Context.

That’s just one of many reasons why N.T. Wright sells more books than I. His editors are much better at coming up with good titles.

That said, the subtitle they chose, A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters, could be a little misleading. It certainly is if you understand “a new vision” to mean a novel, newly perceived vision. Wright is not offering up that kind of a new vision. He is answering the question, “Who does Jesus think he is?” And his answer is two thousand years old.

And yet that very old vision is new in the sense that it is fresh and refreshing when compared to the same old same old from the large majority of the folk who are writing books about Jesus: the tabloid scandal mongers; the publish-or-perish novelty hunters in the seminaries and universities; and the keepers of supposed Christian orthodoxies that arose, truth be told, as novel, newly perceived visions once upon a time.

N.T. Wright cuts through all that to offer up a straightforward reading of the Gospels in their historical, literary, and cultural context. How utterly un-original! But the results will blow your socks off!

With that, be warned:

If you are a committed Fundamentalist, don’t read this book. I presume you’ve grown accustomed to your socks. And, if you are a committed Liberal, don’t read this book. I presume you’ve grown accustomed to your socks. Everyone else, read this book! And then, wiggle your toes!

On a personal note, I’ve heard N.T. Wright speak. It was at Seattle Pacific University, in the chapel, which is also the church house for Seattle First Free Methodist Church. It is a spacious venue, and I arrived on time. But nearly all the seating had been taken. People were even being seated in the choir loft. I got one of the very last seats among those that were being brought in and placed on the platform behind the pulpit.

Ever since then, I’ve been able to brag that I shared the platform once with N.T. Wright.(less)

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Feb 07, 2012 Jay Miklovic rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book I have read by NT Wright, and I must admit that I liked it quite a bit. I thought it was at times a bit repetitive, and his perfect storm analogy though fairly helpful got just a touch tiresome as the book progressed.

All in all this is a book I would highly recommend, whether or not you agree with the conclusions that NT Wright comes to (which I for the most part do) or not this book is helpful in exposing the political and religious climate that Jesus lived in.

This book h...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Sten Anderson rated it 2 of 5 stars

It pains me to give a "two stars" to a Wright book, but given Goodread's guidelines, "It was OK" is my honest reaction.

I generally enjoy Wright's books quite a bit and feel that he has a very honest, likely accurate interpretation of how the people at the time were receiving the events around them.

I think I felt, perhaps cheated, this time around, for lack of a better word…or maybe just disappointed. The book touches on the "New Atheists" as a competing voice in the conversation, a coming storm,...more It pains me to give a "two stars" to a Wright book, but given Goodread's guidelines, "It was OK" is my honest reaction.

I generally enjoy Wright's books quite a bit and feel that he has a very honest, likely accurate interpretation of how the people at the time were receiving the events around them.

I think I felt, perhaps cheated, this time around, for lack of a better word…or maybe just disappointed. The book touches on the "New Atheists" as a competing voice in the conversation, a coming storm, as it were. I would love nothing more than to hear Wright respond to, or otherwise dialog with any of these authors.

But there was none of that. The book quickly turns to the theological interpretations and implications of the gospels. This isn't a response to Dennett/Dawkins et al, it's simply ignoring them.

I wasn't expecting a book of apologetics, but since this theological material had been addressed already in "Simply Christian", "Surprised by Hope", and "The Challenge of Jesus" (to say nothing of his scholarly works), I was expecting something…more, especially given that he spends so much time outlining the analogy of a "perfect storm".

Wright briefly bobs above the surface of the theological into the apologetical toward the end of the book in talking about the resurrection by offhandedly mentioning that the best explanation for the empty tomb was the resurrection given that the Romans were expert killers, etc. He glosses over it because he already went over it in more depth in "Surprised by Hope" (I think?), which is fine…but also seems completely wrong.

The answer can't be "The combination of empty tomb and definite, solid appearances [of Jesus postmortem] is far and away the best explanation for everything that happened subsequently" (p.192). Actually *any* other explanation is a better explanation. Even saying "we don't know what happened" is a better explanation than the resurrection.

As Carl Sagan wrote, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". You can't just brush aside the "atheist storm", especially after devoting pages of analogy to it. Perhaps it's unfair to expect the book to be something it wasn't intended to be. I think Wright missed an opportunity though, to write a book truly "for the masses", and not simply for believers. He has enough books written for them. The Christian community needs an intellectual powerhouse like Wright to respond to the "growing atheist storm".
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Mar 14, 2013 Pat Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wanted more from this book. Having gone to seminary, many of the ideas here are familiar to me, but like any good book, it gave me some new language to use to describe what I've always meant.

I am a Marcus Borg reader, and Wright and Borg, two different historical Jesus scholars, are most often pitted against one another. I was pleasantly surprised by what I'd describe as Wright's radical vision of the meaning of Jesus.

Wright goes a whole lot further than most to say that Jesus' vision-messag...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Paul Mullen rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you could rate a book by how much underlining you do, this one would be among the highest rated in my collection. Wright takes a position on key debatables (e.g. "when did Jesus realize what his role was in history?") But he goes farther than this, tying together key themes that cross the boundaries of covenant, history, struggle, and place. His key theme is that there is not so much of a difference in the place of Heaven and Earth, and that the reign of God on earth has already started. The...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Claudia Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to my friend Kristen Rosser for recommending this book. Simply Jesus is not a fast read. I savored it for several weeks along side of other lighter reads. I appreciate the way Wright lays a solid foundation of history and culture for us and then takes us into the life and heart of Jesus as He ministered in a specific time and place. He then explores how what Jesus said then impacts us now. I especially appreciate the understanding I gained about the Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Heaven) a...more

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Jul 06, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bible, theology

Reading NT Wright is good for my soul. When I read his books it makes me think, makes me want to know Jesus, and makes me want to do something.

This is another sensational offering from Wright. He places Jesus in his first-century Jewish context and gives us a vision of what this Jewish peasant was trying to say, do and accomplish. Wright goes against the grain of two popular ways of looking at Jesus. On one side are conservatives who say Jesus simply came to die in our place, taking God's wrath...more

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May 13, 2012 Alvera rated it 4 of 5 stars

"My computer will, I am reliably informed, do a large number of complex tasks. I only use it, however, for three things: writing, e-mail, and occasional Internet searches. If my computer were a person, it would feel frustrated and grossly undervalued, its full potential nowhere near realized. We are, I believe, in that position today when we read the stories of Jesus in the gospels." (pg. 4)

I really appreciated the metaphors at various points in this book and the insight into history and its imp...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Keith Clark rated it 5 of 5 stars

I’ll never forget what it was like having my mind blown. I thought that twenty years of growing up in the church and an undergraduate degree in Christian ministry with a heavy emphasis on biblical text had given me a pretty good grasp of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Then I was assigned N.T. Wright’s The New Testament and the People of God for my first graduate class, “Advanced Introduction to the New Testament.” It only took a couple pages and my mind was blown. Wright revolution...more

I’ll never forget what it was like having my mind blown. I thought that twenty years of growing up in the church and an undergraduate degree in Christian ministry with a heavy emphasis on biblical text had given me a pretty good grasp of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Then I was assigned N.T. Wright’s The New Testament and the People of God for my first graduate class, “Advanced Introduction to the New Testament.” It only took a couple pages and my mind was blown. Wright revolutionized my understanding of the Jewishness of Jesus, turned upside down my ideas about the Pharisees, and opened my eyes to the gospel’s rightful place within the story of God and God’s people, Israel. So began my journey with Wright that has played a pivotal role in my overarching journey of faith and ministry.

It is thus with great anticipation that I approach each new contribution to Wright’s canon. I don’t so much expect to have my mind blown again; before I was navigating scripture with a completely different map than Wright, now I think I’m looking at and using the same map. However, I do expect to have my understanding refined, my eyes opened to things I’ve previously overlooked, and some of my conclusions challenged. Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters has done precisely that.

Cutting through the fog that destroys communication between skeptics and conservatives and mapping with clarity a way through the challenging terrain of historic complexity, Wright lays out the contest that is underlying, overlaying, and surrounding any conversation about Jesus: Roman aspirations for dominance, Jewish longings for liberation, and God’s intention of establishing God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven. By drawing parallels between the work of Jesus and the Exodus story, contrasting Jesus to other would-be Jewish messiahs, establishing the contextual plausibility of an already-not yet kingdom, and insisting that in Jesus space, time, and matter are all redefined, Wright lays the foundation on which he claims Jesus was establishing God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven. Further, Wright argues Jesus set about this task out of a sense of vocation cultivated by the images of Isaiah’s suffering servant, Daniel’s son of man, and Zechariah’s king, and undergirded by the themes of the Psalms. With that sense of vocation propelling him, Jesus humbled himself to death on a cross, convinced that such a death was “the ultimate means by which God’s kingdom [would be] established...[and] the shocking answer to the prayer that God’s kingdom would come on earth as in heaven” (185). Wright concludes his examination of Jesus’s life and work with immensely helpful reflections on his resurrection, ascension, and promised second coming, and the role each plays in God’s intention of establishing God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven.

Wright’s final move explores the implications of Jesus’s enthronement as ruler of the world for present-day living. Three themes familiar to Wright’s readers take center stage in these explorations: God’s desire to rule the world through humanity, the role of worship in creating a community whose allegiance is to Jesus alone as Lord, and the indispensible calling of the church to bear witness to Jesus’s lordship even as God works outside the church as well as inside. While he does not offer endless examples of “practical applications,” leaving that task to astute readers familiar with their local contexts, he concludes, unsurprisingly, by suggesting that when humanity lives as though Jesus is Lord, we will begin to see the themes of the Sermon on the Mount come to life.

Those without a formal theological education or those unfamiliar with Wright’s work, may find the experience of reading Simply Jesus to be like my experience reading The New Testament and the People of God . But even for those with a formal theological education or familiar with Wright’s work, Wright has prepared and served up a feast in Simply Jesus . His ability to hear resonances between seemingly distant and disparate biblical texts is on full display. His skill at employing metaphors to make complex historical problems accessible is present throughout. His talent of relating seemingly every episode of Jesus’s life and ministry to the overarching story of God and God’s people is evident on nearly every page. Those who taste will, I suspect, see that the Lord is good.

Disclosure: Thanks to HarperOne for providing me a review copy with no obligation for a positive review.(less)

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Jul 17, 2012 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book travelled down the same trajectory as Leonard Sweet's book, The Jesus Manifesto. I liked both of them and always find N.T. Wright to be a great writer with wonderful research. This book highlights the focus that we must place on understanding God through keeping our focus on the incarnate Son. It is in keeping our communion with Christ that we'll keep from slipping down the slope of allowing "issues" to guide us, whether they be issues of morality or justice. While issues are...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Gail Welborn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews

Simply Jesus, by N.T. Wright, Hardcover, HarperOne, 2011, 256 Pages, ISBN-13: 978-0062084392, $24.99

N.T. Wright, world-renowned Anglican bishop, Bible scholar and bestselling author explores who Jesus was, what Jesus did, why it matters and what it means to follow him in Simply Jesus.

He begins with why he considers Jesus’ story “misunderstood” and then explains how Jesus’s message is far more than the salvation message. While many believe Jesus died to ensure believers entry into heaven, which...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Erik Manning rated it 5 of 5 stars

The middle chapters contain the meat. Wright shows us just how radical Jesus claims and works are by putting him in his historical setting. But this book contains much more than so called "head knowledge ". I came away with a deeper love for Jesus as both King and servant and a desire to bring his kingdom into greater visibility on earth. My tiny gripe is that while Wright drives the point home that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not, he seems to encourage some Constantinian like approaches to huma...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Travis Claybrooks rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you don't like your mythical notions of Jesus and the specific place and time in the world into which he entered to be radically shaken, then don't read this book. However, if you can appreciate that Jesus entered a real place and a real time on earth and that each were inherently older by the political, economic, social, and religious influences of the day then you'll like this book. Wright does a wonderful job of setting those contexts and then juxtaposing the Kingdom of Christ against the...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Naomi rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best books I've read in a long time on exactly who Jesus, was, and still is today. Wright examines the political powers of the time of Christ and why Jesus came at the perfect time. He further examines the role of Christ today as He continues His work on earth through his followers, the church and why the church must continue to confront and admonish the culture, and political powers of today. As Wright so clearly writes, "But speak up and speak out we must, because we have not only t...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Reed rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really appreciated this book. Wright attempts to get a first-century Jewish perspective on Jesus' actions and motivations. Modern American conservative Christians tend to see "the kingdom of heaven" as the place where we go when we die; rather, Wright posits, the kingdom is God's rule right here on earth, established as soon as Christ defeated the real enemy at the cross. What's more, Wright contends that the manner of Christ's rule is through His church, His body; the humble, the meek, the pe...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Carlito Centeno rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: recommended

This book is a simple but profound and challenging read. As with other books I've read by N.T. Wright, I walked away pleasantly disappointed with how simple the Biblical narratives and themes can be. I've been conditioned--thanks to systematic theology--to look for and expect complexity and ambiguity in the Bible. The Bible can indeed be complex and ambiguous, but not because we're theologically inferior. The problem is that we're disconnected from the Bible's historical roots and perspectives....more

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Feb 13, 2012 Wake3d rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes it's hard to read a book by an author who you've been steeped in through other theological sources. Though I haven't read a lot of Wright, a lot of the people I read and respect are of a similar theological vein. I may need to find people who disagree with the perspective of this book and then work through their arguments instead. Wright reminds us of the tension of the already but not yet kingdom of God and the Lordship of Christ. He works to refute some of the modern "Christ is like...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

A fascinating book that made me look at Jesus' coming with new eyes. N.T. Wright sets Jesus in historical context, noting he came into a "perfect storm" created by the confluence of Roman imperialism, Jewish nationalistic hopes and the power of God - delivering His redeemer in an unexpected way. He showed the people of His time that, as Wright is fond of saying, "this is what it looks like when God is in charge." Jesus held dominion over the rulers, the wind, the sea; but He didn't lord it over...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Frank Peters rated it 4 of 5 stars

“Simply Jesus”, by N. T. Wright is an excellent book, and I think is likely my favorite of the various books I have read by this author. As usual, it is not perfect: after raving about it a good friend attempted to read a portion of it, a told me that none of it made any sense. This is unfortunately par for the course. From Wright’s perspective this was a book to be read by normal people, as opposed to his scholarly books, yet in this one area (understanding how normal people think) he is likely...more

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Dec 02, 2012 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: faith

I took my time over this because I had the feeling that at some point it was going to say something 'really important' but I was disappointed that it never really did, it just seemed to put across what has been taught in many other places. I cannot say that it made it into a bad book as such but I think it was perhaps my expectations that were amiss. For a book written by a theologian (NT Wright) attempting to present something to the non academic (why else style himself Tom Wright for this othe...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Jr Forasteros rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you've never read N. T. Wright, you're missing out on the greatest pastor and theologian alive right now. No other pastor is so respected in the academic world, and no other academic can write and speak so accessibly to those who don't have the formal training of a seminary or graduate program. So when he published a book called Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did and Why He Matters, I was excited.

In Simply Jesus, Wright has somehow distilled his academic study and pastoral...more

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May 22, 2012 Jeff McCormack rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nt-studies, read-2012

I had read some mixed reviews on this book before starting it myself. Some were saying it was complicated, some saying it is a rehash of stuff from a couple of his previous books, books which presented it better. However, I found it to be a great read. Having read a handful of Wright's stuff before, I have found some to be very deep theological (which I enjoy), and others not so much. This for fall into the category of the not-to-deep.

The more I read, the more I felt like I was becoming a part...more I had read some mixed reviews on this book before starting it myself. Some were saying it was complicated, some saying it is a rehash of stuff from a couple of his previous books, books which presented it better. However, I found it to be a great read. Having read a handful of Wright's stuff before, I have found some to be very deep theological (which I enjoy), and others not so much. This for fall into the category of the not-to-deep.

The more I read, the more I felt like I was becoming a part of the first-century era, and started to see the actions and words of Jesus in a new light. Of course having just finished reading two other similar books on the first century life around Jesus' time may have had an influence on the enjoyment factor for me.

I was really intrigued by the history lesson of those before and even after Jesus, who had stood up and made the claim to be the anointed one, and how they went about fulfilling that claim. Based on the expectations of the first testament scriptures, they had a plan, and of course ultimately failed. Jesus came on the scene, and we see parallels in his plan, but with a serious twist that shows his plan to be the real one. Understanding that really brought a better understanding to why they placed a sign saying "King of the Jews" on the cross of Jesus; whereas not knowing this past history it made a bit less sense.

The section on exactly what it meant to stand up and claim to be king, and what that meant at that time was also similarly enlightening. What exactly that meant and how it played out, which is the heart of the book, was a real thrill ride.

Of course the whole journey comes to a real head with the closing section which wraps this package up beautifully and should challenge believers to be a part of the kingdom and stop trying to escape the world. The church has failed its mission over the past few hundred years, and men like Wright are steering the "sinking ship" back on course to the kingdom mission Jesus left his followers to do.

I finished the book inspired and desiring to be more engaging in the culture around me. A much needed read by pretty much anyone claiming to be a disciple of Jesus.(less)

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Nov 09, 2011 Ben De Bono rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology

For anyone looking for a popular level introduction to Wright's thought, this is 5 stars and highly recommended. For anyone who is more familiar with Wright and prefers his more scholarly work, this is about 3 stars as many of the themes are repetitive of what he's explored in his other works. I definitely all in the latter camp and as such didn't enjoy the book quite as much as I'd hoped. That said, this will be a very powerful and important read for those who find Wright's scholarly work a bit...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Greg Coates rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is vintage N.T. Wright; that fact alone makes it 4 stars. Wright offers the Cliff's Notes of his much larger, longer academic works in Simply Jesus -- a shortened form of his research for digestion by the mainstream populace. I'd recommend this book to those unfamiliar with Wright as a good introduction. It lacks the cutting prophetic edge found in Surprised by Hope (which is my favorite) but it does offer a great introduction to the historical-critical method and places the life and minist...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Angus Mcfarlane rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, spirituality

This book is another follow up to Wrigth's self-imposed challenge in The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is to treat with post modernism about Christianity, as he also does in Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. In this book, as the title suggests, wright is presenting a perspective on the historical Jesus (rather than the history of the church and its main beliefs). This is tackled with courage and grace. The historical Jesus has either been the construct of libe...more This book is another follow up to Wrigth's self-imposed challenge in The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is to treat with post modernism about Christianity, as he also does in Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. In this book, as the title suggests, wright is presenting a perspective on the historical Jesus (rather than the history of the church and its main beliefs). This is tackled with courage and grace. The historical Jesus has either been the construct of liberal scholars seeking to treat the New Testament essentially as allegory and fable, or the fundamentals who tend to read Jesus through the lens of Luther, via Augustine via Paul producing their own allegory of what is written in many cases. Wright has his historians hat on as he writes this, tackling head on the cultural context of Jesus day and what the gospels mean when interpreted in their own cultural light rather than our own. This is one of the ways wright displays how post modernity need not be.a threat to Christianity: the importance of context to post moderns clearly matters to interpretation of the bible.
In an ironic touch, for me, wright begins with an analogy of the perfect storm (I finished reading this as hurricane Samdy was making landfall with the US mainland). Both Jewish and roman narratives in Jesus day produced clashing worldviews and political tensions that were never far from boiling over, and often did. Into this comes Jesus with his own view of who he was and what god wanted him to do. His angle clashed with both of the expectations associated with the roman and Jewish takes, and was a threat to both as a result. As the antagonist in Patriot Games says to jack Ryan: " this is not an American story....". Nor is it a twentieth century one.
What was the Jesus storm then? Largely it has to do with the idea of the messiah as king, something Jews were hoping for, but in coming as a servant and in a non-military way, Jesus clashed with Jewish expectations. More than this, he also critiques and revolutionized what religion should be, further antagonizing died out Jews on a number of fronts. Declaration of kingship was also a threat to roman claims over sovereignty. Many of these thoughts were not necessarily new to me, but they were brought together In comprehensive and fresh way.
One of the challenging concepts to modern readers is the essential unity with which Jews of Jesus day viewed heaven and earth. The dualistic separation of the celestial and terrestrial realms has been a strongly held viewpoint for at least the last few centuries. Instead, we should view these realms as imperfectly intersecting, with gods presence permeating the physical reality we are accustomed to in order to understand what Jesus meant to his listeners. This is an interesting challenge to the epicurean view which underpinned the rise of an a-religious renaissance (according to The Swerve: How the World Became Modern). Interestingly, another book I've been reading helps to depict the possible physics of this heaven-earth intersection. In Ilium, a taxonomy of godlike iterations of humanity, and a few non-human ones also, shift from place to place and time to time through various quantum alternatives and co-existing universes. So, whole the temple was the site of this intersection for the Jews, Jesus and eventually his followers to an extent become the point of intersection between the heavenly and earthly realms, bringing a different sense to the prayer 'thy kingdom come'.
Much of my ramble does not provide a strong impression of the content of Wrigth's book, but it hopefully articulates my enthusiastic endorsement of it. I have wanted to read it since I read a blurb about it some time ago, and I wasn't disappointed. I doubt others wo take the time to read it will be disappointed either.(less)

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Aug 16, 2012 Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars

I thought the book gave some good insights into seeing Jesus through the eyes of a first-century Jew. It's a good exercise to understand the story of the Gospel through someone else's culture and time. The way we think of the gospel...it really reminds me just how our generation (and the last few before us) have been so spirituality immature. We have been so infantile in our understanding of the Bible that for decades we have been passing on these half-witted theological ideas (i.e. rapture). An...more

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